An Act To Protect Maine Citizens from an Out-of-state Entity's Misleading Use of In-state Telephone Numbers

Emergency preamble. Whereas,  acts and resolves of the Legislature do not become effective until 90 days after adjournment unless enacted as emergencies; and

Whereas,  the practice of using local telephone numbers to mask a caller's out-of-state location in order to disguise fraudulent activity is increasing; and

Whereas,  the victims of this practice are often Maine's elderly; and

Whereas,  this legislation is intended to restrict this practice by prohibiting the rental or sale of local numbers to persons that have no physical presence in the State; and

Whereas,  in the judgment of the Legislature, these facts create an emergency within the meaning of the Constitution of Maine and require the following legislation as immediately necessary for the preservation of the public peace, health and safety; now, therefore,

Sec. 1. 35-A MRSA §7110  is enacted to read:

§ 7110.  Prohibition on selling or renting inaccurate caller ID information

A voice service provider may not rent or sell telephone numbers with a North American Numbering Plan area code assigned to Maine to a person unless that person has a sufficient physical presence in the State.

The commission shall adopt rules to define "sufficient physical presence" and to implement this section. Rules adopted pursuant to this section are routine technical rules as defined in Title 5, chapter 375, subchapter 2-A.

Emergency clause. In view of the emergency cited in the preamble, this legislation takes effect when approved.

SUMMARY

This bill prohibits a voice service provider from renting or selling telephone numbers with Maine area codes to a person unless that person has a sufficient physical presence in the State. It requires the Public Utilities Commission to adopt implementing rules.