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How the fight against robotic calls is developing in the USA - on the measures of politicians and telecommunications companies

The number of telephone fraudsters has increased in Russia. In 2019, the FinCERT Central Bank blocked five thousand numbers belonging to intruders. The figure is quite modest, but it is 39 times more than a year earlier. And today, during the crisis, risks of this kind have only increased. Therefore, we all should be more careful. The situation will become increasingly tense until the regulator pays attention to the growing problem.

It is this scenario that is now unfolding in the United States, where there is a war with robotic calls. We decided to see what methods of struggle are offered by politicians, telecoms and IT companies.


/ Unsplash / Chris Fuller

How does the situation develop?


According to YouMail, in 2018, almost 48 billion robotic calls were registered in the United States . This figure grew by 22% in 2019 and reached a value of 58.5 billion. Today, unwanted calls are the most common cause of consumer complaints to the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

Behind a significant portion of dialers are scammers. Over the past year, the FTC registered 400 thousand applications from residents who extorted money from them. The total damage was estimated at 153 million dollars.

But the real figure may be much larger, since not all report such crimes. Nathan Leamer of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) considersthat robotic calls pose a serious threat to the economy. According to him, because of fraudsters, American consumers lose up to $ 3 billion annually.

Government Initiatives


Given the scale of the problem, politicians decided to tackle robotic calls. Earlier this year, the TRACED Act , Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence Act, entered into force in the United States . He expands the powers of the FCC in matters related to the collection of fines from the organizers of illegal calls. Already there are first results - over the past three months, the Ministry of Justice has charged 400 people who extorted money from an elderly population. This is two times more than in the whole last year. According to the country's attorney general, William Barr, a quarter of the attackers have already been convicted.

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The problem is also being dealt with in the Federal Trade Commission. At the end of March, its representatives sent letters to key VoIP providers and reminded them of the need to block the work of illegal automatic calling services. Otherwise, the FTC will prepare legal claims. In the past, the regulator has sued James Christiano, the owner of NetDotSolutions, involved in organizing a billion robotic calls.

What companies do


Telecoms are also updating their infrastructure to combat unwanted calls to customers. For example, they are introducing the new SHAKEN / STIR standard . It is based on working with digital certificates that identify callers. Last week, T-Mobile signed a partnership with Bandwidth Inc. to offer a new service to more customers. SHAKEN / STIR is also being implemented by Sprint, Comcast, and AT&T. USTelecom says SHAKEN / STIR will give people more control - it will be easier for them to decide whether to pick up the phone.


/ Unsplash / Brunno Tozzo

Also telephone companies have concludedcooperation agreements with prosecutors in all states. They undertook to promptly transmit information to the law enforcement authorities about the facts of automatic dialers. Large IT companies are also fighting robotic calls . A month ago, Google announced that they had added the Call Screen option to all Pixel phones. It automatically filters unwanted calls. Previously, the function was available only on the flagship devices of the corporation. At the same time, the company promised to add the appropriate API in Android 11 so that all mobile application developers can use the lock.

How effective will the new initiatives be, official statistics will show.

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