Md. Lawmaker Wants To Block Telemarketer Scam

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- New technologies, including smartphone apps, are allowing unwanted callers to un-ring the bell on the National Do Not Call Registry -- but a Maryland lawmaker wants to stop telemarketers in their tracks.

Kathy Afzali gets tons of unwanted calls.

"You're cooking dinner, you're having a discussion with your spouse, your family and someone is intruding on your life," she said.

In the first four months of 2016, Americans received an estimated 10 billion robocalls, and now callers are using what's known as "The Neighbor Scam," software that mimics the first six digits of your phone number so you think it might be someone local.

"I'm on the National Do Not Call List and it just kind of baffled me at the time how these people could be calling me when I'm on the National Do Not Call List.

Afzali, who is on the Maryland House Ways and Means Committee and a Maryland State Delegate in Frederick County, is working to make those calls illegal.

"Whether it's capitalism or fraudulent behavior, they are pretending to be something they are not and I think people are just fed up, mad, and I want it to stop," she said.

Her bill is the Caller ID Spoofing Ban.

"There are ways to trace those calls, it will go into the consumer protection laws we already have in place in Maryland, and so I'm ready to get these guys. I don't want them calling me," Afzali said.

She's not alone, a hearing is scheduled for Feb. 21 in the House Economic Matter Committee.

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