CONCORD — Calls that pretend to be coming from a different number, a sneaky practice often used in phone scams and sometimes used by telemarketers, would be subject to civil penalties under a proposed new state law.
The bill, which was passed by the New Hampshire House and is being considered by the Senate, would make it illegal for calls that are made by robocall machines or done “for solicitation” to do what is known as number spoofing, or showing an inaccurate phone number to the recipient. Those convicted of it could face civil fines of up to $5,000.
Number spoofing is often used in phone scams to fool people into thinking they are talking to somebody trustworthy.
“This is something that is causing a lot of victims across New Hampshire and the country,” said Rep. David Luneau, D-Hopkinton, the main sponsor of the bill, HB 577.
“It not only goes at the most traditional caller-ID scams — pretending to be the IRS or the sheriff and they want you to wire money and get your nephew bailed out, that sort of thing — but to really unscrupulous ones, where it’s automatic,” Luneau said.
That refers to a new variant called the “one-ring scam.” Criminals call random numbers and hang up after one ring; the curious recipient, seeing that the call seems to have come from an innocuous-seeming number, calls back and is charged large fees because the number is actually overseas or is a premium number that racks up per-minute costs.
One-ring scams have become so widespread that the Federal Communications Commission issued warnings about it last week.
The bill is before the Senate Commerce Committee. Nobody spoke against it at a hearing on May 7.
“The idea is transparency for people who own phones. You should be able to believe that if you look at your phone you are seeing accurate information,” said Brandon Garod, an assistant attorney general in the consumer protection bureau.
The bill would apply only to solicitations and to calls made with automatic dialing machines. Individuals doing number spoofing, which can be done with some smartphone apps, would not be affected.
Garod noted that scamming is already illegal under New Hampshire “theft by deception” laws.