4 ms·

FCC bans spoofed text messages and international robocalls

13 points by dgudkov 7y ago

SOLAR_FIELDS 7y ago
Amusing that spoofing domestic calls is already illegal. Clearly there is no enforcement. Looking at my call history over the past week I have a grand total of 14 robocalls from a number that shares the first six digits of my phone (area code plus first three digits). I think there is a general consensus that these calls are obviously spoofed. I’m not even counting the numerous other 800 number (or non-800) calls that I have that don’t fit the obvious spoofing criteria I have laid out there. I have zero international spoofed calls. Why even bother with the international problem when the domestic law, clearly being violated, isn’t even enforced?
- cordite 7y ago
  Is the interpretation that an international number can’t be spoofed now, or that the source being international AND spoofing (which may include domestic numbers) is considered illegal?
  - SOLAR_FIELDS 7y ago
    I believe it is the latter. I have a USA number and when I travel abroad I get spoofed calls originating from USA numbers. The opposite pretty much never happens though. Domestically I almost never receive calls spoofed from an international number (outside of USA) calling to my number (Inside USA). That doesn’t necessarily tackle the scenario you’re calling out (someone outside USA acts like they are inside USA when spoofing a call). That might be the loophole they are actually trying to close (this simply gives them a way to prosecute bad actors who are spoofing USA domestic calls but live outside the USA). Which if it is, great. Otherwise if they mean international inbound calls it doesn’t really affect consumers since if it is referring to calls originating from outside USA, those basically never happen in practice anyway and it would make this kind of enforcement pretty much useless.
musicale 7y ago
Recently some robocalls have been showing up as foreign numbers rather than from my own area code and prefix. Maybe that is some kind of progress... or maybe the robocaller's call spoofing wasn't configured properly. ;-/ It is surprising that carriers accept spoofed local numbers from robocallers. I guess it's like ISPs who happily accept packets originating in their networks with source IP addresses from the other side of the world.

13 points by dgudkov 7y ago

Amusing that spoofing domestic calls is already illegal. Clearly there is no enforcement. Looking at my call history over the past week I have a grand total of 14 robocalls from a number that shares the first six digits of my phone (area code plus first three digits). I think there is a general consensus that these calls are obviously spoofed. I’m not even counting the numerous other 800 number (or non-800) calls that I have that don’t fit the obvious spoofing criteria I have laid out there. I have zero international spoofed calls. Why even bother with the international problem when the domestic law, clearly being violated, isn’t even enforced?

cordite 7y ago
Is the interpretation that an international number can’t be spoofed now, or that the source being international AND spoofing (which may include domestic numbers) is considered illegal?
- SOLAR_FIELDS 7y ago
  I believe it is the latter. I have a USA number and when I travel abroad I get spoofed calls originating from USA numbers. The opposite pretty much never happens though. Domestically I almost never receive calls spoofed from an international number (outside of USA) calling to my number (Inside USA). That doesn’t necessarily tackle the scenario you’re calling out (someone outside USA acts like they are inside USA when spoofing a call). That might be the loophole they are actually trying to close (this simply gives them a way to prosecute bad actors who are spoofing USA domestic calls but live outside the USA). Which if it is, great. Otherwise if they mean international inbound calls it doesn’t really affect consumers since if it is referring to calls originating from outside USA, those basically never happen in practice anyway and it would make this kind of enforcement pretty much useless.

musicale 7y ago

Recently some robocalls have been showing up as foreign numbers rather than from my own area code and prefix. Maybe that is some kind of progress... or maybe the robocaller's call spoofing wasn't configured properly. ;-/ It is surprising that carriers accept spoofed local numbers from robocallers. I guess it's like ISPs who happily accept packets originating in their networks with source IP addresses from the other side of the world.