FCC Chairman Proposes Banning Malicious Caller ID Spoofing Of Text Messages & Foreign Robocalls

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai proposed adoption of new rules banning malicious caller ID spoofing of text messages and international calls. Chairman Pai's proposal follows a bipartisan call from more than 40 state attorneys general for the FCC to adopt these new anti-spoofing rules and continue its “multi-pronged approach to battle the noxious intrusion of illegal robocalls, as well as malicious caller ID spoofing.” The FCC will vote on these new rules at its Aug 1 meeting. The Truth in Caller ID Act prohibits anyone from transmitting misleading or inaccurate caller ID information (“spoofing”) with the intent to defraud, cause harm, or wrongly obtain anything of value. However, until passage of the RAY BAUM’S Act in 2018, the Truth in Caller ID Act did not extend to text messages or international calls. If adopted at the FCC’s Aug Open Meeting, the Chairman’s proposed new rules would implement this legislation and extend these prohibitions to text messages, calls originating from outside the US to recipients within the US, and additional types of voice calls, such as one-way interconnected VoIP calls.