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CRTC seeks solutions for unsolicited & illegitimate calls

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3K views 11 replies 10 participants last post by  gzink 
#1 · (Edited)
CRTC seeks solutions to help Canadians protect themselves from unsolicited and illegitimate calls

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) today launched a public consultation to better understand the technical solutions that are currently offered to help Canadians manage unsolicited telecommunications and illegitimate telemarketing calls. The CRTC is also exploring new and innovative solutions that could enhance consumer protections, including those that may reduce illegitimate caller identification (caller ID) spoofing.

The information gathered as part of this proceeding will serve to develop guidance for Canadians so they can better manage unsolicited telecommunications and illegitimate telemarketing calls and protect their privacy.

Canadians can participate in this consultation by sharing their views on:
•the technical solutions available to help them manage unsolicited or illegitimate calls
•barriers they may face to adopting or using these solutions, and
•new and innovative solutions that could help them manage unsolicited telecommunications and illegitimate telemarketing calls.

Comments may be submitted until October 16, 2015 by:
•filling out the online form
•writing to the Secretary General, CRTC, Ottawa, ON, K1A 0N2, or
•sending a fax to 819-994-0218

As an initial step in the proceeding, the Commission has requested that the telecommunications industry provide, by September 4, 2015, information on the options and features currently available to help Canadians manage unsolicited and illegitimate calls. Responses will be compiled into a consumer-friendly format and placed on the public record of the proceeding in order to assist parties in formulating their comments.

Quick Facts
•The CRTC has launched a public consultation to better understand the technical solutions that are currently offered to help Canadians manage unsolicited telecommunications and illegitimate telemarketing calls.
•The National Do Not Call List was established in 2008 to help Canadians protect their privacy and, to date, over 12.8 million numbers have been added to the list.
•Since that time, more than 900,000 complaints of alleged violations to the Unsolicited Telecommunication Rules have been lodged by Canadians.
•It is estimated that over 40% of complaints involve an element of illegitimate Caller ID spoofing.
•Caller identification spoofing occurs when telemarketers hide or misrepresent their identity by displaying fictitious phone numbers when making calls.
•The CRTC is working with its international partners to address today's global threats related to unsolicited and illegitimate telemarketing calls.
•The CRTC is continuing to enhance its monitoring to ensure telemarketers and others who initiate unsolicited telecommunications follow the Unsolicited Telecommunications Rules and to reduce the number of unsolicited telecommunications and illegitimate telemarketing calls to Canadians.

Quotes

"Canadians are very frustrated with telemarketers who hide their identity or misappropriate the legitimate numbers of Canadians and businesses. A significant proportion of the complaints we receive now involve some element of illegitimate caller identification spoofing. There are tools that can help Canadians protect themselves, and there may be new and innovative solutions on the horizon. Following this consultation, we will be publishing guidance material to empower Canadians to make informed choices for themselves and their families. "

- Jean-Pierre Blais, CRTC Chairman

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#2 ·
It's becoming apparent that methods similar to those used for blocking email spam must be employed. That is, compiling data to analyze and block these calls at the phone network level based on their true source. The data collected by Call Screening has the potential to be the basis of a more sophisticated call screening service but that service has not been updated in at least a decade. Tools currently offered by phone companies, such as Call Screening and Call Privacy, have become almost useless. Meanwhile, phone companies keep boosting prices while offering little of value to control nuisance calls.
 
#4 ·
If a technical solution can work for spam then it can be found for unwanted voice calls. Spam filters are probably about 99% effective. The biggest issue is false positives but that can be fixed by being less aggressive or with end user workarounds. The larger problem is that nobody has really tried with voice calls. From a consumer perspective, the big phone companies are totally ignoring the issue.
 
#5 ·
Well, relying on consumers to report fraudulent/misleading telemarketing calls just doesn't work. With Caller ID spoofing and uncooperative agents on the line, it's nearly impossible to identify the caller further than "they said they're from Visa". It also makes it more difficult for legitimate telemarketers, as people will incorrectly assume that their calls are fraudulent. Besides, most legitimate companies have migrated to other, more effective types of advertising.

