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AT&T ramps up its fight against robocalls with Call Validation feature
The Federal Communications Commission and Federal Trade Commission have been trying, at least in theory, to stop the robocalling scourge from spreading for many years now, but even though a recent survey estimated a mind-blowing 200 million unwanted calls go through every single day in the US, the nation's major carriers are finally taking action against the thing that threatens to kill the enjoyment of using a mobile phone in this day and age.
Well, at least two of the "big four" American wireless service providers are making a concerted effort to clean their networks of spammers, scammers, and number spoofers, as AT&T follows T-Mobile's suit in implementing the SHAKEN/STIR standard to offer its customers a little more peace of mind when receiving a call from someone they don't know.
[...] Unfortunately, both Call Protect and Call Validation are currently only available on three high-end Android devices. Namely, Samsung's Galaxy S10 and S10+, as well as the LG V40 ThinQ. If it makes you feel any better, you don't have to do anything special to get the newly released feature enabled on the aforementioned smartphones. You will simply start seeing a green checkmark and the words "Valid number" on your handset's display when an incoming call is authenticated. That's a small step forward for one carrier and... an even as a whole.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by barbara hudson on Thursday December 19 2019, @06:52PM (10 children)
Telecoms don't want to block spoofed numbers because they make lots of money out of call centers pretending to be who they aren't. And because companies that hire call centers don't want you to know that you're not really talking to anyone who can actually help you in most cases.
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Thursday December 19 2019, @09:08PM (8 children)
they make lots of money out of call centers pretending to be who they aren't
And now they'll make even more by raising prices for the blocking
scam"service".Customers need to demand better, or they won't get it.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Thursday December 19 2019, @09:19PM (4 children)
Lily Tomlin correctly identified the problem a long time ago:
"So, the next time you complain about your phone service, why don’t you try using two Dixie cups with a string? We don’t care. We don’t have to. We’re the phone company."
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday December 19 2019, @10:38PM
They are not only monopolists, they work hard to keep it that way. And Ajit Pai is happy to help them get whatever they want. Because corporations are people too!
When trying to solve a problem don't ask who suffers from the problem, ask who profits from the problem.
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Thursday December 19 2019, @11:12PM (1 child)
For another take on how powerful the TelCos are I suggest a 50 year old film:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_President%27s_Analyst [wikipedia.org]
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062153/ [imdb.com]
Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts"- --Daniel Patrick Moynihan--
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Thexalon on Friday December 20 2019, @02:52AM
I'd think a better take on their clout would be here [opensecrets.org]. When you've at least attempted to buy 350 Representatives, 66 Senators, and everybody with a snowball's chance in hell of becoming president, I'd say you're pretty influential.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Hyperturtle on Friday December 20 2019, @03:16PM
No doubt. "Is this the party to whom I am speaking?" is actually getting validated now with this service.
I would love to see it work on land lines. I am not goign to install some app so that the phone company can do their job. They don't have to call me to have my hardware do... anything.. but connect me to the caller and display the received caller information.
I kept a landline despite all of the teasing I endured from friends and even family. I use it for nearly everything that asks for a number. I do not get texts, offers, ads, unexpected alerts with valuable offers, etc... I used to have a telezapper thing (the problems it solved have evolved beyond its ability to provide such disease immunities...) but I do set the home phone ringer to silent if not expecting a call. the missed call indicator shows I easily get over 100 unsolicited calls per month--sometimes from the same number! I have a call blocker thing built into the phone (unrelated to a service from the phone company), but it only hosts 30 entries, and I have to clear it out as the source numbers change over time.
It sort of sucks to pay for a service I only use to order pizza and chinese takeout (or received pre-planned calls or as a plan-B in case I totally drained my cell phone and batteries on some late night maintenance window...), but the fact that my cell gets remarkably few random scam callers rather than targeted to me specifically stuff... the privacy and lack of interruption provided by a landline I mostly use as a black hole feels like a luxury sometimes.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 19 2019, @11:26PM (2 children)
Blocking means the PHONE DOES NOT RING!
They are just pushing through the call with a random flag yes/no.
Why would the complance want to block calls? They what to charge all for as many things as they can.
