Apple to Join 'Robocall Strike Force' to Crack Down on Automated Phone Calls

[MacRumors]

Apple, AT&T, Google, and 30 other companies will join efforts with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission this year to crack down on automated phone calls, otherwise known as "robocalls," according to Reuters.

AT&T chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson will make the announcement at the first "Robocall Strike Force" meeting at the FCC later on Friday, the company said.

The so-called "Robocall Strike Force" will provide the FCC with "concrete plans to accelerate the development and adoption of new tools and solutions" to crack down on automated phone calls by October 19, the report claims.

Last month, the FCC sent a letter to phone companies and intermediaries, presumably including Apple, expressing how robocalls and telemarketing calls are the number one source of consumer complaints it receives. FCC chairman Tom Wheeler urged the companies to respond within 30 days with concrete, actionable solutions to tackle the problem, and AT&T was quick to agree that action is needed.

AT&T is prepared to take a leadership position in the industry in the development of comprehensive solutions. We currently allow many of our customers to block calls using black-listing software like Nomorobo and we are committed to providing our customers with the best blocking tools available for use with their knowledge and consent. [...]

For these reasons, and at the request of Chairman Wheeler, Mr. Stephenson has agreed to chair a new Robocalling Strike Force, the mission of which will be to accelerate the development and adoption of new tools and solutions to abate the proliferation of robocalls and to make recommendations to the FCC on the role government can play in this battle.

The U.S. has some protective measures in place to prevent automated phone calls. The FCC, for example, requires private companies to have prior consent to robocall or robotext mobile phones. Americans can also add their phone numbers to the FTC's Do Not Call list to prevent legitimate telemarketers from calling. Last, the FCC expects carriers to respond to consumer requests to block robocalls.

The strike force will push for further solutions, such as developing secure Caller-ID authentication technology, supporting the Anti-Spoofing Act of 2015 in U.S Congress, and implementing new technologies to identify and block robocalls. Apple's involvement in the strike force remains unclear, but iOS 10 will include at least one combative measure: a new caller ID extension for spam alerts.

Article Link: Apple to Join 'Robocall Strike Force' to Crack Down on Automated Phone Calls

 

[Derekuda]

LOL, knowing how ATT operates, they are probably the ones planting the robocalls. Now they will try and sell you a $5 a month app to "block" these calls.

Also, why use a picture of lovable Wally!? He's a Disney icon and one of my favorite Disney characters.

 

[PowerBook-G5]

Hello. This is IRS. This is your final notice before the IRS will arrest you for tax fraud. Call back at 555-555-5555 to settle your issues with IRS.

I'd love for these calls to stop. I just got three yesterday alone!

 

[upnorth85]

I use truecaller a crowd sourced listing of spam phone numbers. When a call comes in it flags if it is spam. I also share spam call numbers with the app.

 

[peterh988]

Start by giving me a way to filter 'no caller ID' calls, just a simple option that diverts the caller to a "This person has chosen not to receive cals from withheld numbers" message, or something along those lines. Or allow me to block no caller ID.

I just don't want to bother with people who don't want me to know who they are.

 

[Volusia]

It has gotten so bad that we disconnect our land line (part of a cable bundle so it would cost more to eliminate it!) and tell family and friends to call on our cell phones. I have gotten as many as 8 robo calls in a day. Each one is reported to the Do Not Call website, but, of course, that is meaningless.

 

[rolsskk]

I was happy when I could finally block numbers in the phone, now Apple, give us an option below "Block this Number" to "Report this Number".

 

[longofest]

I use truecaller a crowd sourced listing of spam phone numbers. When a call comes in it flags if it is spam. I also share spam call numbers with the app.

They spoof phone numbers a lot, so that's less effective than you think.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caller_ID_spoofing

 

[iamgalt]

Americans can also add their phone numbers to the FTC's Do Not Call list to prevent legitimate telemarketers from calling.

The Do Not Call list is the most epic of epic fails. Hopefully, this new strike force will do better (they really can't do any worse).

 

[ricktat]

On the bright side.... At least someone is calling me.... I will be pretty upset if Apple stops that.

