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FCC bars providers for non-compliance with robocall protections

docs.fcc.gov

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Re: FCC bars providers for non-compliance with robocall protections

#31

Post by OkayPhysicist »

potato3732842 wrote: post #17
larrysalibra wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're right, it is an easy technical fix. Mainland China lets people opt out of phone calls that come from outside of the Mainland...it's a feature one can turn off on an on their mobile plan. Calls from outside the Mainland always cause a warning to pop up on the receiving user's phone that says something like "this call is coming from outside of the mainland, be careful of being scammed". I can imagine there are m…

>I can imagine there are many reasons the US doesn't fix this..one of which probably that much of US customer service is outsourced to people outside the US! This. Gotta have your round robin of foreign call centers be able to spoof the main customer service line numbers for whoever they're contracted to represent. Personally I think that should all be done in software these days, not something supported at the telec…

This isn't even an unreasonable feature to implement. We just need something like SSL certs: Has Legitimate Business holding phone number XYZ granted other entity the right to use their identity?

Re: FCC bars providers for non-compliance with robocall protections

#33

Post by more_corn »

coldpie wrote: post #24
paxys wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm going to go ahead and say none of them are in the jurisdiction of the DoJ.

No one outside the jurisdiction of my country's laws should be able to make my phone ring or send me text messages without my permission.

You got my vote

Re: FCC bars providers for non-compliance with robocall protections

#35

Post by infamouscow »

paxys wrote: post #21
coldpie wrote: post #2

Good start. Next, put the people running these scam phone providers in jail.

I'm going to go ahead and say none of them are in the jurisdiction of the DoJ.

Being outside of US legal jurisdiction is exactly why they ought to be thrown into a wood chipper.

I don't understand why this doesn't happen EVERY DAY until the problem is resolved.

And before someone cite US code: it's virtually impossible for foreigners to seek justice in this context. Not only do these criminals lack the money, education, and access to legal representation to do so, but the DoJ has better things to do than spend their time looking into the veracity of an international claim of this kind.

Re: FCC bars providers for non-compliance with robocall protections

#36

Post by AJ007 »

vorpalhex wrote: post #29

EVE Online has had a functional anti-spam system for many years: it costs you some money to contact someone who doesn't have you in their contacts. The amount is configurable and the feature can be turned off. You as the receiver keep 70% of the fee. Think of how quickly spam would go away.

Between the 0 real security and the generational jump in capability fraud now has because of AI, there is no excuse for the continued existence of traditional voice or SMS. We'll never be able to solve compromised devices or social engineering of others, but the idea that anyone/any software in the world can push a message to a device and then immediately communicate with that person is absurd.

Re: FCC bars providers for non-compliance with robocall protections

#37

Post by njovin »

patrickhogan1 wrote: post #30

Something changed about 1 year ago where the spam calls I get are 10x higher than in the past. It got so bad I had to change how I use my phone. Any caller not in my contact list goes immediately to voicemail. I’ve tried several robocall blockers, but they tend to cause connectivity issues. If anyone else has this problem, what are you using to prevent robocalls?

Same thing happened to me several years ago.

I just send anyone not in my contacts to voicemail (using the iOS setting) and delete all the robocall voicemails about once per month.

Re: FCC bars providers for non-compliance with robocall protections

#38

Post by xp84 »

I'll definitely believe it when I don't see those calls, but I could not be more in favor of turning the phone network into a much more "trusted" type of system -- similar to how SSL certs used to be prior to the Let's Encrypt era, where it requires some form of validation of something besides 'existence':

Conceptually, someone US-based should have to cryptographically sign, with their license to continue participating at stake, an assertion that the source phone number is real. People should be free to configure their devices or phone accounts (A) what countries to accept calls from and (B) whether to accept unverified calls whose numbers are presumably spoofed.

Note: i'm aware that SHAKEN/STIR or whatever exists and shares some of that idea, I'm just looking forward to full adoption of something so that I can make those choices described above.

Combine this next with ability to report numbers who spam (with the Apple/Google duopoly it should be trivially easy to put a "report spam" button in the call UI) and sanction providers (first financially and eventually with revocation of their credential to sign calls).

Maybe 30 years ago it would have been seen as too draconian to prevent someone from being able to call others anonymously but the Internet exists and provides ample avenues for those cliche use cases like "whistleblower needs to talk to journalists" so I'm 100% happy to have 'burdensome regulation' here if it stops scammers from ruining the phone as a usable channel for urgent information like "Your car is ready to pick up from the shop" or "Hi, you're the emergency contact for ____ and they are headed to the hospital."

Re: FCC bars providers for non-compliance with robocall protections

#39

Post by _mlbt »

patrickhogan1 wrote: post #30

Something changed about 1 year ago where the spam calls I get are 10x higher than in the past. It got so bad I had to change how I use my phone. Any caller not in my contact list goes immediately to voicemail. I’ve tried several robocall blockers, but they tend to cause connectivity issues. If anyone else has this problem, what are you using to prevent robocalls?

I’ve given up and just don’t answer calls from anyone that isn’t in my contacts list.

If it’s important they’ll text me or leave a voicemail with a callback number.

Re: FCC bars providers for non-compliance with robocall protections

#40

Post by bahmboo »

patrickhogan1 wrote: post #30

Something changed about 1 year ago where the spam calls I get are 10x higher than in the past. It got so bad I had to change how I use my phone. Any caller not in my contact list goes immediately to voicemail. I’ve tried several robocall blockers, but they tend to cause connectivity issues. If anyone else has this problem, what are you using to prevent robocalls?

Pixel phones. Night and day difference from my wife’s iPhone. Same carrier. It’s simply not an issue.
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