I 

111TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 1110 

To amend title 18, United States Code, to prevent caller ID spoofing, and 

for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

FEBRUARY 23, 2009 

Mr. SCOTT of Virginia (for himself, Mr. CONYERS, Mr. TIM MURPHY of Pennsylvania, Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas, and Mr. SHERMAN) introduced the 

following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary 

A BILL 

To amend title 18, United States Code, to prevent caller 

ID spoofing, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Preventing Harass5 ment through Outbound Number Enforcement Act of 

6 2009’’ or the ‘‘PHONE Act of 2009’’. 

7 SEC. 2. CALLER ID SPOOFING. 

8 (a) IN GENERAL.—Chapter 47 of title 18, United 

9 States Code, is amended by adding at the end the fol10 lowing: 


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1 ‘‘§ 1041. Caller ID spoofing 

2 ‘‘(a) OFFENSE.—Whoever, in or affecting interstate 

3 or foreign commerce, knowingly uses or provides to an4 other— 

5 ‘‘(1) false caller ID information with intent 

6 wrongfully to obtain anything of value; or 

7 ‘‘(2) caller ID information pertaining to an ac8 tual person or other entity without that person’s or 

9 entity’s consent and with intent to deceive any per10 son or other entity about the identity of the caller; 

11 or attempts or conspires to do so, shall be punished as 

12 provided in subsection (b). 

13 ‘‘(b) PUNISHMENT.—Whoever violates subsection (a) 

14 shall— 

15 ‘‘(1) if the offense is a violation of subsection 

16 (a)(1), be fined under this title or imprisoned not 

17 more than 5 years, or both; and 

18 ‘‘(2) if the offense is a violation of subsection 

19 (a)(2), be fined under this title or imprisoned not 

20 more than one year, or both. 

21 ‘‘(c) LAW ENFORCEMENT EXCEPTION.—This section 

22 does not prohibit lawfully authorized investigative, protec23 tive, or intelligence activity of a law enforcement agency 

24 of the United States, a State, or a political subdivision 

25 of a State, or of an intelligence agency of the United 


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1 States, or any activity authorized under chapter 224 of 

2 this title. 

3 ‘‘(d) FORFEITURE.— 

4 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The court, in imposing sen5 tence on a person who is convicted of an offense 

6 under this section, shall order that the defendant 

7 forfeit to the United States— 

8 ‘‘(A) any property, real or personal, consti9 tuting or traceable to gross proceeds obtained 

10 from such offense; and 

11 ‘‘(B) any equipment, software or other 

12 technology used or intended to be used to com13 mit or to facilitate the commission of such of14 fense. 

15 ‘‘(2) PROCEDURES.—The procedures set forth 

16 in section 413 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 

17 U.S.C. 853), other than subsection (d) of that sec18 tion, and in Rule 32.2 of the Federal Rules of 

19 Criminal Procedure, shall apply to all stages of a 

20 criminal forfeiture proceeding under this section. 

21 ‘‘(e) DEFINITIONS.—In this section— 

22 ‘‘(1) the term ‘caller ID information’ means any 

23 identifying information regarding the origination of 

24 a telephone call, including the name or the telephone 


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1 number of the caller, that is transmitted with the 

2 telephone call; 

3 ‘‘(2) the term ‘telephone call’ means a call 

4 made using or received on a telecommunications 

5 service or VOIP service; 

6 ‘‘(3) the term ‘telecommunications service’ 

7 means the offering of telecommunications for a fee 

8 directly to the public, or to such classes of users as 

9 to be effectively available directly to the public, re10 gardless of the facilities used; 

11 ‘‘(4) the term ‘VOIP service’ means a service 

12 that— 

13 ‘‘(A) provides real-time or near real-time 

14 voice communications transmitted using Inter15 net Protocol, or a successor protocol; 

16 ‘‘(B) is offered to the public, or such class17 es of users as to be effectively available to the 

18 public (whether part of a bundle of services or 

19 separately); and 

20 ‘‘(C) has the capability to originate traffic 

21 to, or terminate traffic from, the public 

22 switched telephone network or a successor net23 work; and 

24 ‘‘(5) the term ‘State’ includes a State of the 

25 United States, the District of Columbia, and any 


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1 commonwealth, territory, or possession of the United 

2 States.’’. 

3 (b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of sections 

4 at the beginning of chapter 47 of title 18, United States 

5 Code, is amended by adding at the end the following new 

6 item: 

‘‘1041. Caller ID spoofing.’’. 

7 SEC. 3. OTHER SPECIFIED UNLAWFUL ACTIVITIES FOR 

8 MONEY LAUNDERING. 

9 Section 1956(c)(7)(D) of title 18, United States 

10 Code, is amended by inserting ‘‘section 1037 (relating to 

11 fraud and related activity in connection with electronic 

12 mail), section 1040 (relating to caller ID spoofing),’’ be13 fore ‘‘section 1111’’. 

Æ 


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