Last fall I posted, "Shouldn’t Neighbor Spoofing Be Illegal? Wait! It Already Is!" Most telecom experts think that if a telephone number is assigned to you, or you have the permission of the assignee, it is perfectly fine to use that number as your caller-ID when placing calls. But the Truth In Caller-ID Act does not say that. It says…
It’s been almost a year since we posted about Dialer Traffic In the Spotlight. Not much has changed. Brief calls are a normal part of conversational (human-to-human) telephone traffic. But when short-duration calls DOMINATE the traffic flow from one provider to another, the industry labels it “dialer traffic.” These calls are automatically dialed and often start with a pre-recorded or…
ZipDX, leveraging the FCC’s STIR/SHAKEN call authentication mandate, has developed a new system designed to quickly detect suspect robocall activity and report details back to the signing provider. This platform, called RRAPTOR, gives telecommunications providers new opportunities to play an even larger role in solving the illegal robocall problem that has been plaguing all of us for more than a…
Earlier this month, USTelecom’s Industry Traceback Group, alongside the Communications Fraud Control Association, hosted a panel discussion featuring enforcers from the FCC, the FTC, and the Indiana and Vermont Attorney General’s offices. The video is here. Each of these agencies has brought actions against Voice Service Providers for facilitating illegal robocalling. Most, if not all, states have laws in which…
We’re hearing more about state Attorneys General going after illegal robocallers. In many cases, an AG starts with a complaint from a constituent located in their and follows that thread via traceback. But what if a state AG does not have specific traceback results for a call to their state. The AG might be aware of general complaints from residents…
We’ve all gotten used to it. The phone rings with a phone number that we don’t recognize and it isn’t in our contact list. But based on the area code, and perhaps the next few digits, it looks like the caller is down the street or across town. It could be a teacher, a doctor, the assistant soccer coach. Is…
MYTH: FCC call completion regulations make it difficult for providers to block illegal and unwanted calls. FACT: Providers have no legal obligation to do business with any particular customer; providers can and must refuse traffic from any source they believe is sending illegal calls. Robocall Sources: Illegal robocalls come in many shapes and sizes. The most blatant, fraudulent calls impersonate…
On Wednesday, 7 September 2021, the National Association of Attorneys General will host their 2021 Robocall Virtual Summit, starting at 1 PM Eastern Time. There’s a great agenda of speakers from the enforcement and regulatory community, as well as industry. David Frankel, ZipDX CEO, and Matt Fischer from the Social Security Administration Office of the Inspector General, will lead off…
For those of us focused on nefarious VOICE calling, it might be worth a brief look at the texting world – officially called Short Messaging Service, or SMS. Voice calls and texts are cousins because they both make use of telephone numbers. In the United States, this is the North American Numbering Plan. Most of us are used to sending…
New FCC rules took effect in 2021, putting the onus on Voice Service Providers to police the calls that they originate in order to mitigate illegal robocalling. Providers selling dialer traffic termination services are the primary source of illegal robocalls. While there are some legitimate uses of dialer traffic, most dialer traffic today is illegal. Providers choosing to offer this…