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from the sudden-outbreak-of-common-sense? dept.
Ars Technica reports FCC requires anti-robocall tech after "voluntary" plan didn't work out:
The Federal Communications Commission [(FCC)] voted unanimously to finalize the anti-robocall order on March 31, 2020, complying with instructions the commission received from Congress. The order "requires all originating and terminating voice service providers to implement STIR/SHAKEN in the Internet Protocol (IP) portions of their networks by June 30, 2021, a deadline that is consistent with Congress's direction in the recently-enacted TRACED Act," the FCC said. As we wrote earlier, the FCC plans a one-year deadline extension for small phone providers. The FCC also voted to seek public comment on how "to promote caller ID authentication on voice networks that do not rely on IP technology," meaning older landline networks.
How much will this really help? Won't spammers just set up a series of offshore matryoshka doll shell companies and let the authorities play "cat and mouse" with their spam du jour tactics? Could it be this really and truly can block spam calls and thereby help the consumer?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Mykl on Thursday April 02 2020, @01:41AM (2 children)
Fine the onshore carrier who ultimately picks up and carries the spam to the consumer.
The Telcos know which inbound comms are robocalls - they can see it in the network stats. They have turned a blind eye because it is easy money for them. Hit them where it hurts.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 02 2020, @03:08AM (1 child)
This is exactly why the problem persists, despite the voluntary measures.
Every call carried is charged a tiny fraction of a cent. Those tiny fractions, in volumes of millions, add up to a substantial bit of revenue that none of the companies is going to voluntarily give up.
But, fine them for carrying them, or better yet, given them a version of the Usenet Death Penalty (disconnect them from the phone network) and they will come around real quick and throw the scammers off.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by stretch611 on Thursday April 02 2020, @01:16PM
This. It is true on so many levels.
But it also points out one thing... The phone companies know where all the calls are coming from because they will eventually bill the people making the call.
I used to work at AT&T... The actual long distance company for roughly 10 years in the IT department (as a developer) that dealt with international billing. While dealing with some 3rd world countries was hell (duplicate calls, bad records) believe me that the calls are recorded and if anyone wants to be paid each call has a 'to number', 'from number', and 'billing number' (the latter can be different due to collect, pay phones, and 3rd party calls.) And those are fields that stick with the call and are not affected when spoofing caller id.
(ofc, my job was sent to the lowest bidder overseas over a dozen years ago, so I doubt the quality of the systems are anywhere near what it used to be, but I am sure the data concerning billing number is just as accurate as it used to be.)
Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P