But they could just prevent it entirely by giving us the originator info. The process is basically like this:

Alice calls Bob.

Phone system says "Alice, who do you want to tell Bob you are?"

Alice says "Bob!"

Phone system says "OK!" and bills Alice because they know who Alice is.

Bob gets a call from Alice but displays as Bob because Alice requested to display as Bob.

Bob goes "Wtf?"

Bob reports it to the FCC but he can only report getting a call/text from his own number.

FCC goes "Ooh those naughty caller ID spoofers we'll get them good next time! Too bad there's no way to prevent this..."

Part of the conservative push to deregulate is to argue that government agencies are incompetent but the reality is that they've constructed a system where these agencies literally lack the agency to do anything more than write a nasty letter.

So the phone company can pay the subscriber the $10,000, and collect it from whoever they got the text from.

I guarantee you spoofing would be solved immediately if this change to the law was scheduled for 12 months from now.