Consumers Union, Consumer Action, Consumer Federation of America, National Association of Consumer Advocates, National Consumer Law Center on behalf of its low-income clients, Public Citizen, and Public Knowledge commend the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC” or “Commission”) for taking the initiative to help implement caller ID authentication. There is a wide consensus among experts, industry, and consumer groups that implementing such a system, which will allow callers to verify that their caller ID information is correct, will form the basis for a comprehensive solution to the problem of fraudulent call spoofing. However, the FCC must take additional steps to ensure that this system offers effective protection against illegal and unwanted calls.
- The FCC should direct voice providers to implement caller ID authentication by the end of 2018, at no cost to consumers.
- The FCC should direct voice providers to offer consumers the option of blocking calls that fail to verify their caller ID information, for no extra charge.
- All voice customers, including those using traditional wireline service, should have effective protections from fraudulently spoofed calls.
- The caller ID authentication system should protect consumers from fraudulently spoofed calls originating overseas.
- Consumers should be given the option of verifying the legitimacy of calls they make while withholding their personal identifying information from the call recipient.