[telecom] FCC to Caller ID spoofers: STOP IT

FCC press release [excerpts]:

Consumers Gain New Protections Against Fraudulent Caller ID "Spoofing"

Violators Face Substantial Fines

Washington, D.C. - Consumers have gained new protections against fraudulent and deceptive use of caller ID services under new rules adopted by the Federal Communications Commission today.

Increasingly, bad actors are altering or manipulating caller ID information - known as caller ID spoofing - to further a wide variety of malicious schemes, from identity theft to placing false emergency calls to SWAT teams. Using spoofing services accessible through the web or prepaid cards, anyone can inexpensively mask the origin of a call with fake caller identification information.

Under the FCC's new rules:

Violators are subject to up to $10,000 for each violation, or three times that amount for each day of continuing violation, to a maximum of $1 million for any continuing violation

The FCC may assess fines against entities it does not traditionally regulate without first issuing a citation

The FCC can impose penalties more readily than it can under other provisions of the Communications Act

Under the Act, callers are still permitted to alter caller ID information if their purposes are not harmful or fraudulent. For example, domestic violence shelters may have important reasons for not revealing the actual number of the shelter, and doctors responding to after-hours messages from patients may choose to transmit their office numbers rather than their cell phone numbers. ----------- rest of press release [a]:

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actual "REPORT AND ORDER":

[a] FCC material is often available in "Word Doc" form, a well as PDF and pseudo-ascii text. The URLs are identical except for the trailing extension. ----------------

and for good measure, here's EPIC's take on it:

may be power, but communications is the key snipped-for-privacy@panix.com [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded]