Anti-call-spoofing bill advances

A bill forbidding telemarketers from making it seem like someone you know is calling instead of a salesperson easily cleared committee Thursday.

House Bill 724 has high-powered support: It's sponsored by House Speaker Tim Moore.

Moore, R-Cleveland, said he gets asked about this issue more often than he can count. Call spoofing is advanced enough to make it look like someone you know is calling, when it's really a business cold-calling to sell you something.

Sometimes it might look like you're calling yourself.

"It's gotten silly," Moore said.

Moore asked for a show of hands in committee for people who actually answer their phones when they don't recognize the number. Reps. Craig Horn, R-Union, and Keith Kidwell, R-Beaufort, who is an accountant, raised theirs.

"Just Craig Horn," Moore said. "Craig's always looking for a friend. ... Kidwell's looking for somebody's taxes to do."

The bill deals only with efforts to trick people using caller ID, or to block a telephone solicitor's call information altogether. It's not an extension of do-not call lists.

"If someone is calling you and being up front about who they are ... this bill doesn't deal with that," Moore said.

Enforcement may prove tricky. The bill makes that a civil matter, not a criminal one. Call recipients could sue callers violating the proposed statute or report them to the Consumer Protection Division at the state Attorney General's Office.