State consumer advocates urged state regulators to form a databas...

help states set up the database, needed to identify scammers’ ever-changing names and ties to other carriers. “States are often unable to collect fines or penalties, or compel refunds or other restitution, because the offending telecommunications carrier simply ceases its operations,” said a NASUCA resolution approved at the meeting. Carriers engaged in wrongdoing often have links to other carriers that have been the subjects of enforcement actions. Knowing the corporate links can help states enforce consumer protection laws, NASUCA said. The NASUCA task force would advise state PUCs on database development, including: (1) The database’s contents and the agencies that should have access to them. (2) The extent of ownership or control triggering accountability for an affiliated company’s actions. NASUCA also resolved to: (1) Lobby Congress to bar phone companies from raising basic phone rates to subsidize new video services. (2) Push the FCC to investigate “wireless industries’ justification for early termination fees” (ETFs), including what costs the fees are meant to cover. “Consumers using wireless telephones continue to face significant penalties, typically amounting to $150 to $240 per customer, for deciding to drop a service during a contract term,” NASUCA said. Since the FCC approved ETFs in 1992, “the wireless market has changed radically, expanding to over 219 million subscribers,” the group said. (3) Seek a national requirement for access to 911 service from any home wireline phone, including those belonging to consumers who don’t subscribe to local service. “While all wireless companies are required to provide 911 service to inactive customers, the ability to access this critically important feature from any traditional home telephone rests in the hands of individual states,” NASUCA said. (4) Demand that PUCs investigate phone companies under their jurisdiction “to determine whether customer records and calls are being unlawfully monitored and disclosed.”