House Bill Cracks Down on Phone Crimes
House Bill Cracks Down on Phone Crimes By JIM ABRAMS The Associated Press Tuesday, April 25, 2006; 8:17 PM WASHINGTON -- People who fraudulently obtain private phone records, often for moneymaking or criminal activities, would be subject to up to 20 years in prison under legislation passed by the House Tuesday. The harshest penalties in the bill target those who use deception to acquire confidential records to carry out violent crimes, including domestic violence, stalking, and harming or intimidating witnesses, informants, jurors or law enforcement officers. It passed 409-0. "Who we call can reveal much about our business and personal lives, including intimate details about one's medical or financial condition," said Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, the bill's sponsor. "In some cases, the unauthorized release of personal information like a phone record can lead to a tragic result." The measure responds to the spreading practice of "pretexting," where a data broker impersonates the owner of a phone to obtain the call logs and other confidential information from the phone company. Another problem is telephone company employees who sell data to unauthorized data brokers who then sell the data over the Internet. The bill outlines fines of up to $250,000 for an individual and $500,000 for an organization, and imprisonment for up to 10 years for fraudulently obtaining phone records or receiving or selling those records without the permission of the customer. Additional five-year sentences, and fines of up to $1 million for organizations, are imposed when there is a pattern of illegal activity or the information is used to carry out violent crimes. The bill protects customers of cellular, landline and Voice-Over-Internet-Protocol providers. Smith's office said that no one has been prosecuted under current federal criminal law for pretexting of confidential phone records. The Justice Department backs the bill as an additional tool available to federal prosecutors to prosecute identity theft, the office said. A similar bill has been approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee while the commerce committees in the two chambers have acted on proposals to give the Federal Trade Commission more authority to penalize those who lie to get phone records. Those bills also make it easier for consumers to keep their cell phone numbers out of a proposed cell phone directory. The bill is H.R. 4709 On the Net: Congress: http://thomas.loc.gov/