CONTACT YOUR SENATORS IMMEDIATELY
You may have read that the House of
Representatives this week passed HR 1258, The “Truth in Caller
ID Act.”
The bill as passed would essentially ban the
use of “spoofing.”
NCISS opposes
HR1258 as this bill prohibits spoofing with the “intent to
deceive.” Deception is often used as a tool when conducting
investigations, especially when making undercover phone calls.
As it passed the House, the bill says:
“CALLER ID INFORMATION.—
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—It shall be unlawful for any person within the
United States, in connection with any real time voice
communications service, regardless of the technology or network
utilized, to cause any caller ID service to transmit misleading
or inaccurate caller ID information, with the intent to defraud
or deceive.”
Earlier versions of the bill included language that would only
ban the use of spoofing to cause “harm or obtain anything of
value.” This “harm” language has been dropped from the bill.
The Senate earlier passed its version of the bill, S-30, which
includes the following language:
PROHIBITION ON PROVISION OF INACCURATE CALLER IDENTIFICATION
INFORMATION.—
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—It shall be unlawful for any person within the
United States, in connection with any telecommunications service
or IP-enabled voice service, to cause any caller identification
service to knowingly transmit misleading or inaccurate caller
identification information with the intent to defraud, cause
harm, or wrongfully obtain anything of value”.
The issue is now before the Senate, which has to decide whether
to accept the House language or insist on their own “harm”
language. Please contact your two Senators to urge them to
support the Senate language in S-30 “to defraud, cause harm, or
wrongfully obtain anything of value.”
Immediate action is needed, as this bill could be considered at
any time. The NCISS Legislative Committee suggests calling
your Senator’s office Monday morning, April 19th and
ask to speak with the Legislative Aide handling the Caller ID
legislation.
Please use the following script and talking points as a
guide:
“ I urge Senator _________ to oppose
HR1258, the House Caller ID legislation and to support the
language of S-30, the Senate version. The House bill prohibits
altering caller id information to “deceive” the recipient of a
call. As a private investigator, there are times I need to use
deception to investigate fraud. I support the Senate version of
the bill because it would prevent people from using the
technology to commit fraud or cause harm. Yet, it would not deny
investigators a tool critical to the conduct of our job”.
Talking Points:
-
“I have used a spoof caller ID service when
calling hate groups on investigations. In other words
examples where the person on the other end of the phone
being "deceived" may not be viewed as your ordinary
citizen.”
-
"There are times when I need to use
deception in order to investigate fraud, criminal activity
and hate crimes (Add other types of cases here)
-
“I have used caller ID deception to identify
individuals who have committed Identity Theft upon innocent
victims.”
-
“This technology allows me in certain cases
to conduct a much more effective investigation and affords
me a much better level of personal security when calling
dangerous individuals.”
You can easily acquire contact information for
your Senators at this link:
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
View entire bill by clicking on
H.R. 1258: Truth in Caller ID Act of 2010
Please send me an email at
jim@nciss.org and let
me know:
a.) Which Senator did you call?
b.) Who did you speak with?
c.) What was their response to your call?
Your phone calls are important and urgently needed.
Jimmie Mesis
NCISS Legislative Chairman
NCISS
7501 Sparrows
Point Blvd.
Baltimore, Maryland 21219-1927
(800) 445-8408 . Fax:
(410) 388-9746
Email:
jim@nciss.org
(Permission granted to repost to other email lists and PI
association newsletters)
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