Hawaii Attorney General Supports Enactment of the TRACED Act

HONOLULU – Attorney General Clare E. Connors today urged the U.S. Senate to enact the Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence (TRACED) Act to curb illegal robocalls and ‘spoofing’.

(Spoofing is the process whereby the robocaller is able to mimic the first six digits of a receiver’s own number to make it appear that the call is from a local source and thus someone the receiver knows).

According to a study mentioned in a February FCC report, nearly 48 billion robocalls were made in 2018, nearly half of all cell phone calls in the U.S. in 2019 will be spam, and 90 percent of those spam calls will be spoofed to appear as though they’re originating from the receiver’s local area code.

A coalition of attorneys general from 54 states and territories, led by North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein, Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson, New Hampshire Attorney General Gordon J. MacDonald, and Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood, sent a letter to the U. S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation supporting the TRACED Act. The legislation is sponsored by Senators John Thune and Ed Markey.

"Telemarketing calls and robocalls are a daily source of frustration for Hawaii residents," said Attorney General Connors. "The bipartisan TRACED Act prioritizes call authentication protocols in an effort to reduce these unwanted calls. It also authorizes creation of a working group focused on further limiting the impacts of these intrusions. We support this legislation and all such efforts to protect Hawaii consumers."

In their letter, the attorneys general state that the TRACED Act enables states, federal regulators, and telecom providers to take steps to combat these illegal calls. The legislation will require voice service providers to participate in a call authentication framework to help block unwanted calls and creates an interagency working group to take additional actions to reduce robocalls and hold telemarketers and robocallers accountable.

More than 48 billion robocalls were made in 2018, making them the number one source of consumer complaints to the FTC and the FCC and resulting in millions in consumer losses. The state attorneys general work to enforce do-not-call laws and protect consumers in their states from being harassed and scammed by robocalls.

A copy of the letter can be found at http://bit.ly/2J3aaQ2.