Hueso bill would crack down on spoof calls

SACRAMENTO — More responsibility for Imperial Valley’s recent spate of scam telephone calls from persons misrepresenting themselves as employees of Imperial Irrigation District and similarly fraudulent telemarketing activities would be placed in the hands of telecommunications providers in a bill before the state Senate.

Over the course of a few days in late January, IID fielded reports of 70 scam attempts. These scam calls came from a combination of fraudulent numbers plus numbers that were disguised to look like they were actually from the irrigation district.

The latter tactic is known as “neighbor spoofing,” whereby scammers attempt to trick consumers into answering calls from imposters posing as local callers. Under a recent bill introduced Feb. 4 by Sen. Ben Hueso, telecommunications providers would be held more accountable for putting a stop to the practice.

SB 208 sets a deadline for telecommunications providers to take the steps necessary to stop these illegal scams, while also ensuring that the CPUC can collaborate with the California Attorney General’s Office to support action against illegal robocallers.

Increasingly, scammers are using telecommunications systems to conduct fraudulent activities, including imposter, debt collection and identity theft scams, according to a release from Hueso’s office. Despite attempts by federal agencies and Congress to prohibit illegal robocalls, the volume of illegal robocalls has increased.

In 2017, the release said, Americans received more than 30 billion robocalls, and experts estimate that between 30 percent and 40 percent of these calls were scams. Fraud cases generated the greatest number of consumer reports to the Federal Trade Commission in 2017. According to these reports, consumers lost more than $900 million to these fraud cases, and 70 percent of these cases occurred over the telephone.

According to the FTC, California consumers generated the greatest number of consumer reports in 2017, and the state had the third highest rate of identity theft in the nation.

The Federal Communications Commission has acknowledged that caller ID, or “neighbor.” spoofing is key to making robocall scams work. These spoofed calls circumvent caller ID systems by using dialing systems to pretend to be a local phone number that includes the same area code and first three numbers of a consumer’s personal phone number. In addition to spoofing phone numbers that do not yet exist, scammers also spoof phone numbers of government agencies, utilities, and private individuals to conduct fraudulent activities.

“Scammers use spoofing as a means of ensuring that consumers will answer their calls,” said Hueso. “While consumers may answer these calls expecting to speak with a friend, family member or local business, they frequently receive an automated message from a robocall system attempting to defraud them and steal personal information.”

Hueso said a 2016 task force convened by the FCC suggested implementing a system that would ensure that callers are not spoofing numbers to circumvent caller identification systems. This system is known as the Secure Telephony Identity Revisited and Secure Handling of Asserted information using toKENs (STIR/SHAKEN) protocols.

In addition to limiting spoofed calls, the implementation of these protocols can help identify numbers associated with illegal robocalling operations, enabling law enforcement to take action against these robocallers, Hueso said. While the FCC has urged telecommunications providers to adopt a system for preventing illegal robocalls, it has not taken action to set a date by which providers must implement these systems.

SB 208 would require telecommunications providers to implement STIR/ SHAKEN by July 1, 2020, and authorizes the CPUC to collaborate with the Office of the Attorney General and local law enforcement to support action against illegal robocallers.

“Because of inaction on the federal level, this bill is needed to prevent illegal robocalls and ensure that California can effectively enforce consumer protection laws,” Hueso said.

IID Communications Specialist Robert Schettler said the district is aware of Hueso’s bill and will add it to its list of priority legislation.

“It is our understanding this bill would target the same fraudulent activities of scammers who prey on IID customers and of other utilities,” Schettler said. “IID supports Sen. Hueso’s efforts and looks forward to working with him on this bill as it makes its way through the legislative process.”