ABA/Joint Trades' Comment Letter to FTC re: Impersonation of Banks and Other Businesses

The Honorable Lina M. Khan
Chair
Federal Trade Commission
600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20580

Dear Chair Khan:

The American Bankers Association, ACA International, American Association of Healthcare Administrative Management, Credit Union National Association, Mortgage Bankers Association, and National Association of Federally-Insured Credit Unions (the Associations) appreciate the opportunity to comment on the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (Proposed Rule) to prohibit the impersonation of government, businesses, and their officials, and to prohibit entities from providing the "means and instrumentalities" for another to impersonate a government or business.

The Associations strongly support the Federal Trade Commission's (Commission or FTC) Proposed Rule; we believe existing remedies are currently insufficient to stem the ever increasing tide of impersonation scams. Bad actors regularly impersonate banks, credit unions, other financial service providers, healthcare companies, and other legitimate callers by illegally "spoofing" phone numbers belonging to these businesses. A method used frequently is to cause the call recipient's caller ID to display the name of a legitimate company instead of the name of the actual caller, who is seeking to defraud the recipient. Alternatively, the bad actor may send a text message from a number that appears to belong to a legitimate business, often including links to fake websites, or send a text message from the bad actor's own number, making it appear that it is from a legitimate business, with the intent to defraud the recipient. The goal of both call and text spoofing is to lead the recipient to believe the call or text was placed by a company with whom the recipient is doing business and to induce the consumer to divulge important information, such as account numbers or log-in credentials, to the fraudster. Bad actors also have illegally spoofed phone numbers belonging to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, posing as employees of the agency, all with the intent to defraud consumers.

Accordingly, we strongly urge the Commission to finalize the Proposed Rule as soon as feasible and, once finalized, to initiate enforcement actions against entities and individuals that impersonate a business. We support the Commission's proposal to impose liability not only on those entities that impersonate a government or business, but also on those entities that "provide the means and instrumentalities" that allow another to impersonate a government or business. We agree with comments made by other stakeholders in an earlier stage of this proceeding that recommend liability for "individuals or entities that provide the means and instrumentalities for impersonators . . . ." As the National Association of Attorneys General stated, "when an entity provides substantial assistance or support to impersonators and knows or should have known that their products [or] services are being used in a fraudulent impersonation scheme, that company could also be held liable under the proposed impersonation rule."

Download the letter to read the full text.