WASHINGTON, USA — Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson wants lawmakers to address spam robocalls in the upcoming legislative session.
Ferguson has partnered with State Rep. Mari Leavitt of University Place to introduce the Robocall Scam Protection Act. The bill would strengthen legal protections against the calls, including prohibiting contact to anyone on the federal Do Not Call Registry.
The bill would also ban robocallers from using fake caller ID information and allow civil lawsuits against phone providers who knowingly allow spam robocalls.
According to AARP State Director Marguerite Ro, a 2019 survey on robocalls showed that 60% of Washington adults are more likely to answer if the caller ID shows a number with their area code.
"Scammers often use caller ID spoofing to mask their true location, making it appear that they’re calling from a legitimate or local number to raise the odds that you’ll pick up," Ro wrote.
"Washingtonians literally receive hundreds of millions of robocalls. They can obviously be annoying, but they can be worse than annoying," Ferguson said. "There are hundreds of thousands of Washingtonians who lose their hard-earned money to robocalls that are actually scams."
According to estimates based on TrueCaller survey data, more than 835,000 Washingtonians lost money to scam robocalls in 2021. Washingtonians received nearly 260 million scam robocalls in 2021 — nearly half of the 616 million total robocalls into Washington.
The bill empowers individuals harmed by this conduct to pursue their own legal action. Potential remedies under the bill include actual damages, injunctions and fines of up to $1,000 per violation. The bill will also allow the Attorney General’s Office to seek civil penalties under the Consumer Protection Act.
For Washingtonians who receive robocalls without their permission, the best advice is to hang up. Residents can then report the calls at the Attorney General's website or by calling 1-800-551-4636.
The legislative session begins Jan. 9.