Nov, 2021 -- New York Governor Kathy Hochul has signed into law two bills that address robocall issues.

The first bill, S-6267/A-268 , requires telecommunications providers to block certain numbers. As described by the Governor’s announcement (https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/governor-hochul-signs-package-legislation-crack-down-robocalls ), the bill “codifies in state law the provisions of a rule released by the FCC in 2017, that went into effect in June of 2021, that allows telecommunications companies to proactively block calls from certain numbers. These would include calls that are the most likely to be illegitimate, as they are coming from numbers that do not or cannot make outgoing calls. These types of numbers are indicative of ‘spoofing’ schemes in which the true caller identity is masked behind a fake, invalid number.”

Washington Post

By Susan Jaffe

Finding the best private Medicare drug or medical insurance plan among dozens of choices is tough enough without throwing misleading sales tactics into the mix.

Yet federal officials say complaints are rising from seniors tricked into buying policies — without their consent or lured based on questionable information — that may not cover their drugs or include their doctors.

Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) Commissioner Ian Scott addressed the Canadian Telecom Summit today, highlighting key areas that will likely be the CRTC’s focus over the next year and anticipated updates to the telecommunications and broadband industry in Canada.

WASHINGTON, DC – Nov., 2012

ATIS announced a technical report and two standards addressing the challenges of call authentication for calls that traverse TDM networks. The technical report provides a framework to evaluate non-IP call authentication and discusses approaches to accommodate the limitations of call authentication for non-IP systems. These approaches are provided through new standards that rely on either underlying TDM capabilities or alternate IP capabilities. While these standards do not cover all non-IP networks or all service scenarios and additional standards work is required, they are a critical step toward mitigating illegal robocalling for consumers whose calls travel over TDM networks.

NOV.17, 2021 - Fifty-one State Attorneys General sent reply comments to the FCC urging the Commission to reduce access to numbers by voice service providers (VSPs) that do not have meaningful Know-Your-Customer policies. The State AGs contend that such service providers undercut anti-robocall efforts such as SHAKEN call authentication and the call blocking and labeling tools that SHAKEN enables.

Anis JafferForbes Councils MemberForbes Technology CouncilCOUNCIL POST

Ilegal robocalls have been giving heartburn to both consumers and enterprises alike. On one side, we as consumers have almost all faced annoying "car warranty" calls and, worse, "this is the IRS" scam calls. On the other side, legitimate enterprises have been struggling to reach consumers who have become less likely to answer calls from caller IDs they don't recognize or trust. To mitigate this, the FCC mandated that telecommunications service providers implement the STIR/SHAKEN authentication framework by June 30, 2021.

by Mary Gonzalez

By now, we’re all acquainted with the STIR/SHAKEN caller ID authentication framework and its aim to decrease the number of illegal robocalls and illegal call spoofing by establishing the validated source of a number and the identity behind it. When the STIR/SHAKEN standards were being defined, they were written as if from a single country perspective and so far, deployment has primarily focused on the United States. The fact that the U.S. has deployed STIR/SHAKEN does not mean that it is a U.S.-specific technology.

ST. LOUIS—The U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI continue to see scams where perpetrators are posing as federal authorities to scare victims.

In one of the latest examples, the perpetrators emailed a letter claiming to be from a federal court about a federal criminal investigation. The letter gives the victim a choice: (1) face indictment or (2) accept an agreement as a cooperating witness, which requires $7,000 in legal fees. In addition to the letter, perpetrators also called the victim.

Haley Hinds reports

TAMPA, Fla. - They try to sell you an extended car warranty. They even pose as the IRS. While most robocalls are more annoying than harmful, others have gone so far as to target Alzheimer's patients.    

Will we ever be able to stop them, for good? U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist has an idea. He wants to put robocallers in jail.

• NOVEMBER 3, 2021 - Robocalls in the U.S. were up 3.3% in October, according to the YouMail Robocall index. Are SHAKEN and robocall mitigation working? What does the future hold? Let’s have a look.

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