As part of its ongoing battle against robocall scamming activity, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is now taking steps to stop illegal robocalls originating from outside of the U.S.
In a Sixth Report and Order issued in mid-May, the FCC moved to implement new rules applicable to so-called gateway providers, the key pathway for international call traffic. The rules require them to institute compliance measures and procedures to ensure compliance with the FCC’s STIR/SHAKEN called ID authentication protocols and to take additional steps to validate the true identity of the providers they service, including efforts to trace illegal robocalls to their source.
Gateway providers who fail to comply with these requirements may be subject to removal from the Robocall Mitigation Database as well as mandatory blocking by other network participants.
According to the FCC, international robocall scams represent a disproportionately large number of robocall and spoofing activities in the U.S. It cites statistics from the Industry Traceback Group that estimates that 65% of service providers found to be transmitting illegal robocalls were either based outside of the U.S. or were gateway providers.
Read the FCC’s Sixth Report and Order addressing unlawful robocalls originating from outside the U.S.
