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FCC Ups Penalties For Caller ID Spoofing
GovTechGuy writes "The FCC adopted new rules on Thursday that would significantly increase the penalties for individuals or organizations that alter their caller ID information to commit fraud or with other harmful intent. The new rules allow the FCC to fine violators $10,000 per violation plus more for every day it continues. Users can still change their caller ID info as long as it's not for fraud or harmful purposes."
Rather than parsing a sparse recitation of a press release, people wanting more information could always read the actual document justifying and implementing the new rules:
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-11-100A1.pdf
I'm a lawyer, but not yours. I wouldn't represent someone who thinks taking legal advice from Slashdot is a good idea.
I get sometimes 3 or 4 calls in one day from "Account Services", a scam company that tries to get credit card info from people. I'm on the do-not-call list, and they sometimes even call my cell phone. They do robo calls and they spoof caller id. It's illegal in many different ways.
But I can't get the FCC to pay any attention to them, and I've tried.
They might as well up the penalties to $5 Trillion + death penalty. It doesn't matter. If you're not going to enforce it the actual penalty is irrelevant.
Do you have ESP?
This is worthless pandering. The fact is that there is no way for the receiver of a spoofed CID call to complain. The number on the Caller ID doesn't identify the caller, and the caller won't identify themselves. If you can't identify the caller, you can't complain. If you can't complain, the callers can't be held accountable. The system is broken, and therefore so are all the laws that assume the system is working. Fix the system first, then write new laws if they're needed.