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Trap calls targeting the elderly: the bill requiring operators to block them has passed first reading

The opposition bill that would require telephone operators to detect and block calls with a spoofed number — the ones used above all to trick the elderly — passed its first reading in Parliament on 2 July, and for the second reading it will be merged with the Government’s “SIM card only with your ID” project. The same day, MPs also backed the creation of a National Anti-Fraud Focal Point, after the report of an inquiry commission that put 2025 fraud damage at a record of about 272 million lei. For Ungheni, where lonely elderly people are the favourite target of the “relative in trouble” or “from the bank” scheme, the spoofed number is precisely the trap.