STIR/SHAKEN – A framework to help combat illegal robocalls

Most of us despise robocalls. Although we often don’t answer them, they’re a persistent annoyance that causes our phones to ring needlessly throughout the day.

Most unlawful robocalls involve illegal caller ID spoofing, which is when the caller deliberately transmits inaccurate caller ID information to disguise their identity and attempt to defraud the called party. Scammers often use what’s known as neighbor spoofing, which is when it appears that the call is coming from a local number to increase the likelihood it will be answered.

Neighbor spoofing truly hit home for me one day when I received a call that showed my own phone number on the caller ID display. It was both surreal and infuriating. Within minutes, I got a barrage of voice messages from nearby residents who also received a call from what appeared to be my number.

Some understood that it was a spoofed call and just wanted to make me aware that my number was being misused. Then there were those who believed the call was coming from my number and the messages they left for me were not very neighborly.

FCC’s efforts to combat robocalls

Not surprisingly, unwanted calls, including illegally spoofed robocalls, are the Federal Communication Commission (FCC)’s top consumer complaint, and combatting them is their top consumer protection priority.

FCC Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel stated in March 2021 that “unwanted robocalls are not only a nuisance, but they also pose a serious risk to consumers who can inadvertently share sensitive, personal information in response to bad actors’ malicious schemes.”

Particularly troublesome has been international con artists who use illegal spoofing to target American consumers with COVID-19 pandemic-related scam robocalls.

Since 2017, the FCC has aggressively pursued a multipart strategy for combatting illegally spoofed robocalls.

This has included:

• Issuing hundreds of millions of dollars in fines against robocallers for violations of the Truth in caller ID rules