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AT&T CEO Interrupted By a Robocall During a Live Interview (theverge.com)
At an Economic Club event in Washington, DC today, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson was interrupted on stage by a robocall, pausing an interview in front of dozens of people and driving home that absolutely no one is safe from the spam epidemic. From a report: Over the past few months, regulators at the Federal Communications Commission have been feeling the pressure from lawmakers and consumers who are urging them to put an end to the relentless onslaught of robocalls people receive every day. Last year, consumers received over 26.3 billion of these scammy calls and the problem only appears to be getting worse. "I'm getting a robocall, too," Stephenson said during the Economic Club event, ultimately declining the call on his Apple Watch. "It's literally a robocall."
All that is required is:
(1) Reverse Path Verification (That is, do not accept terminations from a network that could not be the originator)
(2) Do not permit originators to set "Caller ID" to a number they have not rented (from the provider).
Problem solved.
However, this will never happen because in case (1) the terminating network makes money from terminating incoming calls. They will not make this money if they refuse to terminate the call. Therefore, they have an interest in not verifying anything at all as that will adversely affect their revenue stream.
In case (2) the provider (call originator) makes money from originating calls. They do not care that the "caller id" is fraudulent (and they know it is fraudulent because they do know which customer to charge for the call origination). They have an interest in not preventing fraudulent "caller id" since that will adversely affect their revenue stream.
There is absolutely no need for this Stirred and Shaken crappola that will do nought whatsoever.
Furthermore, there is no evidence that dingy-doofus was interrupted on stage by a robocall SINCE HE DID NOT ANSWER THE CALL AND NO WITNESSES HEARD THE ROBOCALL. It was more likely his boyfriend calling to remind him to bring home some more lube.
I've never had a robo call in my life. I don't live in America. I don't know the laws in my country, but the problem just does not exist here. I've had the occasional (like once every 2 years) have a random person call me regarding a survey or trying to sell me something.