Comment on FCC closing loophole that gave robocallers easy access to US phone numbers

zeppo@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

• tony@lemmy.hoyle.me.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  In many countries it’s not lawful to spoof a number you don’t own, and VOIP providers simply won’t let you do it (without sufficient proof of ownership, and a lot of the smaller ones just block such things completely). The phone system is fine and contains to tools to stop this, it’s the laws that need fixing.

  You could always spoof numbers even back in the analogue days through a primary rate interface but they’re expensive and becoming less common… and again illegal to do in many cases.

  Of course some random provider in the back of nowhere can still do that kind of thing and you can’t really stop it, except for preventing numbers coming from overseas that don’t have the right country code (I think this is done in many places now… it used to be I’d get overseas spam calls that looked local but haven’t seen any for a while).

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  • zeppo@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    The problem is the people doing this maliciously are already breaking several laws and scamming people, and certainly don’t care whether it’s legal or not. They’re also outside of the US.

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  • xthexder@l.sw0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    It should be technically impossible, not just illegal. Scamming people is illegal too but it happens all the time.

    We have the technology to stop it, just like I can’t spoof google.com or one of their IP addresses.

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• SmashingSquid@notyour.rodeo ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  There’s already callerid authentication (stir/shaken). The problem is these companies were easily getting real numbers assigned instead of just spoofing so they were verified. This change makes it harder for them to get numbers assigned because when their traffic gets blocked right now they just pop up under a new name and get more numbers.

  If they can stop these companies from getting numbers they can hopefully start blocking unverified numbers. Unfortunately I get calls from drs still that aren’t verified despite it being a requirement to support it now.

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• ciferecaNinjo@fedia.io ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I would hope it can be done without collateral damage. I spoof my own number (in fact as a self-defense maneuver) and wouldn’t want to lose that option. I subscribe to a voicemail-only number which I give to countless untrusted entities (e.g. banks). Then to make outbound calls to businesses, I use a numberless voip line that spoofs the voicemail number.

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  • zeppo@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Yeah, I’m sure there are legitimate uses. Another would be a call center that wants to show the main customer service number rather than the phone of the specific person speaking.

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  • Overzeetop@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I currently have (almost) only VoIP numbers. My cell phone technically has a carrier number, but only my immediate family and two friends (8 people in total) actually have that number for my contact, and I keep it that way for safety/security purposes. As a result, I already can't do things like try ChatGPT, use the some vendor apps, or get quasi-2 factor codes from several businesses - including the IRS. Their systems simply can't interact across a VoIP gateway. There really should be a certificate authority for these things, but the POTS system is just so fucking old.

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    • GregoryTheGreat@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      What? Many home lines are VoIP and can use services just fine. Are you talking about SMS based 2FA? That should work unless your carrier is broken. I have 2FA on my VoIP lines no problem.

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      • Overzeetop@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        SMS and (at least for craigslist) voice 2FA doesn't work with VoIP (Google Voice numbers, including numbers ported from mobile operators). IRS 2FA via SMS definitely doesn't work, nor does Dunkin Donuts (which invalidates use of their entire app on all mobile platforms). Some services offer voice 2FA which will go through, and some offer email, but many don't. Of course the vast majority of 2FA over SMS work with the major VoIP providers, but if you hit one where it doesn't...there's either no way around it or you have to wait for a snailmail 2FA token (IRS).

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