Truth in Caller ID Act of 2006

TRUTH IN CALLER ID ACT OF 2006

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Mrs. SCHMIDT. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for giving me the time to speak on this very important bill.

I rise today in strong support of H.R. 5126, the Truth in Caller ID Act, and I commend Chairman Barton for introducing this legislation and moving it forward.

I know firsthand that there is a need for this legislation. In my own congressional district, just as in many others, prerecorded telephone call campaigns have misidentified the sponsors by forging the caller identification number to make it appear that my own congressional office was doing the calling. You can imagine how surprised I was to see my number appear on a screen from political prerecorded messages attacking me. It is called spoofing.

H.R. 5126 would prohibit the manipulation of caller identification information, or call spoofing, which occurs when a caller falsifies the caller identification number displayed in the caller ID screen. Many companies now offer sophisticated software that permits caller identification information to be manipulated and increasingly allows con artists to scam consumers, sometimes with complicated schemes that ask consumers to provide personal identification data, such as names, addresses, Social Security numbers, and bank account information.

With the increasing frequency of identity theft, we must do all that we can to end opportunities for falsification of this data.

I introduced similar legislation to prohibit caller identification last year. Let us make caller identification truthful and accurate. I strongly support Chairman Barton's legislation and I urge my colleagues to support it.

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