IF they ruely wanted to to block these... IT IS SIMPLE... cross check the curcit to the number! That si how they are routing calls in the first place. Look up number and see where the circuit. Take the curcuit and see the number and name. IF do not match kill the call and place the the originating circuit into a the "police" queue for arrest of ID thief.
And you want AT&T other be bad companies to host your DNS?? They cannot even do their right, for their first line business.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Friday December 20 2019, @05:17AM
Matching circuit to number isn't that easily done when the call comes through another phone company's services. There's always the question whether you trust the other phone company,
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 20 2019, @01:50PM
Please stop posting from your phone. Your comment is a hot mess.
(Score: 5, Informative) by edIII on Thursday December 19 2019, @09:59PM
No, not really.
These are not the call centers of old, with brick & mortar buildings, 66 blocks, PRI, etc. Everything has been updated with brand new technology, and is far more cost efficient.
200 million calls per day. If they were at retail rate, those scammers would be out of capitol in literally minutes. Not to mention, with physical locations to track back to, very vulnerable to law enforcement.
The problem is not with the major carriers at all really, and is sourced at the fringes of the PSTN network. Those fringes are major VoIP providers using the SS7 protocol to tunnel all of their traffic to Tier 1 carrier like AT&T. They do have large catalogs of DIDs, and it's at this level where a phone number is actually "owned". The end user simply has a right to forcibly migrate the DID between providers. In some cases, that migration doesn't even move the DID at the Tier 1 level at all. It's still resides with the same upstream provider that's been white labeled 3 times downward.
Finding a provider on the fringe willing to take your traffic is not all that difficult at all. When you negotiate prices in 1 million minute calling blocks, it's pretty cheap actually. Cheap enough that the percentage of people contacted versus the percentage that convert into "sales" is wildly profitable.
All that traffic you think the Tier 1 carriers are profiting off? At the beginning are being sold wholesale at very cheap rates. Why do you think nearly every minute plan that exists went unlimited? Same with texting? It's because they figured out how to charge for the bandwidth, and not the service. That's not been good for their bottom lines, but it was inevitable since communications largely moved to Internet protocols, and away from the carriers platforms.
I can purchase a 1 million minute block right now, and probably for less than 1/10th a penny. I think I can safely estimate that the profit major telecoms get from scammer traffic is a drop in the bucket, and not nearly worth the hassle it causes.
The equation of Greed you're looking for is:
cost of customer dissatisfaction and damages < cost of developing authenticated and secured network
What changed?
cost of developing authenticated and secured network < cost of US Senators fucking pissed they could be heard by a fucking German security company (and anyone else with skills)
That's why SS7 is now being secured, and calls within the network are authenticated from endpoint to endpoint.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by DeathMonkey on Thursday December 19 2019, @07:51PM (17 children)
The President of the United States was impeached today.
Is SN really not going to run a story about it?
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 19 2019, @07:58PM
No. Don't care.
(Score: 3, Troll) by EJ on Thursday December 19 2019, @08:05PM (4 children)
Go back to Slashdot with your bullshit.
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by DeathMonkey on Thursday December 19 2019, @08:13PM (1 child)
925 comments over there and counting. Maybe I should, they seem to post things for people to discuss.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 20 2019, @01:53PM
kthxbye
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 19 2019, @09:46PM (1 child)
Just a little lite treason. God you assholes are irredeemable.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 20 2019, @03:25PM
We're deplorable, even.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 19 2019, @08:13PM (7 children)
However, on topic, the Senate unanimously passed the anti-robocall bill that the House sent over, so that will most likely end up going into law (it is that last step in the bill making process that has not been very reliable these last few years).
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday December 19 2019, @08:20PM (2 children)
(Ok I'll stop!)
Well it's not public yet but it sounds like it might be a good bill. [thehill.com]
I thought robocalls were already illegal, though (except for political ones, because, of course!) So I'm not really sure what another law will do. Or, am I just mistaken?
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday December 19 2019, @09:15PM
Robocall fines rise to $10,000 per call under newly passed law
https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/19/21030114/robocalls-bill-congress-president-trump-sign-law-illegal-fcc-ajit-pai [theverge.com]
He better hurry and sign. The Senate trial is expected to be lightning fast. Fair and balanced.
When trying to solve a problem don't ask who suffers from the problem, ask who profits from the problem.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday December 19 2019, @09:42PM
Political robocalls are extremely helpful for weeding out the candidate you don't want to be sending you robocalls.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 19 2019, @08:27PM (2 children)
It seems that this should be an easy fix.
