移動電話公司正采取重大措施,以期消除行業禍害:垃圾語音電話。
Verizon電信正與AT&T、T-Mobile展開合作,交換所有的電話信息,以便驗證呼叫方的顯示號碼是否真實。參加該合作的還有Comcast公司。各方希望,此舉可以幫助電信運營商自動屏蔽大量語音電話,因為使用虛假來電顯示、誘騙消費者接聽的方式已成為目前常見的詐騙手段。
盡管法律試圖禁止騷擾電話,但據自動語音電話防范服務機構YouMail估算,上個月,美國人平均每天接到1.59億次自動語音電話呼叫。自動撥號技術的使用者從合法公司到令人不勝其煩的催債者和徹頭徹尾的犯罪分子,不一而足。其中,詐騙電話占到48%,尤以虛假的延長保修期和提供健康相關服務為甚。
與此同時,美國聯邦通信委員會也在周三宣布,對一家自動語音電話營銷公司處以2.25億美元的罰款,這是該機構有史以來開出的最大一筆罰單。受罰的這家公司位于德克薩斯,他們利用虛假的號碼每天呼出數百萬通電話,謊稱提供信諾等知名公司的醫療保險計劃。
新冠大流行期間,自動語音電話的勢頭有所下降,但自今年年初以來又回升到早前水平。據行業官員稱,電信部門此次的行動聯合了三大移動運營商和Comcast,日均覆蓋超2400萬次呼叫。該計劃還將繼續擴大,納入更多小型運營商。
Verizon消費者業務的首席執行官羅南?鄧恩在聲明中表示:“還有很多事等著我們去做,但這是本行業邁出的重要一步。消費者可以相信,我們會始終保持警惕,努力打擊不法分子,保護顧客利益。”
T-Mobile的副總裁格蘭特?卡斯爾強調,此次行動的目標是讓所有電信運營商都參與數據交換。“值此關鍵時期,我們正與幾乎所有移動運營商開展合作,助力保護消費者免受欺詐傷害。”
AT&T的一名發言人說:“我們每天都在努力阻止騷擾電話和非法自動語音呼叫。我們將與其他供應商一起,繼續實施STIR/SHAKEN呼叫驗證。該技術有助于鑒別來電是否為非法詐騙電話。”
《財富》雜志聯系了Comcast尋求置評,若得到回復,將在后續報道中更新。
為打擊自動語音呼叫,電信運營商們使用了一套全名為“安全電話身份重訪”和“使用令牌對信息進行基于簽名的處理”的反欺詐標準。這項拗口的技術通常簡稱為STIR/SHAKEN標準,它可以準確顯示來電號碼,因而有助于防止詐騙者使用偽造信息,但倘若詐騙者使用的是真實號碼,則該技術并不能阻止來電。
兩年前,由于電信行業未能自行部署這項技術,美國聯邦通信委員會投票通過決議,強制要求運營商使用該標準。然而,事實證明,盡管有最新的合作舉措,自動語音呼叫依舊能熟練地避開各種屏障,接觸到消費者。(財富中文網)
譯者:胡萌琦
移動電話公司正采取重大措施,以期消除行業禍害:垃圾語音電話。
Verizon電信正與AT&T、T-Mobile展開合作,交換所有的電話信息,以便驗證呼叫方的顯示號碼是否真實。參加該合作的還有Comcast公司。各方希望,此舉可以幫助電信運營商自動屏蔽大量語音電話,因為使用虛假來電顯示、誘騙消費者接聽的方式已成為目前常見的詐騙手段。
盡管法律試圖禁止騷擾電話,但據自動語音電話防范服務機構YouMail估算,上個月,美國人平均每天接到1.59億次自動語音電話呼叫。自動撥號技術的使用者從合法公司到令人不勝其煩的催債者和徹頭徹尾的犯罪分子,不一而足。其中,詐騙電話占到48%,尤以虛假的延長保修期和提供健康相關服務為甚。
與此同時,美國聯邦通信委員會也在周三宣布,對一家自動語音電話營銷公司處以2.25億美元的罰款,這是該機構有史以來開出的最大一筆罰單。受罰的這家公司位于德克薩斯,他們利用虛假的號碼每天呼出數百萬通電話,謊稱提供信諾等知名公司的醫療保險計劃。
新冠大流行期間,自動語音電話的勢頭有所下降,但自今年年初以來又回升到早前水平。據行業官員稱,電信部門此次的行動聯合了三大移動運營商和Comcast,日均覆蓋超2400萬次呼叫。該計劃還將繼續擴大,納入更多小型運營商。
Verizon消費者業務的首席執行官羅南?鄧恩在聲明中表示:“還有很多事等著我們去做,但這是本行業邁出的重要一步。消費者可以相信,我們會始終保持警惕,努力打擊不法分子,保護顧客利益。”
T-Mobile的副總裁格蘭特?卡斯爾強調,此次行動的目標是讓所有電信運營商都參與數據交換。“值此關鍵時期,我們正與幾乎所有移動運營商開展合作,助力保護消費者免受欺詐傷害。”
AT&T的一名發言人說:“我們每天都在努力阻止騷擾電話和非法自動語音呼叫。我們將與其他供應商一起,繼續實施STIR/SHAKEN呼叫驗證。該技術有助于鑒別來電是否為非法詐騙電話。”
《財富》雜志聯系了Comcast尋求置評,若得到回復,將在后續報道中更新。
為打擊自動語音呼叫,電信運營商們使用了一套全名為“安全電話身份重訪”和“使用令牌對信息進行基于簽名的處理”的反欺詐標準。這項拗口的技術通常簡稱為STIR/SHAKEN標準,它可以準確顯示來電號碼,因而有助于防止詐騙者使用偽造信息,但倘若詐騙者使用的是真實號碼,則該技術并不能阻止來電。
兩年前,由于電信行業未能自行部署這項技術,美國聯邦通信委員會投票通過決議,強制要求運營商使用該標準。然而,事實證明,盡管有最新的合作舉措,自動語音呼叫依舊能熟練地避開各種屏障,接觸到消費者。(財富中文網)
譯者:胡萌琦
Wireless phone companies are taking a big step forward to block the scourge of the industry: spam robocalls.
Verizon is exchanging information with AT&T and T-Mobile on every call to help verify that the listed caller ID number is accurate. The effort, which also includes Comcast, should help the carriers automatically block many robocalls, since a common tactic of scammers is to display a fake caller ID to trick consumers into answering.
