Hey! I wrote this afternoon about the FCC shutting down all those fake auto warranty robocalls, but I missed the big story: This is about all robocalls, not just the auto warranty guys.
Years ago I remember writing about STIR/SHAKEN, a protocol for verified caller ID that the FCC was working on, but then I lost track of it. It was part of a plan to end mass robocalls, and since I kept on getting lots of robocalls I figured it was one of those things that got talked about a lot and then disappeared into the miasma of bureaucracy.
But no. It kept chugging along and was put into place for the big phone carriers on June 2021. That didn't end things, though. Smaller carriers were given a more lenient schedule, so the the spammers just moved their operations there. But then, late last year, the FCC decided to move up the implementation date for small carriers from June 2023 to June 2022. This means that as of July 1 every US carrier is required to implement STIR/SHAKEN.
Ah, you say, but what about overseas carriers? That's still a problem, thanks to so-called "gateway providers," who take foreign calls and then pass them along to US carriers. These folks are still in operation, but a couple of months ago the FCC ordered them to comply with STIR/SHAKEN by June 2023.
And then what? There are undoubtedly other loopholes, and the FCC will steadily plug them up. In the meantime, the number of robocalls you get should be going down—though I can't say that I've noticed any diminution myself. Perhaps that's why this hasn't been big news. There isn't going to be some big day when robocalls all suddenly stop, just a steady decline as STIR/SHAKEN is implemented and loopholes are steadily shut down. Stay tuned.
This is GOOD NEWS for JOHN MC CAIN.
... For serious, though, WINRED is going to hate this.
I've been getting alot of robo-texts, is that covered?
I hardly ever receive robocalls on T Mobile. In any case I don't answer unknown numbers. If it is important they'll leave a message. Use Google Voice for our small business and we almost never get a robocall.
I get them on mine.
The worst thing is when a relative is not doing well and you're expecting phone calls from numbers you do not know--so you answer them. My "hello" tends not to rigger the auto-response, so that helped.
Right. If it's not important enough for the caller to leave a voicemail message, then it surely approaching certitude that it will not be important for me either.
Hope Biden/Dems do everything they can to take credit for this.
Apropos of nothing, gasoline was $3.75.9 this morning along my daily route in ABQ.
Unrelated, but I've always wondered... why is gas priced with ".9" cents tacked on at the end? Obviously is makes gas look one cent cheaper, which seems like a clever mind trick, yet no other product on Earth is priced like that. Seems like some regulation should have shot this practice down decades ago.
Flanders: "I can't see the name of the station, but the gas costs 1.49 and 8/10."
Lovejoy: "Eight tenths?"
Marge: "Donny's Discount Gas!"
They do it with gas because you don't input the price of each unit you buy. The fractional price just increments upwards as the gas flows out of the pump and into your car.
So why don't they do this at the deli? "The ham is on special for $5.47 and 72/100 today? Oh, you want 17 pounds? Ok, I actually gave you 17.26 pounds. That comes to $93.54... ummm... rounded up."
This is GOOD NEWS for JOHN MC C--... YVETTE HERRELL.
Herrell is in New Mexico. I know, I know ... all those "square states" look alike.
ABQ isn't Alburquerque?
Here in my LA County neighborhood it has finally dropped under $5. That's huge for us. But it still costs $50 to fill my little Mazda tank.
From your mouth to God's ear....
My company actually worked on this and I always thought it was ridiculous that SHAKEN stands for "Signature-Based Handling of Asserted Information using
ToKENs". Someone really reached so they could get the Stir/Shaken pun in there.
At DEC I almost managed to get the data base and transaction processing systems for Engineering and Manufacturing named the Product Information Support System and the Manufacturing Operations Analysis Network. I was SO close...
This is great. But, TBH, this no longer matters all that much. Mainly because we (phone users) were forced to deal with the problem ourselves for so long. For example: I no long have a land-line, and I only answer calls on my cell if I know who it is. If it's important, they will leave a message. Yeah, sometimes this leads to a little phone tag, but that is preferable to me having to fend off scammers/telemarketers multiple times a day.
I installed a call blocking device on our home land line 'cause we were getting bursts of robocalls - sometimes a dozen calls in an hour. A lot were very obviously hijacking local area codes. Also the usual 8xx calls. As soon as I installed the blocker (CPR CallBlocker model V5000), almost all the calls stopped.
When I was searching for recommendations, I found a good half-dozen devices that come with a pre-loaded database of known scam/robocall sites, and they all allow you to add new calls to the database. In the case of the V5000, I can add up to 2000 additional phone numbers. Another feature it has is support for remote handsets - if I'm at the blocker (in my home office) I can hit the red "Block" button. If I pick up the handset in the kitchen, #2 does the same.
I hope that STIR/SHAKEN will improve the performance of these devices as more carriers are forced to adopt it and it makes it harder to impersonate a number.
For the cell phone, I noticed that Verizon includes a "Call Filter" app - I just enabled that and have been blocking robocalls. I have to find out if I can pre-load a blocking list. My remaining vulnerability is the link between the home phone system and my cell phone. Guess I'll have to break that link.
Can FCC regulate email spam as well? Just this morning I learned my new phone was on its way, two virus protection softwares have expired, and I won something from Walmart