AARP Oklahoma announced its support this week of two pieces of legislation under consideration that would aid in the fight against criminals who use telephones and text messages to defraud Oklahomans.
- HB 1891 by Rep. Danny Williams and Sen. Zach Taylor combats phone and text scammers by allowing local district attorneys and the Oklahoma State Attorney General to prosecute bad actors who spoof or mask their telephone numbers. Under this legislation, these criminals can be guilty of a misdemeanor and fined up to $10,000 per occurrence.
- HB 3168 by Rep. Logan Phillips further seeks to eliminate unsolicited robocalls by requiring companies to have an individual’s written consent before placing an automated call or text. Companies that break this law could have to pay victims up to $500 as a penalty.
According to the Federal Trade Commission, criminals steal nearly $3 billion annually from older Americans through financial exploitation. In December 2021 alone, Oklahomans received over 44 million robocalls, and 32% of the calls were identified as scams, according to Robocall Index. That equates to 16.6 calls per second being made across Oklahoma in just one month.
AARP Oklahoma supports this important legislation and encourages Oklahomans to contact their state representative and senator by email at action.aarp.org/StopFraud.
The complete release can be found at HERE along with resources so Oklahomans can safeguard themselves against scammers and con artists.
Source: press release
