H.R. 5126, THE TRUTH IN CALLER ID ACT OF 2006 HEARING BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND THE INTERNET OF THE COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND COMMERCE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED NINTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION MAY 18, 2006 Serial No. 109-92 Printed for the use of the Committee on Energy and Commerce Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/house U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 29-451PDF WASHINGTON : 2006 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512-1800; DC area (202) 512-1800 Fax: (202) 512-2250 Mail: Stop SSOP, Washington, DC 20402-0001 COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND COMMERCE JOE BARTON, Texas, Chairman RALPH M. HALL, Texas JOHN D. DINGELL, Michigan MICHAEL BILIRAKIS, Florida Ranking Member Vice Chairman HENRY A. WAXMAN, California FRED UPTON, Michigan EDWARD J. MARKEY, Massachusetts CLIFF STEARNS, Florida RICK BOUCHER, Virginia PAUL E. GILLMOR, Ohio EDOLPHUS TOWNS, New York NATHAN DEAL, Georgia FRANK PALLONE, JR., New Jersey ED WHITFIELD, Kentucky SHERROD BROWN, Ohio CHARLIE NORWOOD, Georgia BART GORDON, Tennessee BARBARA CUBIN, Wyoming BOBBY L. RUSH, Illinois JOHN SHIMKUS, Illinois ANNA G. ESHOO, California HEATHER WILSON, New Mexico BART STUPAK, Michigan JOHN B. SHADEGG, Arizona ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York CHARLES W. “CHIP” PICKERING, Mississippi ALBERT R. WYNN, Maryland Vice Chairman GENE GREEN, Texas VITO FOSSELLA, New York TED STRICKLAND, Ohio ROY BLUNT, Missouri DIANA DEGETTE, Colorado STEVE BUYER, Indiana LOIS CAPPS, California GEORGE RADANOVICH, California MIKE DOYLE, Pennsylvania CHARLES F. BASS, New Hampshire TOM ALLEN, Maine JOSEPH R. PITTS, Pennsylvania JIM DAVIS, Florida MARY BONO, California JAN SCHAKOWSKY, Illinois GREG WALDEN, Oregon HILDA L. SOLIS, California LEE TERRY, Nebraska CHARLES A. GONZALEZ, Texas MIKE FERGUSON, New Jersey JAY INSLEE, Washington MIKE ROGERS, Michigan TAMMY BALDWIN, Wisconsin C.L. “BUTCH” OTTER, Idaho MIKE ROSS, Arkansas SUE MYRICK, North Carolina JOHN SULLIVAN, Oklahoma TIM MURPHY, Pennsylvania MICHAEL C. BURGESS, Texas MARSHA BLACKBURN, Tennessee BUD ALBRIGHT, Staff Director DAVID CAVICKE, General Counsel REID P. F. STUNTZ, Minority Staff Director and Chief Counsel SUBCOMMITTEE ON TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND THE INTERNET FRED UPTON, Michigan, Chairman MICHAEL BILIRAKIS, Florida EDWARD J. MARKEY, Massachusetts CLIFF STEARNS, Florida Ranking Member PAUL E. GILLMOR, Ohio ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York ED WHITFIELD, Kentucky ALBERT R. WYNN, Maryland BARBARA CUBIN, Wyoming MIKE DOYLE, Pennsylvania JOHN SHIMKUS, Illinois CHARLES A. GONZALEZ, Texas HEATHER WILSON, New Mexico JAY INSLEE, Washington CHARLES W. “CHIP” PICKERING, Mississippi RICK BOUCHER, Virginia VITO FOSSELLA, New York EDOLPHUS TOWNS, New York GEORGE RADANOVICH, California FRANK PALLONE, JR., New Jersey CHARLES F. BASS, New Hampshire SHERROD BROWN, Ohio GREG WALDEN, Oregon BART GORDON, Tennessee LEE TERRY, Nebraska BOBBY L. RUSH, Illinois MIKE FERGUSON, New Jersey ANNA G. ESHOO, California JOHN SULLIVAN, Oklahoma BART STUPAK, Michigan MARSHA BLACKBURN, Tennessee JOHN D. DINGELL, Michigan JOE BARTON, Texas (EX OFFICIO) (EX OFFICIO) (II) CONTENTS Page Testimony of: Navin, Tom, Wireline Bureau Chief, Federal Communications Commission.................. 16 Pies, Staci, Vice President, PointOne Communications, on behalf of Voice on the Net (VON) Coalition............................................................................................................. 19 James, Lance, Chief Technology Officer, Secure Science Corporation ............................ 24 Rotenberg, Marc, Executive Director, Electronic Privacy Information Center ................. 27 Additional material submitted for the record: Sloane, David, Sr. Managing Director, Government Relations and Advocacy, AARP, submission for the record.............................................................................................. 41 (III) H.R. 5126, THE TRUTH IN CALLER ID ACT OF 2006 THURSDAY, MAY 18, 2006 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND COMMERCE, SUBCOMMITTEE ON TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND THE INTERNET, Washington, DC. The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 9:09 a.m., in room 2123 of the Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Fred Upton (chairman) presiding. Members present: Representatives Shimkus, Terry, Barton (ex officio), Markey, Engel, and Inslee. Staff present: Kelly Cole, Counsel; Jaylyn Jensen, Senior Legislative Analyst; Howard Waltzman, Chief Counsel for Telecommunications; Anh Nguyen, Legislative Clerk; Johanna Shelton, Minority Counsel; and Peter Filon, Minority Counsel. MR. UPTON. The witnesses can take their respective chairs. Good morning. Now, there was a comment on the floor last night--or I should say this morning, that another vote on a certain issue will take place tomorrow. I said, it is tomorrow. For those of you that were watching C-SPAN, most of