The phone rings, and the caller ID indicates it’s the IRS calling.
You know you’ve paid your taxes, but the caller demands you make another payment and asks for your banking information. What do you do?
State Rep. Karen Boback, R-Harveys Lake, has re-introduced legislation that would criminalize using technology to give false caller identification information with the intention of deceiving, defrauding or harassing the call recipients.
“Now there would be a price to pay, if caught,” she said.
Technology is becoming increasingly sophisticated, Boback acknowledges. A technique known as “spoofing” allows individuals to make it look like a call is coming from a number other than that of the actual caller, often a bank, credit card company or government agency. But in fact the call is coming from a scammer hoping to net sensitive or confidential information that could lead to a crime such as identity theft or theft of money by deception.
Boback started investigating after a constituent contacted her in 2008. The woman had received a call from what showed up on the caller ID as a government agency.
“She said it came through an office, but she was never specific,” Boback said.
The woman gave the caller her banking information. This was on a Friday, just before the banks closed. Boback said she begged the bank to stay open so the situation could be remedied, but the woman ended up losing $8,000.
This was a new situation at the time, Boback said. Since then, she has been holding seminars for seniors on fraud prevention, and last year she introduced the legislation to criminalize “spoofing” — an issue other states have addressed as well.
The bill didn’t make it last year, so Boback re-introduced it for this legislative session.
“It’s got more impetus this year, and I’m glad to hear that,” she said.
In the memo Boback sent to potential co-sponsors in the House, she cited a 2009 case in which “hundreds of Lancaster County residents were contacted by crooks that, through the use of spoofing equipment, pretended to be a local bank and asked call recipients for account details and other financial information.”
House Bill 391, if enacted, would amend Pennsylvania statutes to classify “spoofing” as a misdemeanor, with a penalty of a $2,500 fine and up to one year in prison for a first offense, and a $5,000 fine and up to two years in prison for further offenses.
The legislation wouldn’t apply to the blocking of caller ID numbers, to law enforcement agencies, to legitimate federal agencies, or to telecommunications, broadband or voice-over-Internet protocol service providers that are only acting as intermediaries for providing services between the caller and call recipient.
Boback said the bill passed unanimously by the House committees and is now in the Senate for consideration.
In the meantime, Boback believes people are becoming more savvy about “spoofing,” thanks in part to the senior expos and presentations on fraud prevention.
“Now people are just more cognizant,” she said.
For example, she recently got a call from a woman who said she was contacted by what appeared to be a government agency.
“They were very harassing, and they told her she owed them money. They wanted her Social Security number,” Boback said.
She said because of the seminars, the woman knew to hang up on the caller.
But, Boback said, “There’s always that one, God bless them, that risk it all because they’re too honest.”
If you get a call from what appears to be a bank telling you someone is using your credit card and asking for account information, be cautious. Boback said if it truly is a bank or other financial institution, they would have the information on file. Instead of giving it to them, ask them what they have on file.
“If you need to give them any identification numbers, stop. Don’t give them a thing,” Boback said.