West Virginia House passes bills targeting gift card, phone fraud

The West Virginia House of Delegates on Friday passed a bill meant to combat gift card fraud. It's one of four supported by AARP West Virginia meant to prevent fraud and provide restitution for victims. (Perry Bennett | West Virginia Legislative Photography)

The West Virginia House of Delegates on Friday passed two bills aimed at preventing gift card and phone fraud.

House Bill 5250 , would target gift card fraud and House Bill 5251 , would enact a state version of the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

The bills are two of four pieces of legislation that AARP West Virginia, an interest group focusing on issues affecting people over age 50, has been working with lawmakers to pass, associate state director Angela Vance said.

“We’re happy that the Legislature is taking fraud seriously, and that they are taking steps to address it,” Vance said.

HB 5250 would require that retailers post signs warning people of the potential for gift card scams and inform the person about what to do if they suspect they might be the victim of gift card fraud. The bill also requires businesses that sell gift cards to train their workers about how to spot and respond to gift card fraud. It also requires that businesses that sell the gift cards do not sell them at self checkout lanes without requiring that an employee approve the transaction.

According to the Federal Trade Commission , scammers commonly text, email or call potential victims, falsely claiming to be from the government, from tech support or a friend or family in an emergency and ask that they obtain gift cards and give them the card numbers and PIN, allowing them to use the money loaded onto the card even if you still have it.

“Only scammers will tell you to buy a gift card, like a Google Play or Apple Card, and give them the numbers off the back of the card,” the FTC website advises. “No matter what they say, that’s a scam. No real business or government agency will ever tell you to buy a gift card to pay them.”

Delegates approved the anti-gift card legislation with a 90-7 vote.

Speaking in favor of the bill Friday, Del. David Kelly, R-Tyler, called gift card fraud “a very real problem.”

“This is happening to people that we know and we love on a daily basis,” Kelly said. “ And so I appreciate your support on this. It’s very important that we send the message to all West Virginia people that we’ve got their back, we’ll protect them as much as we can. And so when you push that green light [to vote yes] you can be thankful that you’re doing something to prevent this type of fraud.”

HB 5251 is a state version of the federal Telephone Consumer Protection law, which would restrict robocalls and spoofing. The law prohibits telephone solicitation involving an automated system, or playing an automated message when the connection is completed to a number called. It also prohibits using technology that displays a different phone number in order to conceal the identity of the caller.

Under an amendment adopted on the House floor Thursday, certain activities would still be permitted, including commercial phone solicitation for polling, surveys and soliciting the expression of ideas and opinions and votes where the communication is from a campaign.

“We want to make sure that we don’t omit these types of solicitations and surveys by this bill,” said Kelly, who wrote the amendment along with Del. Tom Fast, R-Fayette.

Kelly said Friday the bill aims, among other things, to prohibit a common scam where an automated person in which message asks a potential victim “we’ve been trying to reach you about your car’s extended warranty.

House Bill 5326 , relating to prohibition of unfair real estate service agreements, is expected to be on second reading in the House Monday. The bill, as written, targets “unscrupulous” real estate brokers who trick homeowners into signing decades-long listing agreements that give the brokers exclusive rights to sell the home. If passed, the law would prohibit listing agreements of more than one year.

According to AARP, 16 other states have enacted similar legislation.

House Bill 4985, which targets securities fraud, has passed the House Judiciary and is pending in the House Finance Committee. The bill would set up the securities restitution fund for investors who have been scammed by the sale of fake certificates of deposit, pump and dump stock sales and other securities schemes. It would require the securities commission with the state auditor’s office to establish rules for the fund.

Vance said the organization is hopeful that the securities restitution fund will not only provide some relief for people who are victims of securities fraud, but also encourage people to report the fraud.

“We are hopeful that the other consequence of the securities restitution bill is that we’ll get some more data on how many people have become victims, how much money we’re talking about, and sort of the depth and breadth of the scammers,” Vance said.

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