Nelson Phone Scam Bill Includes Provisions on 'Whitelist,' FCC Working Group
The bipartisan phone scam legislation (S-2956) that Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., introduced last week (see 1411210026) is not an exact companion to the Anti-Spoofing Act (HR-3670) that the House passed earlier this year, a Nelson spokesman told us. The legislation…
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is eight pages long and says its goal is preventing caller ID spoofing, according to a copy provided over the weekend. It was not available Friday. The Nelson legislation does what the House version does but also adds a “whitelist” provision to let consumers ask for 10 numbers that ring directly to the phone rather than voicemail, the spokesman said. “One key to stopping this fraud is providing a mechanism for consumers to know that a call is actually originating from the person or entity that shows up on the Caller ID screen,” a Nelson one-page description of the bill also said. “The Phone Scam Prevention Act of 2014 seeks to address this critical issue by directing the [FCC] to develop authentication standards within 5 years to ensure caller-ID information is accurate, or warn consumers when such information cannot be verified.” The bill “provides the impetus to speed that process up,” directed at the Secure Telephone Identity Revisited Working Group, the summary page said. Nelson is expected to lead Democrats on the Commerce Committee in the next Congress and currently chairs the Special Committee on Aging.