II 

114TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 1759 

To prevent caller ID spoofing, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JULY 14, 2015 

Mr. REID (for Mr. NELSON (for himself, Ms. KLOBUCHAR, and Mr. DONNELLY)) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred 

to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation 

A BILL 

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 ‘‘Phone Scam Preven5 tion Act of 2015’’. 

6 SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 

7 In this Act— 

8 (1) the term ‘‘Commission’’ means the Federal 

9 Communications Commission; and 

10 (2) the term ‘‘voice service’’ means any service 

11 that furnishes voice communications to an end user 


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1 using resources from the North American Num2 bering Plan or any successor to the North American 

3 Numbering Plan adopted by the Commission under 

4 section 251(e)(1) of the Communications Act of 

5 1934 (47 U.S.C. 251(e)(1)). 

6 SEC. 3. REPORT ON EXISTING TECHNOLOGICAL SOLUTIONS 

7 TO COMBAT INACCURATE CALLER IDENTI8 FICATION INFORMATION. 

9 (a) PUBLICATION OF REPORT.—The Commission 

10 shall publish on the website of the Commission a report 

11 that identifies existing technology solutions that a con12 sumer can use to protect the consumer against misleading 

13 or inaccurate caller identification information. 

14 (b) CONTENTS OF REPORT.—The report described in 

15 subsection (a) shall— 

16 (1) analyze existing technologies that can en17 able consumers to guard against misleading or inac18 curate caller identification information; 

19 (2) describe how the technologies described in 

20 paragraph (1) protect consumers; and 

21 (3) detail whether and how voice service pro22 viders are making the technologies described in 

23 paragraph (1) available to subscribers. 


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1 SEC. 4. REPORT ON PLAN TO DEVELOP CALL ORIGINATION 

2 AUTHENTICATION STANDARDS. 

3 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after the 

4 date of enactment of this Act, the Commission shall sub5 mit to Congress a report detailing a plan to expeditiously 

6 develop, not later than 6 years after the submission of the 

7 report, reasonable authentication standards for a voice 

8 service provider to validate the calling party number and 

9 caller identification information of a call originated 

10 through a voice service so that the subscriber receiving the 

11 call may obtain, to the extent technologically feasible— 

12 (1) a secure assurance of the origin of the call, 

13 including— 

14 (A) the calling party number; and 

15 (B) caller identification for the call; or 

16 (2) notice that an assurance described in para17 graph (1) is unavailable. 

18 (b) RECOMMENDATION ON LEGISLATION.—The re19 port submitted under subsection (a) may include rec20 ommendations on whether legislation is necessary to pro21 mote or facilitate the adoption of authentication standards 

22 for caller identification information. 

23 SEC. 5. EXPANDING AND CLARIFYING PROHIBITION ON IN24 ACCURATE CALLER ID INFORMATION. 

25 (a) COMMUNICATIONS FROM OUTSIDE UNITED

26 STATES.—Section 227(e)(1) of the Communications Act 


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1 of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 227(e)(1)) is amended by striking ‘‘in 

2 connection with any telecommunications service or IP-en3 abled voice service’’ and inserting ‘‘or any person outside 

4 the United States if the recipient of the call is within the 

5 United States, in connection with any voice service’’. 

6 (b) COVERAGE OF TEXT MESSAGES AND OTHER

7 VOICE SERVICES.—Section 227(e)(8) of the Communica8 tions Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 227(e)(8)) is amended— 

9 (1) in subparagraph (A), by striking ‘‘tele10 communications service or IP-enabled voice service’’ 

11 and inserting ‘‘voice service (including a text mes12 sage sent using a text messaging service)’’; 

13 (2) in the first sentence of subparagraph (B), 

14 by striking ‘‘telecommunications service or IP-en15 abled voice service’’ and inserting ‘‘voice service (in16 cluding a text message sent using a text messaging 

17 service)’’; and 

18 (3) by striking subparagraph (C) and inserting 

19 the following: 

20 ‘‘(C) TEXT MESSAGE.—The term ‘text 

21 message’— 

22 ‘‘(i) means a real-time or near real23 time message consisting of text, images, 

24 sounds, or other information that is trans25 mitted from or received by a device that is 


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1 identified as the transmitting or receiving 

2 device by means of a telephone number; 

3 ‘‘(ii) includes a short message service 

4 (commonly referred to as ‘SMS’) message, 

5 an enhanced message service (commonly 

6 referred to as ‘EMS’) message, and a 

7 multimedia message service (commonly re8 ferred to as ‘MMS’) message; and 

9 ‘‘(iii) does not include a real-time, 2- 

10 way voice or video communication. 

11 ‘‘(D) TEXT MESSAGING SERVICE.—The 

12 term ‘text messaging service’ means a service 

13 that permits the transmission or receipt of a 

14 text message, including a service provided as 

15 part of or in connection with a voice service. 

16 ‘‘(E) VOICE SERVICE.—The term ‘voice 

17 service’ means any service that furnishes voice 

18 communications to an end user using resources 

19 from the North American Numbering Plan or 

20 any successor plan adopted by the Commission 

21 under section 251(e)(1).’’. 

22 (c) RULES OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this Act 

23 shall be construed to modify, limit, or otherwise affect— 

24 (1) the authority, as of the day before the date 

25 of enactment of this Act, of the Commission to inVerDate Sep 11 2014 23:08 Jul 15, 2015 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1759.IS S1759

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1 terpret the term ‘‘call’’ to include a text message (as 

2 defined under section 227(e)(8) of the Communica3 tions Act of 1934, as added by subsection (b)); or 

4 (2) any rule or order adopted by the Commis5 sion in connection with— 

6 (A) the Telephone Consumer Protection 

7 Act of 1991 (Public Law 102–243; 105 Stat. 

8 2394) or the amendments made by that Act; or 

9 (B) the CAN–SPAM Act of 2003 (15 

10 U.S.C. 7701 et seq.). 

11 (d) REGULATIONS.—Not later than 18 months after 

12 the date of enactment of this Act, the Commission shall 

13 prescribe regulations to implement the amendments made 

14 by this section. 

15 (e) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by 

16 this section shall take effect on the date that is 6 months 

17 after the date on which the Commission prescribes regula18 tions under subsection (d). 

Æ 


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