 

[SandboxGeneral]

I find this to be good news that an effort by major players like this is going to address this problem. I receive several spam calls a week on my cell phone and I am very thankful for the "Block this caller" feature in iOS. Its also certainly nice, for me, because I have an Apple iPhone and AT&T for carrier service and both are on this task force.

 

[djlythium]

Awesome.

 

[Scottsoapbox]

$100 says this isn't implemented until after the election. So tired of political robodialers...

 

[iStig]

I don't see why Wall-e, who is by all accounts a kind and generous robot, need be dragged into this.

 

[Old Muley]

Next time I get a call saying I've qualified for a $250K loan I might just take them up on the offer; and use the money to develop software to stop spam robocalls.

 

[blcamp]

The next batch of iPhones will have extra storage just to accomodate the exponentially growing robocall blacklist!

 

[MVPinFLA]

nomorobo works great for voip calls. It rings once and goes away. Living in a swing state, we used to get a lot of these calls.

 

[thespacekid]

Maybe Apple will let us block calls when no phone number appears. I've had several instances and there's no way to block those that I've seen.

 

[peterh988]

It has gotten so bad that we disconnect our land line (part of a cable bundle so it would cost more to eliminate it!) and tell family and friends to call on our cell phones. I have gotten as many as 8 robo calls in a day. Each one is reported to the Do Not Call website, but, of course, that is meaningless.

Landline is pretty much sorted and nullified here in the UK thanks to the BT 8500 call blocker phone. Down from 3-4 calls a day to about 1 in 3 months since I got it. Why similar tech isn't available on my mobile is beyond me.

Edit. And yes, the TPS (telephone preference service) is a toothless dog over here too, sales calls are 'banned' but you're allowed to call people if you're doing a survey. So everyone is doing surveys these days.

 

[DeftwillP]

They spoof phone numbers a lot, so that's less effective than you think.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caller_ID_spoofing

This bigtime. I get a ton of spam calls from local cellphone numbers. You can even ignore the call and then call the number back to get a random person in your area on their cell phone that has no idea what you're yelling at them about.

 

[cesko]

Canada too has a DNCL buts it's rendered useless with telemarketers/scammers making their number "Unavailable" or "Private Caller".
To make things worse, if there was a way to block the above, I'd be blocking medical-related calls; more and more hospitals and local medical services hide their number. So I'm left with having the call goto the answering service.

 

[TallManNY]

A technical solution might be very hard. This may require legislative action. Really Spam and RoboCalls is intrusive. It places a cost on everyone who receives them. Spam is hard to stop with legislation because it comes from overseas. But I believe the robo calls need to be initiated locally. They should be harder to track. Maybe if the U.S. government put a tax on each call, it would drive the most sketchy of them out of business.

 

[Moonjumper]

I find this to be good news that an effort by major players like this is going to address this problem. I receive several spam calls a week on my cell phone and I am very thankful for the "Block this caller" feature in iOS. Its also certainly nice, for me, because I have an Apple iPhone and AT&T for carrier service and both are on this task force.

Thank you, I didn't know about this feature. I have been plagued by silent calls from the same spammer for a couple of weeks. I have now stopped it.

Hopefully Apple will work on this internationally rather than just USA.

 

[Weaselboy]

nomorobo works great for voip calls. It rings once and goes away. Living in a swing state, we used to get a lot of these calls.

I'm using the VOIP service Ooma for landline service and they have integrated Nomorobo so you don't even get that first ring. It has really cut down on the robocalls quite a bit.

 

[vpndev]

What I would like - and I believe that it's rather simple - is forCaller ID to be no longer spoofable. Here's how ...

All calls on the regular phone system enter through some carrier or other. AT&T, Verizon and many others. And spoofing happens when the call-setup from a PBX contains info that does not match the actual line being used. But the phone companies know what the correct data is - this is how they do caller-ID for your regular single phone line.

The fix is for the phone companies to check the data to make sure it matches. For a line in a trunk group, it has to match the number of one of the lines, and it doesn't matter which one. If the data doesn't match, then the phone company substitutes the primary group number and doesn't let the bad data go through.

This way, robocallers will no longer be anonymous and complaints to FTC/FCC can get them shut down.

Note that will work even for VoIP and similar calls that start overseas because these calls have to enter the US phone system using a US phone company somewhere, somehow.