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Robocalls, and Their Scams, Are Surging (nytimes.com)
The volume of pesky robocalls -- and their scams -- have skyrocketed in recent years, reaching an estimated 3.4 billion in April. [Editor's note: the link may be paywalled; alternative source.] From a report: In an age when cellphones have become extensions of our bodies, robocallers now follow people wherever they go, disrupting business meetings, church services and bedtime stories with their children. Though automated calls have long plagued consumers, the volume has skyrocketed in recent years, reaching an estimated 3.4 billion in April, according to YouMail, which collects and analyzes calls through its robocall blocking service. That's an increase of almost 900 million a month compared with a year ago. Federal lawmakers have noticed the surge. Both the House and Senate held hearings on the issue within the last two weeks, and each chamber has either passed or introduced legislation aimed at curbing abuses.
Federal regulators have also noticed, issuing new rules in November that give phone companies the authority to block certain robocalls. Law enforcement authorities have noticed, too. Just the other week, the New York State attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman, warned consumers about a scheme targeting people with Chinese last names, in which the caller purports to be from the Chinese Consulate and demands money. Since December, the New York Police Department said, 21 Chinese immigrants had lost a total of $2.5 million.
Federal regulators have also noticed, issuing new rules in November that give phone companies the authority to block certain robocalls. Law enforcement authorities have noticed, too. Just the other week, the New York State attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman, warned consumers about a scheme targeting people with Chinese last names, in which the caller purports to be from the Chinese Consulate and demands money. Since December, the New York Police Department said, 21 Chinese immigrants had lost a total of $2.5 million.
Telephone companies have the ability to track every call as to send them the phone bill. But they cannot block calls with fake caller IDs?
Either the Telephone companies just don't care their services are being actively used to scam people with a difficult to track back to them and lock them up and/or their infrastructure is grossly out of date.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Because it will cut into all the telcom company's profit margin to implement technical solutions, so they don't want to do anything about it.
I've been reporting and telling that to the FCC for years now. These VOIP providers know exactly who they are doing business with, in fact some exclusively deal with these foreign call centers knowing full well they are violating the law.
We go after the providers as it is literally the only way it can be done.
But we won't, what ever law they pass this time will be full of loopholes allowing for continued abuse.
Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
Landlines also have the exact same caller ID and voicemail functions as a cell phone, so why would you feel sorry for people with a landline like me? I don't answer unknown numbers on my landline, just like I don't on my cellphone.
Here's a solution:
In order to transmit a caller id # which is different than the originating number, you must own that caller id number you are transmitting, or else have a signed delegation from the owner which you provide the phone company with.
Otherwise, if ANI number doesn't equal caller ID number, ANI number is substituted for caller ID number so that it's visible to recipients. Later, once the kinks of that are worked out, start outright blocking the call if ownership doesn't provably match.
Voip or other phone companies which violate the rules lose the ability to interconnect with those who enforce them.
The party of stupid and the party of evil get together and do something both stupid and evil, then call it bipartisan.