Date: 1998-02-26
Speaker: SAM JOHNSON (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Mr. Chairman. I thank the gentleman from Florida for yielding me this time and for his valuable -assistance in helping make this bill possible. The Wireless Telephone Protection Act is really another effort of ours to stop crime in this country. It is going to outlaw equipment which is used to steal cellular telephone numbers. For those who are not familiar with cellular cloning. the process is simple. Criminals sit in parked cars outside airports or along roadways and use special software and equipment to steal the electronic serial numbers from any person who uses a cellular phone within range. The stolen numbers are then programmed into other cell phones. called clones. and finally charges are made to the unsuspecting persons account. like me. for instance. My phone was cloned last year while I was standing on the curb at DFW Airport. that is DallasFort Worth. waiting for my wife. I ended up with over a $6.000 phone bill for calls that I did not make. There were calls made to places all over the world. including Spain. Colombia and Mexico. Later while I was on my phone with the telephone company trying to get this problem resolved. my personal phone number was still being used to make calls while I was talking to the phone company. The tactic of using stolen phone numbers is commonly employed by drug dealers and gang members who are trying to evade law enforcement wiretaps or other surveillance. It is estimated that the cellular industry loses about $650 million per year due to this illegal activity. It increases the cost to every cellular phone user in the country. I hope that as a result of this bill. we can stop this fraud and help keep costs down for both the industry and the consumer. Cellular phone use is expanding by about 40 percent per year. With this increase. the Secret Service has doubled the number of arrests due to fraud every year since 1991. I am certain our law enforcement personnel could prosecute more criminals. as the gentleman from Florida says. if the current law permitted it. and it does not. Current law requires prosecutors to prove that a criminal acted with the intent to defraud. This means that an officer must catch the crook in the act of cloning to be arrested. which is next to impossible. The bill removes this burden. Now criminals will be arrested for possessing or manufacturing the cloning equipment. which has no other purpose than to steal a phone number. I have got an advertisement here that shows how easy it is to buy this cloning equipment. If we look at the fine print. it states that the equipment is used for educational or experimental purposes. That is kind of false. In fact. it is against the law. According to the Secret Service. there is no lawful purpose to possess. produce or sell hardware or software used to clone a wireless telephone. This is good. common sense legislation that is supported on both sides of the aisle. As my colleagues can see here. it is also supported by the Department of Justice. the U.S. Secret Service. and the cellular wireless industry. as my colleague has already stated. Every Member of this House has constituents who have been the victim of cell phone cloning. It causes them great stress. and I can tell my colleagues when you get a bill for 6.000 bucks on your phone. it is a shock. Let me just tell Members how James Kallstrom. the former head of the FBI. New York office. describes phone cloners. He says. quote. they are hard core criminals. murderers. kidnappers. terrorists. major drug dealers. child pornographers and pedophiles. violent criminals who use technology to avoid the law. We must stop this criminal activity now. This bill will do it. I urge Members support.