Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., is drafting legislation to...
Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., is drafting legislation to fight fraudulent robocalls, she said in a press release Wednesday (http://1.usa.gov/19hFsVY). “While some legitimate questions still exist around the technologies that would help prevent these scams, it’s clear that the industry does…
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not intend to pursue such technologies or other solutions to quickly address the issue of fraudulent robocalls -- a problem that has plagued consumers for years,” she said in a statement. McCaskill has questioned USTelecom and CTIA on technologies that would help solve the problem but expressed disappointment at their responses. She discussed the concerns at a hearing on the issue earlier this year: “In the face of their inadequate approach, I will start drafting legislation to provide regulators with a robust set of tools to fight these fraudsters and start gaining back ground for American consumers against robocallers.” CTIA Vice President-Government Affairs Jot Carpenter shot back in a statement. “We understand Senator McCaskill’s desire to crack down on robocallers, but the assertion that the wireless industry isn’t doing enough to help is simply wrong,” Carpenter said. “The wireless industry has a long history of working with the FCC and FTC to investigate and stop fraudulent robocalls and we stand by our record in this area. As we pointed out both in testimony and our follow-up correspondence, wireless companies and other common carriers are prevented by law from picking and choosing which calls to deliver.” USTelecom is “disappointed” McCaskill has “chosen to ignore the in-depth analysis USTelecom provided her,” Senior Executive Vice President Alan Roth said. “We thoroughly analyzed the issues surrounding proposed technological solutions to the problem of identifying and mitigating illegal robocalls. Our response clearly demonstrated that the services marketed thus far pose various technical, legal, and public policy problems.” Industry is working to solve the problem in various ways, he said.