FCC Adopts Rules to Ban Malicious Spoofing of Texts and International Calls

August 7, 2019

Acting to implement a Congressional legislative directive, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) last week “adopted new rules banning malicious caller ID spoofing of text messages and foreign calls.” The ruling further implements amendments to the Truth in Caller ID Act of 2009, codified in 47 U.S.C. 227(e), enacted last year in the RAY BAUM’S Act.

The Truth in Caller ID Act “prohibits anyone from causing a caller ID service to knowingly transmit misleading or inaccurate caller ID information (‘spoofing’) with the intent to defraud, cause harm or obtain anything of value.” However, until last year’s Congressional action, that prohibition did not extend to text messages or international calls. The new FCC rules will effect that extension, including to “additional types of voice calls, such as one-way VoIP calls.”