In letters to the sponsors of the Spoofing Prevention Act of 2017, a version of which was signed into law recently as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2018, Consumers Union and CFA thank the Senators and Representatives for their leadership on this issue. This law extends the Truth in Caller ID Act’s existing prohibition against fraudulently spoofed calls—in which the caller ID information has been falsified in order to commit fraud—to calls originating from overseas and to text messages. It also expands consumer education efforts, and directs the GAO to issue a report to analyze the robocall problem. These are helpful and constructive steps in the larger effort to stem abusive and unwanted robocalling and texting, which has expanded dramatically over the last decade. There is much more to be done, however, and CU and CFA hope that the sponsors will continue working to address the remaining problems.

Letter to Senators

Letter to Representatives