After a call is received, just dial *86 (or something), this will change the sender of the last call $0.10. Nothing to anyone that is not doing anything wrong, but for those call centers, it would drain them.
(Score: 3, Informative) by DannyB on Thursday December 19 2019, @09:11PM (1 child)
Are you sure it would call back the robocaller, or some innocent who's number was spoofed?
A lot of robo calls seem to be from local numbers. Thus raising the incentive to answer.
When trying to solve a problem don't ask who suffers from the problem, ask who profits from the problem.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by toddestan on Friday December 20 2019, @03:10AM
Don't be silly. The phone company knows who to bill. How do you think they make their money?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 19 2019, @10:52PM
Sorry, I meant to say "predictable", not "reliable". The Senate has gotten burned a couple of times and they are once bitten, twice shy on everything.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DannyB on Thursday December 19 2019, @09:10PM
I think it is fake news around these parts.
When trying to solve a problem don't ask who suffers from the problem, ask who profits from the problem.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 19 2019, @11:21PM (1 child)
Well that's going to go on his Permanent Record.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday December 20 2019, @04:34PM
Someone who can graduate a business school, yet lacking the ability to read, write or speak in complete, let alone coherent sentences; probably isn't worried about their permanent record. Daddy, or someone, will fix the permanent record.
When trying to solve a problem don't ask who suffers from the problem, ask who profits from the problem.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 19 2019, @08:36PM (3 children)
I've been in a position, fairly recently, in looking for a job where I was expecting calls. Most of the calls I received were robocalls, I usually called back, and on one occasion I was met with another local at the end of the line; she'd been receiving calls back from a bunch of people, her otherwise legitimate number had been stolen and was being used to nefarious purposes. What kind of impact would this sort of program really have? Incentivizing bootlegging legitimate numbers for one, and as a downstream effect, it's liable to occasion unfortunate side effects like callback spam.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 19 2019, @10:19PM (1 child)
I've received calls from myself. I had to talk to myself about a windows virus that was detected on my Linux box. I told me he had called my car phone, and to call back on my landline. I gave him the number to the Whitehouse switchboard and to ask for Donald.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 19 2019, @11:02PM
LOL!!!
Thank you for that, I needed a good laugh. Well done!
BTW, a cherry on top of your very tasty sundae, is the current QOTD:
rts008
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 19 2019, @10:56PM
I had a similar experience with insurance scam calls...called back one of the local number missed calls, and got a very confused and frustrated young lady.
I explained the shady hijacking of cell ph #'s for these assholes, and suggested she contact the local DA. She seemed relieved to have a course of action, even if futile, thanked me, we had a good laugh, and I hope she has a better time of it.
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Thursday December 19 2019, @11:38PM
Saw this last week on the telly:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yU9WTjQ-bG0 [youtube.com]
Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts"- --Daniel Patrick Moynihan--
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 20 2019, @01:26PM (1 child)
Make a small but increasing fine for each robo call delivered. (Start at a quarter and double every year, until it is about the GDP of a small country, or the problem is over.)
It's payable to the customer receiving the call.
It's paid by their carrier delivering the call, but they can go back and get reeimbursement from whoever sent them the call, if they can find them.
Make the burden of proof that it wasn't a robo call on the delivering carrier if the customer has a recording of the call.
Sell phone apps for the customers which record the calls.
Sit back and watch the impossible problem magically become possible.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Ron on Friday December 20 2019, @02:48PM
We used to dial *69 to return a missed call.
Why not have a *86 function whenever we get a scam call?
Get a scam call, hang up and dial *86. Hear the automated voice say "Your complaint had been logged." then hang up again. All it does is log the details of the call in a national database (this probably already happens anyway) and when a source has more than a few hundred complaints (One day's worth to a scammer) an investigation is launched, fines are charged, ringleaders are jailed, etc... This also leaves legitimate polling, surveying, stalking and such unhindered as long as it's within reason.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Ron on Friday December 20 2019, @02:40PM
On my iphone, a local number looks like this: (123) 456-7890
But the scammer numbers usually look like this: +1 (123) 456-7890
Even when the area code is local. It's an international call with the call number spoofed.
Easy to tell the difference.