PRESS RELEASE
Congressman Brian Higgins (NY-26) announced the House of Representatives has approved H.R 3375, the Stopping Bad Robocalls Act, protecting consumers against predatory calling practices.
Higgins, a cosponsor of the bill, said, “Entities engaging in illegal robocalls are employing deceptive measures to trick the public and too often consumers are left frustrated and cheated. This bill puts greater protections in place for consumers and gives us better tools to go after those who abuse the system.”
The number of robocalls is drastically increasing, from 17 billion in 2017 to 47.8 billion in 2018. This represents a rising risk of abusive scams aimed at defrauding consumers.
The Stopping Bad Robocalls Act requires phone carriers to establish, free of charge, call authentication technology so consumers can trust their caller ID. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) would also be responsible for issuing rules to protect consumers. The bill also gives law enforcement and the FCC greater authority to penalize violators. Entities that make illegal robocalls or use misleading caller ID information (also known as “spoofing”), could be fined for as much as $10,000 by the FCC.
The bipartisan bill passed in the House by a vote of 429-3. A similar bill, S.151 passed in the Senate in May.
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