FCC Allows Carriers to Block Illegal Calls. Is this as good as it sounds? I think not.

Yesterday the FCC approved new rules that allow phone companies to proactively block calls that are likely to be illegitimate. Click here to read the FCC's press release.

According to the press release, the new rules permit carriers to block calls from numbers that do not or cannot make originating calls, without violating the FCC's call completion rules. Under the new rules, phone companies may block calls from numbers placed on a "do not originate" list by the number's actual subscriber, such as customer service numbers that are never used for outbound calling. They also will be allowed to block calls purporting to be from invalid numbers, like those with area codes that don’t exist, from numbers that have not been assigned to a carrier, and from numbers allocated to a carrier but not currently in use. The ruling is receiving widespread praise from consumer groups.

But will it actually help? In my opinion, probably for a while, but not in the long term. The illegal callers who are using the numbers that will be blocked will quickly notice that their calls are not going through. Given how easy it is to spoof a caller ID, my prediction is that they will just start using other, legitimate numbers. I've already seen this happening with multiple clients -- companies are getting complaints about calls supposedly coming from their numbers to cell phones without the called party's consent. This will only increase when illegal callers can not longer spoof their calls with the to-be-blocked numbers.

To make matters worse, the FCC's 2015 Omnibus TCPA Order (see my prior posts) granted requests to clarify that carriers may implement call-blocking technology and offer consumers the choice to use it to block individual calls or categories of incoming calls that the carriers deem to be illegitimate. See 2015 FCC Order paragraphs 152-163. In response to comments opposing the requests based on concerns that that existing call blocking technology would block legitimate calls, the FCC acknowledged that the technology is "not perfect" but decided that consumers could decide for themselves whether they were willing to take the risk of blocking legitimate calls. This aspect of the ruling led to little press at the time. Now it is wreaking havoc. Several carriers are now using "blacklists" to label and/or block calls as "scam," "likely fraud," "telemarketing," etc. The problem is that the lists they are using include any number that someone complains about to the FTC. So if a fraudster makes spoofed calls using your legitimate business number, and the call recipient complaints to the FTC about the call, your legitimate calls will likely be mislabeled as illegitimate or blocked entirely.

Until there is a way to truly authenticate calls and ensure the caller ID matches the actual outbound calling number (which I'm told likely will not happen until all calls are made over the Internet), this problem of legitimate calls being mislabeled and blocked will continue. Yesterday's FCC Ruling is likely to exacerbate the problem.