Ofcom to crack down on telcos' handling of nuisance callers

Now Ofcom need to get this adopted by the EU, as the real problem is with calls originating overseas.

The EU has sufficient clout to get the ITU to take this seriously and so get all it's members to agree.

Over here they have started spoofing their number with the local area code and prefix with a random 4 digit extension. It looks legit and might even be from someone in your contact list.

Another newer version is they use the last number that answered their call for the next call.

If only there were a way to track them back to their lair...

" a spurious number presented which is always one digit short of what a number might typically contain"

Which at least is filterable.

The insurance claim ("your car accident") scammers were spoofing real Manchester numbers a few months ago, including ones which belonged to an estate agent and a dentist - who when I called back, were both wondering why they'd had a number of abusive calls and "rather irritated" to hear that scammers had been spoofing their numbers.

There need to be criminal penalty provisions for unauthorised number presentation, ideally with $LARGE penalties allowed to be applied to telcos who let them through.

Re: Doesn't go far enough on nuisance calls

All those crappy "I am phoning from Microsoft Windows..." call centres should be wiped from the face of the planet

FTFY

Re: Doesn't go far enough on nuisance calls

And there should be an easy way to report the last caller as a nuisance call, eg dial #7726 to report it.

Re: Calls from BT OverReach

Nor do the NHS.

My Mum was getting plagued by fake TalkTalk scum last year, as her details were part of their ongoing gift to the world's hackers. At the same time her sister was dying, so she got the phone company to block the nuisance calls.

But what Tesco Mobile actually did was to block all calls with no caller display data. Genius! That meant her sister's GP, the hospital and district nurse service all got blocked with the spammers.

If only we could have some joined-up policies. Like with foreign premium rate numbers - where they go abroad to avoid regulation. Or in fact the UK ones, who go bust before they have to pay their fines. All the Telcos have to do is consult the regulators before paying out their fees - and non-legit ones can wait for their money until we know they're not total scumbags. OK this may limit "innovation" in the premium rate sector, as businesses will need start-up capital to cover the hiatus in their initial income, but since all the innovation in this sector is basically bad - that's not much of a loss.

Re: Calls from BT OverReach

"Openwretch engineers dont provide a displaying number when they call "

They do if your telco tells them you filter wthheld numbers.

"A lot of countries can't/don't/won't supply CLI last I heard."

About 35-45 years ago, the same was true of barcodes on groceries. When the large supermarket chains in various countries announced they wouldn't handle products without barcodes, "too difficult to implement" was invariably solved within weeks.

If the larger telcos announce en-masse that CLI data must be presented or they won't terminate, the recalcatrant telcos will step into line pretty quickly.

CLI is not signalling info

A lot of countries can't/don't/won't supply CLI last I heard

CLI is a presentation service, it's the number you want to have displayed to the recipient. It's completely unrelated to the actual calling number, which has to be provided in the signalling messages so that that the call can be billed.

Whether someone provides valid CLI or not isn't important, the telcos can use the real data which will always be there, and they can/should discard calls where that is demonstrably false, such as a call coming from India claiming to be from the UK.

The standards you point to are for the very last leg, from your exchange to your phone. They explain why a US phone won't display CLID when connected to a UK exchange line, but they have no relation to the actual data transmission across the network, which is handled by SS7 ISUP packets.

"A lot of countries can't/don't/won't supply CLI last I heard. "

If their calls don't get through without it they'll find they can/do/will.

Re: Hmmmm

Maybe the time is coming when Ofcom need to allow the PSTN USO be delivered over a digital service bearer rather than analogue. Suspect the GSM protocol suite would with minor tailoring fit the bill.

Re: Hmmmm

Ah well, that'll be another £1.75 on my monthly line rental in one of BT's 4 price increases next year ......"

Well...considering that BT and others all seem to think that it is a cost to provide CLID, then by definition, if they provide it to everyone and bump up the line rental to cover it, they ought to offer a discount to those customers who ring up and ask for CLID to be blocked.