Existing remedies insufficient to stop increasing impersonation scams

CUNA joined several trade organizations in strong support of the Federal Trade Commission’s proposed rule to prohibit the impersonations—or providing the means to impersonate—government and businesses. The organizations urge the FTC to finalize the proposal as soon as feasibly possible, and once finalized, to initiate enforcement actions.

“We believe existing remedies are currently insufficient to stem the ever-increasing tide of impersonation scams,” the letter reads. “Bad actors regularly impersonate banks, credit unions, other financial service providers, healthcare companies, and other legitimate callers by illegally ‘spoofing’ phone numbers belonging to these businesses.”

The organizations also:

• Urge the FTC to impose liability on telephone companies that provide consumers with unauthenticated and falsified Caller ID information in the consumer’s Caller ID display
• Encourage the FTC and Federal Communications Commission to investigate mobile applications that allow a user to spoof an outgoing number to determine the purpose for which they are being used and to publish the findings.
• Ask the FTC to state clearly in its final rule that the mere provision of a payment service that is used by a bad actor to perpetrate the unlawful impersonation of a government or business would not constitute providing the “means and instrumentalities” of the unlawful impersonation.