WASHINGTON – US Senator Kirstin Gillibrand (D, NY) announced legislation on Thursday aimed at cracking down on robocalls and AI scams.
Americans receive four billion robocalls every month, many of them from scammers. And as artificial intelligence grows more sophisticated, phone scams are becoming more sophisticated as well. Voice cloning, for instance, allows a scammer to mimic or impersonate the voice of an individual’s loved ones to steal money or information.
Gillibrand is reintroducing the Deter Obnoxious, Nefarious, and Outrageous Telephone Calls (DO NOT Call) Act to establish new criminal penalties for robocallers, including prison time. She is also calling on the Federal Trade Commission to investigate and track potentially devastating AI-powered scams.
“Robocalls are obnoxious and disruptive at best and mechanisms for insidious scams at worst,” said Gillibrand. “Scammers should not be allowed unfettered access to New Yorkers at all times of day and night. I am reintroducing the DO NOT Call Act to finally crack down on robocalls and robotexts and impose stricter penalties for scammers – including up to three years in prison. I’m also calling on the FTC to investigate and track increasingly common AI scams that target vulnerable New Yorkers. I am determined to end relentless robocalls and look forward to getting this legislation passed.”
The bill also doubles the fine for falsifying caller ID information from $10,000 to $20,000.
Full text of the DO NOT Call Act is available here.
