They don't care about getting caught, there is no penalty. Your police can't do anything, and the feds don't care enough to start an extradition preceding over

They don't care about getting caught, there is no penalty. Your police can't do anything, and the feds don't care enough to start an extradition preceding over someone spoofing a US number to scam you - if they can identify them in the first place! The solution to phone scams is SHAKEN/STIR (1). It will hopefully be rolled out next year. This is legal and social more than technical, despite the "digital" nature of the world our phone networks are built on a 150 year old tech stack where it used to be too expensive to call someone in a different country to scam them. (1) https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-362932A1.pdf https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-362932A1.pdf There is a drawback, since there are legitimate uses for spoofing numbers. But journalists can purchase burners and service providers who enable trivial spoofing shouldn't be shielded from secondary liability.