Despite laws intended to ban unwanted calls, robocallers peppered Americans with an average of 159 million calls per day last month, estimates YouMail, a robocall-prevention service. The auto-dialers range from legitimate companies to harassing debt collectors to outright criminals. Scams accounted for 48% of the calls, particularly involving fake extended-warranty deals and phony health-related offers.
News of the industry effort came as the Federal Communications Commission separately announced on Wednesday that it fined a robocalling telemarketing firm $225 million, the largest fine in the history of the agency. The Texas-based firm was making millions of calls per day with fake caller ID information while falsely claiming to offer health insurance plans from well-known companies like Cigna.
The pace of robocalling declined during the COVID-19 pandemic, but since the start of the year it has rebounded to the prior levels. The telecom set's new collaboration covers more than 24 million calls per day exchanged between the three major wireless carriers and Comcast, according to industry officials. The plan is to continue expanding and including other smaller carriers as well.
“There is always more to be done, but this is yet another important step for the industry," Ronan Dunne, Verizon's CEO of consumer business, said in a statement. "Customers should rest assured that we remain vigilant in our efforts to take down the bad guys and protect them.”
T-Mobile vice president Grant Castle emphasized that the goal is to include all carriers in the data exchange. "We are currently working with almost every other wireless provider to help keep consumers safe from scammers at this critical time,” he says.
"We work daily to stop unwanted and illegal robocalls from reaching consumers," a spokeswoman for AT&T says. "Along with other providers, we’re continuing to implement STIR/SHAKEN call authentication. It helps confirm that a call is not illegally spoofed."
Fortune reached out to Comcast for comment and will update this story if it responds.
To combat robocalls, the carriers are relying on an anti-spoofing standard with an unwieldy name: "secure telephone identity revisited" and "signature-based handling of asserted information using tokens." More commonly, people call it the STIR/SHAKEN standard. Ensuring accurate caller ID labels on calls helps prevent scammers from faking the information, though the strategy does not help block a call if the scammers use accurate labels.
Two years ago, the Federal Communications Commission voted to require use of the standard after the industry failed to adopt the measure on its own. Still, despite the latest cooperative moves, the robocallers have proven adept at evading nearly every effort to cut them off from reaching consumers' phones.