Mr. ENGEL. I thank my friend from Virginia for yielding to me. I want
to thank my friend from Florida (Mr. Stearns) for his kind words, and
also the kind words of the gentleman from Virginia.

I rise today in strong support of my legislation, the Truth in Caller
ID Act. This is about as bipartisan as a bill can be. We have passed
this bill several times in the House only to have it not move through
the other body, and I am delighted that for the first time we have had
it passed in the other body. So now when we pass this bill, hopefully
the President will sign it into law and we will finally have a stoppage
of this fraud which is being perpetrated on the American people.

I originally read an article in the newspaper on a plane talking
about what was going on with spoofing, and I remember thinking, This is
ridiculous. How could this be legal? How could we just turn a blind eye
to it? And then I realized we needed to have legislation.

We have been supported every step of the way, again, bipartisan, by
the gentleman from California (Mr. Waxman) and the gentleman from Texas
(Mr. Barton). We have all worked on this legislation together.

I introduced the bill because we need an immediate change in our laws
to help prevent identity theft, to crack down on fraudulent phone
calls, and to protect legitimate uses of caller ID technology. We have
seen, as my colleagues have mentioned, a large number of cases of caller
ID fraud leading to illegal or even violent activities.

Last year, the New York City Police Department uncovered a massive
identity theft ring where criminals stole more than $15 million from
over 6,000 people. They were able to perpetrate this fraud in many
instances by using caller ID spoofing. In another case, a person in New
York called a pregnant woman who she viewed as a romantic rival,
spoofing the phone number of the woman’s pharmacist. She tricked the
woman into taking a drug used to cause abortions.

Caller ID fraud has even been used to prank call the constituents of a
Member of this body, with the caller ID readout saying it came from
that Member’s office. Just imagine if people committed this fraud in the
days leading up to a close election. You could see it. You spoof a
number of your political opponent. You call someone at 3 o’clock in the
morning. You say something obnoxious on the phone, and then the
constituents are angry and are not going to vote for that person. This
is all perfectly
legal, up until the passage of this bill. [Page: H8379]
I have said again and again that one of the most troubling aspects of
caller ID spoofing is not simply that it is legal. What disturbs me is
how incredibly easy it is to carry out caller ID fraud. Criminals use a
tool called a spoof card to change their outgoing caller ID; so you
could look at it and see a phone number, any phone number that that
person wants to put down, they can do it, and the person getting the
call has totally no idea where it is coming from or thinks it is coming
from a
place where obviously it is not.

This technology can even be used to disguise someone’s voice in order
to trick people. If it is a man doing it, he can change the voice to
sound like a woman, and vice versa. So it can be done completely to
trick people.

This can trick people, corporations, or even banks. Imagine senior
citizens who see the number of their bank put up when they take a look
and see who is calling and it is fraudulent, or their doctor or their
pharmacist or a close family member or a close family friend. This is
terrible, and this tool is available to anyone with access to a Web
browser. So, as was pointed out, the technology has gotten easier and
easier for someone to perpetrate this fraud.

This legislation will outlaw caller ID spoofing when the intent is to
defraud, cause harm, or lawfully obtain anything of value. And, let me
say, we have had many, many hearings on this bill.

The reason why this outlaws caller ID spoofing when the intent is to
defraud or cause harm, as my colleagues have pointed out, we put that in
the bill based on the hearings we had because we don’t want some
legitimate reasons to use this technology to be outlawed. So it is only
outlawed when the intent is to defraud, cause harm, or wrongfully obtain
anything of value.

We won’t be challenging the rulings for legitimate uses of this
technology. For example, domestic abuse shelters will still be able to
change the number on caller ID to protect the occupants of the shelter.
We have some scrambling right here in the Capitol, as a result, to
protect very important private numbers. That won’t be changed.

So, again, I am pleased this bill passed the House in the 109th and
110th Congress. This is now the 111th. We are about to pass it. The
Senate has done it for the first time. So I look forward to the
President signing this bill into law.

I strongly urge my colleagues to support the Truth in Caller ID Act
to outlaw this type of fraud once and for all. I thank my colleagues
again for their support.