us did not get home from votes on the budget until pretty close to 2:00 a.m., and I actually thought this hearing was starting at 10:00, but I saw that it was at 9:00. And I may be the only Member here this morning for the hearing, although I do understand that Mr. Shimkus is at a breakfast. I hope they have a lot of coffee. I understand that Mr. Engel is en route. I understand that Mr. Markey is en route, but I know Mr. Markey well, and there is a stop at Starbucks that he never fails to make, so we will see if they have a long line or not with this hearing. But I am going to make a unanimous consent--and I did see Mr. Chairman Barton. He gave me a big smile, and he said he would be here, but I also know that he has been under the weather and under some medical assistance with vertigo, and it caused him to not get back from Texas until late yesterday afternoon. So we are going to start. I will make a unanimous consent that all Member statements will be made part of the record without a problem. And I will speak slowly, hoping that Mr. Engel will get here as his office is just down the hallway. But anyway, today’s hearing--I am going to have one more slug of coffee, it has not kicked in yet--is on H.R. 5126, the Truth in Caller ID (1) 2 Act of 2006, bipartisan legislation introduced by Chairman Barton and Eliot Engel, and I commend both for their leadership. I am delighted to be a proud cosponsor of the legislation. Caller ID “spoofing” occurs when a caller fakes his caller ID information, so that the number which appears on the recipient’s caller ID screen is not the caller’s actual phone number. In many cases, such “spoofers” are actually transmitting someone else’s caller ID information instead of their own. Apparently, some “spoofers” just do it to play practical jokes on their friends, but, in fact, there have been reports of much more sinister uses of “spoofing”. In some instances, “spoofing” is being used to trick people into thinking the person on the other end of the line is someone from a government agency, or some other presumably trustworthy party. For instance, in this month’s AARP Bulletin, there is a consumer alert describing a prevalent scam where spoofers get the local courthouse’s phone number to pop up on people’s caller ID screens, and then they tell the recipients of the calls that they are judicial officials in order to get the unsuspecting victims to divulge personal information, like Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, et cetera, while enforcement officials are particularly concerned about senior citizens’ susceptibility to such scams. Another important case involved a SWAT team that surrounded an apartment building after police received a call from a woman who said she was being held hostage in an apartment. As it turned out, it was a false alarm--caller ID was “spoofed” to make it look like it was coming from the apartment. Apparently, it was somebody else’s idea of a bad prank. In other instances, criminals are stealing credit card numbers, getting the phone number of the actual cardholder, and then using those credit cards to use to get unauthorized wire transfers. In such cases, the criminal “spoofs” his caller ID information so that the number which pops up on the wire transfer operator’s screen is that of the actual cardholder. Because such caller ID information matches the actual cardholder’s phone number on record with the credit card company, the wire transfer company uses it to authorize the wire transfer. Thus “spoofing” enables the crime to be consummated. And, of course, many of us are familiar with our own credit card companies which may ask us to call from our home phone to authenticate and activate those new cards. If the new card is stolen out of the mail, then criminals may be able to “spoof” our home phone numbers and authenticate and activate our new cards from the convenience of their own homes, or motel rooms, or from whatever rock they might decide to crawl under. 3 While such “spoofing” has been technically possible for some time, it used to require specific phone connections and expensive equipment. However, with the advent of VoIP, Voice over Internet Protocol, it has become easier for callers to transmit any caller ID information that the caller might choose. Moreover, there are online companies which offer “spoofing” services for just a few bucks to anyone with a phone. Unfortunately, nefarious uses of “spoofing” appear to be proliferating, and there is no law that actually protects the American public from it. The Truth in Caller ID Act of 2006 would make “spoofing” illegal. More specifically, it would make it unlawful for any person to cause any caller identification service to transmit misleading or inaccurate caller identification information--other than for authorized activities of law enforcement agencies--and require the FCC to issue implementing regulations within six months of enactment. Today we will hear from our witnesses about the problems of “spoofing” and their suggestions about how this bill, the Truth in Caller ID Act of 2006, might be improved. I look forward to hearing from our witnesses.