The solution, then, has to be implemented at the carrier level. Telcos can determine the source of the call, as it is often needed for routing and billing purposes. Based on calling patterns, telcos can easily identify which callers are telemarketers. The same principles used for filtering spam messages, such as heuristic analysis, could be used for large-volume telemarketers, and the carriers could easily filter out such callers. Since only large-volume telemarketers would need filtering, regular day-to-day calls would not need to be affected, nor would local businesses with small-scale telephone marketing campaigns.

In the case of legitimate, large-volume telemarketers, like RBC or Shaw, these companies could easily be whitelisted by registering the originating phone numbers and Caller ID information used on their calls.
 
#6 ·
I implemented a solution for this problem this year. There is a free program called Aterisk, it's a telephone software package that turns an old computer into a digital phone system. It's got tons of bells and whistles including completely free VOIP (NOT through a 'provider') three way or conference calling etc. My main goal was to eliminate the four or five unwanted spam calls I would get each day. It worked better than I expected.

There are two functions directly related to spam calls, one is the ability to shunt all calls that do not have a caller id to a separate input stream. if the CID is 'unknown' or 'private' or missing the system will play a message that says "your caller ID has not been provided, please key in your 7 digit phone number to continue. The caller can then punch in a 7 digit number and be processed forward to make your phone ring. Autodialers just hang up at this point.

The second function is blacklist, if someone does get through that you don't want to talk to just hang up and dial *32 and add them to the blacklist and they'll never get through again.

One of the problems with screening calls by CID is your phone still rings and interrupts you and you have to take your attention off what your doing to make a decision. Asterisk eliminates that annoyance.

One other benefit I've noticed is that after a couple of months the calls just dried up, the logs the program keeps of callers no longer even showed them as calling and being blocked. It makes me think that the majority of these scam calls are all run out of just a few autodialer locations and once you give them the message that calling your number is a waste of their time and resources they remove you from the list and leave you alone. I used to get 4 or 5 calls a day and now I get one or two a week and the logs show only a handful of "unknown" callers being blocked per month.

YMMV, I set it all up for the price of a special card (Digium) and an old computer. The OS/software is all free. google Schmooze. I'm not affiliated just happy I don't have to get up five times a day for nothing.

Jeff
 
#8 ·
I guess, but it's a pay service, I already get free Canada wide calling from Telus, if I sign up to Voip.ms I have to start paying for calls I used to get for free. Incoming and outgoing.

I also don't like the idea that I have to pay microsoft every month to keep scammers from calling me. Feels sort of like an extortion racket.
 
#10 ·
I wish there was some built in logic that intervenes on all incoming international calls, to check the CID and comparing the NPA-NXX to a list of valid Canadian NPA-NXXs, then failing the call if the CID is local, but the call originates from outside the country. To allow valid calls to come through for a Canadian company with offshore callers calling in, a registry needs to be set up by the Canadian telcos to allow registered bona fide calls to come through, but with proper CID info and company name. There should also be a component that allows the recipient of calls to immediately report the number as a spam call, or add it to the DNC list, if they believe the caller is spamming them.

The number of calls I get coming to my cell phone with spoofed CID is increasing and the only solution I have is to create a "spam call" contact and add the TNs to that contact as they come in.

I love it when the international spam callers display my won CID info when they call my home. Kind of a giveaway.
 
#11 ·
I see my own number, or at least exchange code on my home phone and both personal and work cell phones. Generally, however, on my home phone (Rogers) the spammers often seem to get a different ring, so I know not to bother answering. Regardless, there are legitimate reasons for spoofing. The main one is a company displaying a main number, no matter where the caller is located. As for spoofing numbers, that's easy. I have set up equipment that can do that and I have a piece of test equipment that can spoof numbers. I have it set up to provide my work cell phone number, so that the person I'm working with knows my cell number.
 
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