3. The Protect Grandparents Act (PGA)
Summary: Require phone and digital communications companies to add a button to their platforms that allows a user to flag a call or message as an attempt at fraud, with cellphone networks also required to record the conversation, and then automatically forward any flagged messages and recordings to the FBI. The FBI can then respond in real time to fraud efforts from the sources of those messages.
Background: Concern over Senior fraud is a significant issue for almost every family in the United States, for both its emotional and financial impact. People are frustrated that our government can’t seem to even find where the fraud is coming from, let alone combat it – it is a perfect example of government failing in a key role, protecting us from theft. It’s also an example of how our anti-regulation approach has caused us to cede functions to private technology companies. The PGA offers a real world solution that focuses the attention of the FBI on this important issue and illustrates that government does have the ability to address issues like this, if we have the willpower to stand up to Big Tech.
Background: Concern over Senior fraud is a significant issue for almost every family in the United States, for both its emotional and financial impact. People are frustrated that our government can’t seem to even find where the fraud is coming from, let alone combat it – it is a perfect example of government failing in a key role, protecting us from theft. It’s also an example of how our anti-regulation approach has caused us to cede functions to private technology companies. The PGA offers a real world solution that focuses the attention of the FBI on this important issue and illustrates that government does have the ability to address issues like this, if we have the willpower to stand up to Big Tech.
There was a time when Americans went months, years even, without someone trying to defraud or steal from them. There just weren’t that many ways for criminals to get at most people. Selling fraudulent products or services door to door exposed the criminals to arrest, the US Postal service aggressively policed against mail fraud and telephone calls were expensive to initiate and could be easily tracked to the caller’s location in the US.
Now with modern communications a call, email or text message could come from anywhere in the world, easily and inexpensively, and the sender can change their identify and hide their location. With this amazing freedom of communication has come a virtual onslaught of fraud. Fraudulent messages claiming our passwords had been hacked. Fraudulent messages pretending to be from friends. Phone calls claiming to be from Microsoft saying they need remote access to our computer, or from Apple saying your phone has been hacked. These small frauds are usually gateways to larger crimes. Draining our bank accounts and retirement funds. Ransomware attacks. They can even rise to the level of a national security concern.
Currently, there’s no easy way for people to report attempted phone or email fraud to law enforcement. Email providers allow users to flag messages as “phishing”, senders misrepresenting themselves, or spam, and block a sending address. Text messages can be flagged and marked as span as well. However generally all the communications companies can do is block the senders to keep them from sending further messages through their communications network.
The Protect our Grandparents Act would close this gap - the flagged message or recorded phone call would also be sent to an FBI database, which can then analyze them to identify the sources of the messages and build a case for prosecution. The changes for email and other electronic communications providers would be insignificant. For phone providers, recording the call will require some development work, however the call setup information is already automatically recorded.
Technology has greatly expanded the potential for people around the world to attempt to defraud us. We can use that same technology to fight back against fraud, to give law enforcement the information it needs to pursue and prosecute the people trying to defraud us. The new technologies didn’t change the old needs – part of the role of government is to protect us from people trying to steal from us. We need government to step up and fulfill that role.
Just identifying the fraud and understanding the scale won’t change things overnight – digital fraud will always be hard to counteract. However it will give us an idea of how much attempted fraud there actually is, and give the FBI and law enforcement the information they need to finally start tracking down and prosecuting the people trying to steal from us, and make it easier to block criminals from soliciting more potential victims. If we can stop criminals before they are able to reach potential victims and commit this first fraud, we will be better able to protect against the bigger crimes that often follow.
It will also allow the FBI and its digital crimes operations to begin developing technologies for real-time interdiction. Potentially, using Artificial Intelligence, when a wave of fraudulent messages are sent the FBI could then respond and block the sending of additional fraudulent messages and the respond to phone number or website. The FBI could even identify current communications with those websites or phone numbers and potential victims and interrupt those communications.