Re:FCC will require phone carriers to authenticate calls by ...
by skissane on Tuesday March 31, 2020 @06:05PM
(#22743189)
> What makes this problem uniquely hard to solve for the USA as opposed to anywhere else?
Starting back in 2018 or so there has been a big problem in Australia with scam robocalls claiming to be from the Australian Tax Office. The area code on the phone number said it came from Canberra (Australia's national capital) which made it look more legitimate–even though in reality the call was coming from an overseas call centre. The robocall started out by saying that you owe a tax debt and the government was about to commence legal action against you. I got several, most people would hang up realising that the tax office would never do that. (It is illegal for them to discuss your tax affairs without confirming your identity first, so they would never begin a call by saying you owed them money.) But, some people (many of whom were older/vulnerable people), stayed on the call until the live operator connected. The live operator would then pressure them to go to a store and buy thousands of dollars of gift cards (such as Apple iTunes gift cards) and then read the gift card details out over the phone.
(Definitely the incidence of these fake calls appears to be falling, in my personal experience, so I think the Australian authorities'/industry's attempts are producing some results.)
Starting back in 2018 or so there has been a big problem in Australia with scam robocalls claiming to be from the Australian Tax Office. The area code on the phone number said it came from Canberra (Australia's national capital) which made it look more legitimate–even though in reality the call was coming from an overseas call centre. The robocall started out by saying that you owe a tax debt and the government was about to commence legal action against you. I got several, most people would hang up realising that the tax office would never do that. (It is illegal for them to discuss your tax affairs without confirming your identity first, so they would never begin a call by saying you owed them money.) But, some people (many of whom were older/vulnerable people), stayed on the call until the live operator connected. The live operator would then pressure them to go to a store and buy thousands of dollars of gift cards (such as Apple iTunes gift cards) and then read the gift card details out over the phone.
So this definitely is not a problem unique to the US. And other countries have been taking action, see e.g. in Australia – https://www.zdnet.com/article/acma-proposes-three-point-acti...
(Definitely the incidence of these fake calls appears to be falling, in my personal experience, so I think the Australian authorities'/industry's attempts are producing some results.)