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from the No,-I-do-NOT-want-to-hear-you-now! dept.
Robocallers "evolved" to sidestep new call blocking rules, AGs tell FCC:
The Federal Communications Commission should let phone companies get more aggressive in blocking robocalls, 35 state attorneys general told the commission yesterday.
The FCC last year authorized voice service providers to block more types of calls in which the Caller ID has been spoofed or in which the number on the Caller ID is invalid. But the FCC did not go far enough, and robocallers have "evolved" to evade the new rules, the 35 attorneys general wrote in an FCC filing:
One specific method which has evolved recently is a form of illegal spoofing called "neighbor spoofing." A neighbor-spoofed call will commonly appear on a consumer's caller ID with the same area code and local exchange as the consumer to increase the likelihood he/she will answer the call. In addition, consumers have recently reported receiving calls where their own phone numbers appeared on their caller ID. A consumer who answered one such call reported the caller attempted to trick her by saying he was with the phone company and required personal information to verify the account, claiming it had been hacked.
The attorneys general said they "encourage the FCC to adopt rules authorizing providers to block these and other kinds of illegally spoofed calls."
The industry can also make progress simply by using existing frameworks to authenticate legitimate calls and identify illegally spoofed calls, the attorneys general wrote. The FCC should encourage all service providers "to aggressively implement" the STIR (Secure Telephone Identity Revisited) and SHAKEN (Secure Handling of Asserted information using toKENs) protocols, they wrote.
The letter was signed by state attorneys general from Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin.
[...] The FCC also heard from CTIA, the mobile industry trade group that represents AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint. The group urged the FCC to make sure that "carriers... combatting illegal robocalls in good faith must have protection from associated legal and regulatory liability."
A safe harbor as proposed by the CTIA would limit carriers' liability when they mistakenly block calls that shouldn't be blocked. This would encourage carriers to adopt the STIR and SHAKEN protocols, CTIA said.
[...] Last month, the FCC issued about $120 million dollars' worth of fines to two robocallers accused of spoofing real people's phone numbers.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Thursday October 11 2018, @02:35PM (3 children)
Sounds complicated; just set the ringtone/vibrate to none/silent/crickets for all numbers then set specific ringtones for my wife and kids. Possibly you're talking about a POTS gadget which admittedly is intriguing.
The generation that uses POTS lines is dying off rapidly; my retired mom is too young for a POTS line; the only two relatives I know of still paying for POTS are both in their upper 80s. Someday someone is going to be harvesting all that legacy POTS copper cable for recycling, either the telco or a meth head. If I were more of a OSP guy I'd think about that business opportunity.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 11 2018, @02:53PM (2 children)
That's because the damn drooling retards out there wouldn't know a good product if it hit them in the head.
"What did you say? I can't quite hear you. You will have to speak slower. You sound like a fucking robot trying to rape my ear with that gay toy cell phone of yours"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 11 2018, @02:59PM (1 child)
Oh yea, and while I'm sitting inside in my comfortable air conditioned room making calls on my nice stable POTS line, I see my neighbors sitting in their cars or outside on their decks so they can make calls without constant signal drops. And this is in a freaking metro area.
Duuuh, but we have to use sell phones because social media says and old stuff is OOOLLLLDD!!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 12 2018, @05:02PM
Most people can't afford both. And most people having used AT&T for phone service (who now own almost every ma bell spinoff again) hate their guts and if they dealt with AT&T support/relations would never do business with them again.
If anyone OTHER than AT&T offered real phone service anymore, I think a few people would use it. But since it is Internet, or a Triple Pack Internet/Phone/Cable(real cable or over fiber), very few people bother with it unless they are getting the Triple pack, have had phone service for 30ish years and have the money to burn, or don't like being tracked by their cell phone and use a landline instead.