Republican Senators Calling for Legislative Action on Robo-Calls

A press release from the Illinois General Assembly:

Suburban lawmakers sponsor legislation to combat robo-calls

Springfield, IL… Several suburban Republican senators are calling for legislative action on a bill that would put stricter consequences on those who are behind the bothersome robo-calls and scam calls, which seem to keep cell phones ringing non-stop.

Senate Bill 2573 was announced last week, aiming to address the growing problem of robo-calls throughout the state.

Several suburban lawmakers came together to co-sponsor the legislation, noting that these types of fraudulent calls are an ongoing form of harassment for many throughout the state.

The legislation strengthens the Illinois Automated Dialers Act by making the act of “spoofing,” where callers disguise their real number by showing up as a different number from the recipient’s caller ID system, a separate violation.

The bill also requires prior written consent before callers can use an auto-dialer to initiate a telemarketing call.

Both of these changes would align Illinois law with federal law, and would also make the unlawful practices subject to enforcement by the Attorney General.

Estimates place the number of robo-calls per month at 2.4 billion in 2016—that’s up 1.5 billion from 2015.

The increase is largely due to internet-powered phone systems that have made it cheaper and easier to place these calls from anywhere in the world.

In October, the Federal Communications Commission reported that telemarketing calls were the number one consumer complaint.

“When robo-calls are done legitimately, they can be a decent tool for commerce and information, but some people have developed practices that are both deceptive and extraordinarily bothe

Karen McConnaughay

rsome,” said State Sen. Tom Rooney (R-Rolling Meadows).

“Senate Bill 2573 is addressing a real need in our state to crack down on a known avenue for increased fraud, placing necessary barriers between scammers and the general public.”

“The number of calls the average person receives is just outrageous and can become quite burdensome,” said State Sen. Karen McConnaughay (R-St. Charles).

“This legislation makes it easier for the Attorney General to crack down on violators of the Illinois Automated Dialers Act.

What these callers are doing is wrong and borders along the lines of harassment.

I think this is a case where good government needs to step in to combat this growing problem.”

“Now, more than ever, callers are able to easily afford these mass phone calls, and the low cost of auto-dialers is allowing them to makes thousands of calls daily, putting so many people at risk of falling for their deceitful tactics,” said State Sen. Michael Connelly (R-Naperville).

“This is good legislation that protects Illinois’ most vulnerable citizens.”


Comments

Republican Senators Calling for Legislative Action on Robo-Calls — 10 Comments

  1. Republican Senators ask for more government, to “help” solve people’s problems. Sigh.

  2. So typical. Add additional laws to make what is already illegal federally, illegal in the state.

    How about actually prosecuting the violations already occurring.

    The geniuses are pandering to the electorate again: “Look at me! See how well I work for you? Vote for me!”

    It’s the same thing they do with EVERY hot button issue. “Let’s pass some more gun laws that won’t be enforced against anyone but the honest people.” CLUE: Murder and mayhem are already illegal and carry severe penalties. How is that working out as a preventive measure? Then again, how much of the allowable penalties for those crimes is actually being meted out?

    Such B*ll S**t!

  3. Is this going to work out as well as the legislation they passed to keep all unwanted calls from being made? All the laws against the people that flaunt the do not call lists made our jails overcrowded!

  4. I know many people who have left or want to leave Illinois because of Robo Calls. Finally a politician who is tackling an issue on everyone’s mind.

  5. Wonder why they might be wanting to do this now? Maybe because they don’t want any robocalls against them in the fall? Why McConnaughay makes a quote now when Wheeler, Rein and Tirio got tons of robocalls against them. She was trying to get Melendy elected. It failed and now she is an advocate! Waiting for Althoff to make a stupid comment as well. Now they probably want their support! And if people leave just because of robocalls that sounds pretty weak! Maybe just another reason.

  6. What we need from telephone service providers is a change in the rules for caller ID. A cellphone or landline user would have to provide their legal name, address, city and state to the telephone service providers. Another step would be to NOT allow any phone subscriber to change his/her ID information or telephone number in the caller ID system. Anybody making a call to someone else would have their complete name, address, city, state and phone number displayed on the phone of those they called. Of course, phone hardware and software will need changes and updates.

  7. Bred winner? I believe that if you take the time to research it, it’s already a violation of federal law to spoof caller ID information. It’s also against the law to send unsolicited faxes. It’s against the law to call numbers that are on the “Do Not Call” list and yet. . .

    Cindy was, I hope, being sarcastic when she mentioned all the folks crowding our jail cells for making those calls. That was my point. Lotsa laws and absolutely no enforcement.

    BTW, you can bet your sweet a**es that political calls will be exempt for any such legislation as proposed in Senate Bill 2573

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