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A Kentucky lawmaker wants to stop telemarketers from using phony numbers

Posted at 3:40 PM, Dec 04, 2018
and last updated 2018-12-04 17:40:46-05

Few things are more annoying than getting a call from a familiar area code, only to pick up and hear a telemarketing pitch.

A Kentucky lawmaker wants to put an end to that practice, as well as other annoying and predatory telemarketing tricks.

A bill pre-filed this week by Kentucky Rep. Kevin Bratcher would ban telemarketers from using phony numbers and “causing misleading information to be transmitted to users of caller identification technologies, or to otherwise misrepresent the origin of the telephone solicitation.”

So you’d no longer get tricked into answering the phone because you just assume some nearby friend or family member just got a new number. The bill would require telemarketers to use their real numbers of origin instead.

Bratcher says the premise of the bill came directly from his conversations with constituents.

“When I am out talking to constituents about their concerns, this issue is one that I always hear about,”he told CNN affiliate WKYT.

“In a time when there are numerous scams going around, many of which target our elderly population, it is important that we step up and provide protections for our citizens against the deceptive acts of many telemarketers.”

CNN has reached out to Bratcher for further comment.

The bill would also ban “making a telephone solicitation to any residential telephone using an artificial or prerecorded voice to deliver a message, unless the call is initiated for emergency purposes by schools regulated by the Kentucky Department of Education or the call is made with the prior express consent of the called party.”

In short, it would effectively end those dreaded robocalls.

The Kentucky legislature will consider the bill, BR313, in its next session, which begins January 8.