AUGUSTA, Maine — Fed up with repeated robocalls? Democratic Sen. Justin Chenette is asking lawmakers to prohibit the calls with a business that tracks the calls says Mainers received millions of them in January alone. So, State Sen. Justin Chenette (D-Saco) is asking the Legislature to prohibit most of those calls.
Chenette testified on Tuesday to support his bill that would ban calls with a recorded or computer-generated voice, except for those from police, other emergency offices or schools. Chenette’s bill would also make it against the law, specifically, an unfair trade practice to use “spoofing,” which uses fake numbers to fool caller ID. Rep. Ryan Tipping (D-Orono) also has a bill on spoofing.
Chenette says there are just far too many of the calls and no one likes them.
“We’re in an environment right now,” he says, “ where people are scared to answer their phones, they don’t want to answer their phones because the quantity of calls from out of state telemarketers and robocalls have gotten to the point they don’t want to pick up the phone. And that’s not OK.”
Maine Attorney general Aaron Frey tells NEWS CENTER Maine the consumer fraud division of his offices gets robocall complaints nearly every day. He says the proposed law could prevent calls that originate in Maine, although most come from other states and other countries. But even for those, Frey says he thinks there would be value in sending a message.
“This bill has the added benefit of not only making clear this behavior is not appropriate in Maine but also people need to be aware the unsolicited calls masking their identities are a problem,” the AG said.
U.S. Sen. Susan Collins says the federal government has already taken action by making spoofing illegal, but that hasn’t stopped the practice. Collins says telecommunications companies have been slow to use technology that can block the fake numbers.
“I do want telecom companies to be more aggressive in offering better protection,” Collins tells NEWS CENTER Maine, saying that Congress may need to pass legislation to make it happen.
There is also the federal Do Not Call List, but both Collins and Chenette say that hasn’t worked as well as many had hoped. Chenette says that’s why Maine needs to take action itself.
“So we’re seeing states like Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York and California putting forth strict parameters about banning any type of robocall including political calls people get, which are not covered by the do not call registry.”
The question of political robocalls may become one of debate. Chenette says his bill could also prohibit those calls. But AG Aaron Frey said he doubts that because he believes it would violate Constitutional protections of free speech.
The Legislative committee will now study and eventually debate the two bills, before deciding if Maine should move ahead with some kind of restrictions on those calls.