Robocalls remain a big problem for citizens in Washington State as well as the nation. Washingtonians received over 616 million robocalls in 2021 according to a YouMail study. About half of those calls were from scammers. Also in 2021, Washington residents filed over 100,000 complaints with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) about robocalls.
Federal law, revolving
around the Do Not Call List, tries to control robocalls nationally. The
Washington State Attorney General’s Office (AGO) considers Washington State’s
current anti-robocalling law as “…weak and out-of-date.”
As a result,
the Attorney General’s Office along with Representative Mari Leavitt,
D-University Place, have proposed a new law, the Robocall Scam Protection Act,
HB 1051, to the legislature. The new law would make it a violation of the
Washington State Consumer Protection Act to:
·
Robocall someone on the Do Not
Call Registry.
·
Deliberately falsify the
caller ID display to disguise the caller’s identity; and
·
Knowingly facilitate illegal
robocalls if you are a voice service provider.
Current state
law does not prohibit companies from contacting individuals who have registered
their phone numbers on the national Do-Not-Call list.
The new law
will prohibit “spoofing” which is currently not prohibited by state law.
Scammers use spoofing software to display false or deceptive information on
Caller ID displays.
Telecommunications
providers that knowingly allow illegal robocalls can be sued in civil court.
The bill also
allows individuals to sued entities that harm them through illegal robocalls with
potential remedies including actual damages, injunctions, and fines of up to
$1,000 per violation. Also, the Attorney General’s Office can seek civil
penalties against violators under the Consumer Protection Act.
Florida and
Oklahoma have recently adopted similar laws.
The use of modern
technology to perpetrate fraud allows scammers to get ahead of the provisions
of the law at the national and state levels. This makes it difficult for law
enforcement agencies to effectively regulate fraudulent activity. With only Federal
laws regulating robocalls states end up on the sidelines and are not capable of
protecting their citizens. With HB 1051 the Attorney General’s Office seeks to
strengthen Washington State law and allow the AGO to prosecute the people who
ignore the wishes of those citizens on the Do Not Call Registry not to be
harassed with scam phone calls.
Washington
State Attorney General’s Office:
The Seattle
Times:
Washington
State Legislature (to follow the progress of HB 1051 through the state legislature,
go to this link):
https://app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary?BillNumber=1051&Initiative=false&Year=2023
National
Consumer Law Center:
https://www.nclc.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Scam_Robocalls_Appendix2_May-2022.pdf (page 47)
Federal Trade Commission:
https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/national-do-not-call-registry-faqs
https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/phone-scams
https://consumer.ftc.gov/consumer-alerts/2022/05/hang-imposter-scams
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