Legislative Hearing On H.R. 5304 “Preventing Harassment Through Outbound Number Enforcement (Phone) Act”

Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2006, 930Am, Room 2141

“Good morning, I’m Jim Martin, President of the 15-year-old-and-counting 60 Plus Association and I appreciate the invitation to offer comments today on behalf of some 5 million senior citizens we call upon for support. For the record, I have prepared remarks and I’ll now summarize: incidentally, my Honorary Chairman is a former colleague of yours, Roger Zion of Evansville, Indiana. Hale and hearty at 85 years young, Roger was elected to the 90th Congress in 1966 and served four consecutive terms. I’m proud of the fact that our national spokesman is none other than the legendary entertainer, Pat Boone. In the Top 10 all-time of recording artists, nobody but nobody sold more records in the 50s than Pat except for a fellow named Elvis.

I don’t stand here today attempting to have you believe I’m an expert on “spoofing” or “phishing” … that’s fishing spelled with a “ph”, by the way, not the way I’m accustomed to spelling the recreational activity so many “gray hairs” like myself enjoy.

But you know, in a sense, I suppose that’s what we’re here about now, isn’t it? Things that aren’t really what they seem. Fishing spelled with a “ph”. “Mac” not being your golfing buddy but a computer system. “Windows” not being what you clean each spring but rather what has made Bill Gates a household name. “Wallpaper” that has nothing whatever to do with walls; “bugs” having nothing to do with insects; and a “cursor” having nothing to do with inappropriate language.

And don’t even ask me about iPods and Bluetooths or Boysenberries…or is that Blackberry’s?

You see, the old warhorse that I am, I know that things ain’t always what they seem in this brave new world of hi-tech. And we seniors are prepared to accept that for the great rush of progress that it represents. But what we’re NOT about to accept is fraud, deceit, larceny, character assassination and identity theft. We didn’t back in the 1950s when the guy selling aluminum siding left us holding the bag…we didn’t in recent years as telephone scams were perfected…and we won’t now with cyberspace being manipulated for the same ends: greed.

This matter of “spoofing” or “phishing” strikes me as very serious business. Just as we seniors are beginning to get computer literate, we’ve learned some basics: like with “spam” — over time we’ve learned that it’s garbage via email that we didn’t ask for and as an unwanted document, we can merely delete the file. It’s a pain in the neck, but it isn’t lethal.

But with “phishing,” a senior logs on to their email account and is duped by use of a legitimate name or vendor that they may have an actual account with — say the bank or MasterCard or eBAY — and since they’re likely to want to access the information, they click on to a link or otherwise take action and fill-out personal information — something they innocently believe is an update — but is really designed to give the “phishers” personal info that indeed could be lethal!

Or take this matter of “spoofing” … this strikes me as a new low! Someone receives an email from a friend or loved one…well surely, anyone would open that missive, right? Well, hold on! Turns out with “spoofing,” a virus attacks your address book or seizes addresses from your TO and FROM fields and manipulates it in such a way that you are either sending or receiving a knock-out blow of a virus! Very bad stuff, for certain.

And it’s much the same for the telephone…let’s say you’re paying for a service we all know called Caller ID. Well careful, now the number you recognize as your Aunt Betty’s number really isn’t hers! The bad guys “spoofed” poor Aunt Betty and grabbed her number to mask the bad guy’s real number and lo and behold, you pick up and the connection is made, like it or not. Could be a telemarketing scam, could be pornography, could be just about anything! Bad stuff!

I’m an old direct mail guy…snail mail, if you will…and after 40 years, probably know as much or more about the direct mail business as most. Could the direct mail business get pretty shoddy? Of course it could BUT the recipient wasn’t electronically connected; and they were in the privacy of a home or office, able to dispose of the literature opened or unopened and the matter was over and done with. That’s not the way today. And as more of my seniors with 60 Plus get “Internet” savvy, as telephones and cell phones become “smartphones” and ooze into every facet of our personal and business lives, the opportunity to be scammed only goes up.

I’ll be perfectly candid with you here: we at 60 Plus have not received what you might consider an alarming number of complaints on this issue. But it’s only a matter of time. This is a stink that’s coming and we want to be proactive. So, for example, in the next edition of our national quarterly magazine, Senior Voice, I plan to post this very testimony I’m delivering today and publicize these important hearings.

But let’s face it, while we seniors have slowed down some, we still would like to think we’re quick enough to handle the telephone or surf the Net with some dispatch — and we have a right to expect fair play on the other end. If not, then we have a legitimate right to ask our elected officials to step up to the plate and do the right thing: pass tough, no-nonsense laws that severely penalize those who would wish us harm.

In closing, I’ll tell you testifying at events like these make me pretty hungry. I don’t mind telling you I’m looking forward to lunch this afternoon; I’m going to have some “Spam”…the food staple I’ve known for decades…followed by a few “bytes” of a some “cookies”…really, munch down on some Oreos…brought to me by a “server”…you know, a real waiter…and I’ll wash it all down with some “Java”…honest-to-God coffee!

Well, there’s my two “bits”….pun intended.

Seriously, I thank you for your allowing 60 Plus to weigh in on this important matter to seniors. It’s my hope that this committee will do whatever is necessary to ensure the scammers get nailed for stealing senior’s passwords, usernames, bank information, credit card data and more.

I’d also be remiss if I didn’t mention how I appreciate Rep. Tim Murphy (R-PA) introducing this important legislation…H.R. 5304, the Preventing Harassment through Outbound Number Enforcement Act …and acknowledge his consistent service to senior citizens, observing he served as Chair of the Pennsylvania Committee on Aging when he was in the state Senate there.

Well, I see my time is up…I thank you, most sincerely, for yours.