Caller-ID Spoofing – No, That’s Not Your Neighbor Calling

By Alan Percy, Senior Director of Product Marketing, TelcoBridges

The phone rings and the number looks familiar, just a few digits off from your own.  You wonder if a neighbor or possibly your child’s school calling, so you answer only to hear “Congratulations, you’ve been selected for a three night vacation package”   You’ve been tricked into answering by a Robocaller, using caller-ID spoofing. 

An all-too common technique used by illicit robocallers, caller-ID spoofing is problem that regulators and service providers are taking very seriously.   It’s not just annoying, it can be part of a phishing campaign where seniors and others are preyed upon.   What’s stopping a robo caller from identifying themselves as being the IRS or FBI?  The problem is that service providers have no means to verify that the number/name being offered as the caller-ID, is actually owned by the caller.   Without some means of verification, intermediary carriers have to trust that the caller-ID provided is indeed accurate.

So how does a service provider know whether a call entering their network does indeed have the correct caller-ID?   A vexing problem that is addressed by STIR/SHAKEN, a collection of technologies that essentially adds a “seal of approval” to the initial call and allows carriers down the line to verify that the caller-ID has not been tampered with.

A number of regulators have agreed to standardize on STIR/SHAKEN as a solution to the spoofed caller-ID problem, and in some cases, requiring its implementation in 2019.   Every service provider should understand STIR/SHAKEN and how it can be implemented within their network.

We’ve got a webinar planned with Jim Dalton, CEO at TransNexus to give some background, discuss the current legislative remedies and explain how the STIR/SHAKEN methodology will put an end to caller-ID spoofing.  We’d love to have you listen in:

Battling Robocallers – Ending Caller-ID Spoofing with STIR/SHAKEN
Wednesday, June 20th at 2:00 PM ET
Register at:  http://www2.telcobridges.com/RoboCallWebinarBlog