New California bill could help curb 'neighbor spoofing' spam and scam robocalls

A California senator is pushing a bill that would force cell phone companies to take the necessary steps to curb robocalls by a certain date. A California senator is pushing a bill that would force cell phone companies to take the necessary steps to curb robocalls by a certain date. Photo: Cultura RM Exclusive/Matelly / Getty Images Photo: Cultura RM Exclusive/Matelly / Getty Images Image 1 of / 25 Caption Close New California bill could help curb 'neighbor spoofing' spam and scam robocalls 1 / 25 Back to Gallery

A new bill introduced to the California state senate this week could put the onus on phone companies to crack down on robocall operations that use a popular "neighbor spoofing" tactic to get you to answer the phone. Specifically, the bill creates a deadline by which providers would need to take necessary steps to curb the calls.

Such "spoofed" calls can appear to be coming from your area code, often from a phone number very similar to yours. Sometimes, as was a case recently, scammers will spoof an existing number from a public agency, like the Oakland Police dispatcher line.

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The new bill, SB 208, was introduced by Senator Ben Hueso (D.-San Diego) earlier this week. It effectively sets a deadline of July 1, 2020 as the date by which phone companies must "take the steps necessary to stop these illegal scams." SB 208 would also ensure that the California Public Utilities Commission can work in tandem with the California Attorney General's Office to "to support action against illegal robocallers," according to a press release from Hueso's office.

"Scammers use spoofing as a means of ensuring that consumers will answer their calls," Sen. Hueso said in a release. "While consumers may answer these calls expecting to speak with a friend, family member, or local business, they frequently receive an automated message from a robocall system attempting to defraud them and steal personal information."

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The FCC had previously suggested phone companies utilize a system called the Secure Telephony Identity Revisited and Secure Handling of Asserted information using toKENs (STIR/SHAKEN), which helps law enforcement identify numbers attached to robocall efforts. However, no deadline has yet been legally set for these companies to take any official action.

Robocalls are an increasingly widespread issue, and scam tactics are getting more and more advanced. In 2018, Americans received 26.3 billion robocalls, an increase of 46 percent over the year before. In 2017, according to the Federal Trade Commission, consumers lost more than $900 million due to fraud cases related to such calls.

Alyssa Pereira is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at apereira@sfchronicle.com or find her on Twitter at @alyspereira.

