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Senate Passes TRACED Act to Curb Robocalls Nearly Unanimously
Unwanted robocalls have become the bane of most Americans’ existence. Most of us receive several (sometimes dozens) of them each day. 26.3 billion robocalls were placed in 2018, a figure that rose by 46 percent from 2017. By the end of this year, half of all cellphone will come from scammers, according to First Orion (News - Alert), a company that provides phone carriers and their customers caller ID and call blocking technology.
“Year after year, the scam-call epidemic bombards consumers at record-breaking levels, surpassing the previous year, and scammers increasingly invade our privacy at new extremes,” Charles Morgan, the chief executive and head data scientist of First Orion, said in a blog post.
Americans, robocalled to the point of distraction, have been demanding that someone – telecom companies or Congress – do something about the scourge. This week, the Senate nearly unanimously (97-1) voted for the passage of a law called the TRACED Act (Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence) that would curb the robocall problem. (Senator Rand Paul was the only Senator to vote against the legislation.) Introduced as a bill in January by Massachusetts Senator John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, and Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey, a Democrat, the legislation is reportedly getting a companion version from the House.
The TRACED Act requires voice service providers to develop call authentication technologies, implements a forfeiture penalty for violations (with or without intent) of the prohibition on certain robocalls; and directs the Federal Communications Commission (FCC (News - Alert)) to initiate a rulemaking process to help protect subscribers from receiving unwanted calls or texts from a caller using an unauthenticated number. Violators could receive $10,000 in penalties per violation.
The nearly unanimous vote proves that hatred for robocalls has no political boundaries, according to Senator Markey.
“There are no blue robocalls. There are no red robocalls. There are only robocalls that drive every family in America crazy every single day,” he told reporters, according Roll Call. “Scammers use these calls to successfully prey on vulnerable populations like elderly Americans who are sometimes less technologically savvy.”
According to Roll Call, the TRACED Act will unite the FCC, Federal Trade Commission, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and departments of Justice, Commerce, State, Homeland Security and other relevant federal agencies as well as state attorneys general, and other non-federal entities, to find solutions to deter robocalls, as well as build a framework for criminal prosecution of violators and scammers.
Edited by Maurice Nagle