Robocalls

U.S. regulator demands companies take action to halt 'robocalls'

https://www.aol.com/article/finance/2018/11/06/us-regulator-demands-companies-take-action-to-halt-robocalls/23581893/

Excerpt: In May, Pai called on companies to adopt an industry-developed "call authentication system" or standard for the cryptographic signing of telephone calls aimed at ending the use of illegitimate spoofed numbers from the telephone system. Monday's letters seek answers by Nov. 19 on the status of those efforts. (,,,) The authentication framework "digitally validates the handoff of phone calls passing through the complex web of networks, allowing the phone company of the consumer receiving the call to verify that a call is from the person supposedly making it," the FCC said. (...) FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democrat, earlier this year called on the FCC to set a deadline and noted "Canada went ahead and set a 2019 deadline to put this technology in place. We should be doing the same as our neighbors to the north."

(It sounds as if they’ve finally heard us and are reacting. Notice that at least one of the Democrats on the commission also supports this change, so it is truly a bi-partisan issue. That’s the good news. The bad news is that this won’t do much to stop the VOIP (voice over internet protocol) calls that mostly originate outside the USA–which, unfortunately include most of the scam calls–or most political calls as they are protected by statute. But, it’s better than nothing and even a small improvement is welcome news. Link may not be live.  Ron P.)