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FCC Chair Wants Carriers To Block Robocalls From Spoofed Numbers (arstechnica.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The FCC in 2015 made it clear that voice service providers can offer call blocking tools to customers, but commissioners said at the time that more needed to be done about Caller ID spoofing. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has now scheduled a preliminary vote for March 23 on new rules designed to solve the problem. "One particularly pernicious category of robocalls is spoofed robocalls -- i.e., robocalls where the caller ID is faked, hiding the caller's true identity," the proposal says. "Fraudsters bombard consumers' phones at all hours of the day with spoofed robocalls, which in some cases lure consumers into scams (e.g., when a caller claims to be collecting money owed to the Internal Revenue Service) or lead to identity theft." The proposed rules would let providers "block spoofed robocalls when the spoofed Caller ID can't possibly be valid." Providers would be able to block numbers that aren't valid under the North American Numbering Plan and block valid numbers that haven't been allocated to any phone company. They'd also be able to block valid numbers that have been allocated to a phone company but haven't been assigned to a subscriber. The proposal would also codify the FCC's previous guidance that phone companies can block calls when requested by the spoofed number's subscriber. The upcoming vote on March 23 is for a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), which means the rules won't take effect immediately. The FCC uses NPRMs to seek comment on proposals before issuing final rules.

4 of 178 comments (clear)

  1. Re:And any other CLI masking, please! by Alain+Williams · · Score: 4, Informative

    That should include numbers from another country. Telephone exchanges worldwide are just special purpose computers, so there is no reason/excuse at all that numbers should not be passed onto another country.

  2. Re:And any other CLI masking, please! by aussie_a · · Score: 2, Informative

    So which regulations will the FCC be removing in order for this one to go into effect?

    After all, Trump requires more regulations to be repealed than are added in his term (regardless of how good they are).

  3. Re:And any other CLI masking, please! by unixisc · · Score: 4, Informative

    Olsoc's #2) above deals w/ your scenarios. If I get calls from my bank, credit cards or doctor, I do answer the call or call back. But I get a lot of calls from people who thought they were calling someone else, and also, robocalls have increased. I know that robocalls have emerged b'cos more people are afraid of being rebuffed on the phone - sometimes rudely, sometimes not, but if I get a robocall, I hang up. Most irritating are the robocalls that pretend to be a live person - the one where a female voice says, after a pause 'I'm sorry, I was talking to my husband' and then goes on to tell me about the cruise to FL. Which doesn't even make sense, given that 'she' was the one who called, not I

  4. Re:And any other CLI masking, please! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Since you spent all 8 years screaming in terror at the black man in the white house was getting your guns and money and was making death panels to kill you in FEMA camps. Not to mention 8 years on a statement that there would be no agreements with the president and that everything would be done (and you did it) to stop anything being accomplished.

    That is your "taking it like a man", and sure, you should expect us to return the favour and take it similarly.

    Bite a towel.