Major U.S. Phone Companies Agree to Plan to Combat Endless Robocalls

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By: Elliott Hannon 

August 23, 2019

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/08/major-u-s-phone-companies-agree-to-plan-to-combat-endless-robocalls.html

America’s biggest telecom providers announced Thursday they would adopt new technology to save consumers from the barrage of robocalls that these days routinely clog Americans’ phones. Last month alone, Americans received an estimated 4.7 billion illegal spam calls. The agreement between 12 of the country’s largest providers—including Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint—and 51 state attorneys general commits the companies to better call labeling and blocking at no extra charge, in order to combat spammers who are able to make calls look like they’re from a local number.

“Under the agreement, the 12 carriers have agreed to implement call-blocking technology, make anti-robocall tools available for free to consumers and deploy a new system that would label calls as real or spam. Known by its acronym, STIR/SHAKEN, the technology takes aim at a practice known as spoofing, where fraudsters mask their identities by using phone numbers that resemble those that they’re trying to contact in a bid to get victims to pick up and surrender their personal information,” the Washington Post reports. “This June, state and federal authorities announced 94 enforcement actions against illegal robocallers that allegedly placed an estimated 1 billion robocalls to consumers, a move they said signaled their heightened interest in combating such scams. Some of the calls sought to deceive people into paying fees or surrendering their personal information for fraudulent services, such as lowering their credit card interest rates or providing help with health insurance.” 

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