Re:Ask HN: Extremely brazen phone scammer – what to do?
by SheinhardtWigCo on Monday December 07, 2020 @10:15PM
(#25341297)
This is the correct answer, except it won’t be rolled out next year in any meaningful way.
The FCC created a broad exemption for providers that have taken other “reasonable steps” to reduce robocalls, which is self-certified. Providers and device manufacturers are complying with this requirement by allowing users to block known bad phone numbers and showing some special UI when an incoming call is authenticated.
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
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.