Two US lawmakers urge India to take action against phone fraud

New York, June 13: Two US lawmakers have urged India to take action against telephone scammers who they said defraud millions of Americans. Their appeal came after they proposed tough legislation to combat widespread fraud by foreigners that hijacks caller IDs. "We think that all governments should crack down on scammers, fraudsters and bad actors -- including India," Representative Leonard Lance of New Jersey said in a statement to IANS this week. Another cosponsor of the anti-fraud bill, Representative Grace Meng of New York, said, "As we push for it to become law, we urge law enforcement agencies -- where these scams are occurring and originating -- to do all they can to combat it." The call for action in India by Meng and Lance is significant because many of the frauds originate in India or use Indians and they could erode the credibility of India's $118 billion back office sector. The bill the two Democrats have cosponsored with Republican Representative Joe Barton of Texas seeks tougher action by the US against telephone scams knows as "caller ID spoofing."