By rssfeeds-admin The Oregon legislature held a hearing on Thursday for the Telemarketing Modernization Act, House Bill 3865, which Rep. Nathan Sosa (D-Greater Hillsboro) says will update current statutes as “Oregonians are being inundated with invasive, repeated, and unwanted telemarketing solicitations via phone and text.”
The bill has three main provisions: First, the bill would update Oregon’s “text message loophole,” by including text messages in the definition of “telephone solicitation.”
Don’t click on those road toll texts. Officials issue warnings about the smishing scam
Next, the bill would expand soliciting quiet hours. Current laws allow solicitation between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m.; however, this bill would shorten that time by banning solicitation after 7 p.m.
Additionally, the bill limits the number of times a telemarketer can contact each person to three times per day.
“HB 3865 is a commonsense update to protect consumers from excessive and intrusive calls and texts,” Sosa stated in a press release. “Oregonians have the right to privacy and peace—especially outside of working hours. This bill is a crucial step toward reducing unwanted, deceptive, and potentially fraudulent communications.”
“If you’re anything like me, you probably receive text solicitations every day,” Rep. Sosa testified during the bill’s hearing. “I am offered warranties on vehicles I do not own; I am asked if I want to sell property in states I’ve never visited, I’m told I owe money on products that I never purchased.”
“Whenever I mention this to folks in passing, it sounds like everybody has experienced the same thing,” Sosa said. “When I pushed the (Department of Justice) about this, it turns out this problem is statewide, also nationwide.”
During the hearing, Sosa clarified there will be an exemption under the bill that will still allow calls and texts for polling purposes, soliciting opinions, and campaign calls, noting, “We will all continue to be subjected to those delightful campaign calls and texts as we are every election season.”
Sick of political text messages? Here’s how to stop them
Testifying in support of the bill, Leslie Wu — a policy advisor for Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield, explained, “At the DOJ, we receive many, many complaints about robotexts and about scam texts.”
Wu explained that state and federal laws “haven’t kept up with technological advances” to include text messages in telephone soliciting laws.
In written testimony submitted by Wu, the policy advisor said, “the current text messaging loopholes in our laws hurt Oregonians. Due to legal efforts nationwide, to curb robocalling, the volume of illegal calls has declined. However, that volume has been replaced with a surge in the use of scam texts.”
In 2024, the Federal Communications Commission received more than 24,000 consumer complaints about unwanted text messages, Wu said noting, the FCC reported that consumers received over 19 billion scam texts in September 2024 alone.
Discover more from RSS Feeds Cloud
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.