Spoofing – is the act of disguising a communication from an unknown source as being from a known, trusted source. Spoofing can apply to emails, phone calls, and websites, or can be more technical, such as a computer spoofing an IP address, Address Resolution Protocol (ARP), or Domain Name System (DNS) server. In the telecom world, toll free spoofing is when someone else is displaying your personal or business phone number for their needs to mislead others.
Powerful Stats:
8 Billion consumer calls per month
1,500 calls per second are Spoofed or SPAM
75% of business feel they miss important calls since they do not pick up the call from a toll free number
70% of legitimate calls from a toll free number are viewed as a nuisance or hi-risk
88% of business calls go unanswered
Fixes in the Works:
Toll Free Number Identity program – TFN Identity is a CNAM “naming” initiative. It will allow the terminating carriers to identify who is calling and pass that information to the called party. The called party will not receive a phone call from 1-800-987-0100, they will receive a call from “National ComTel” and the customer will be able to visualize on the phone’s screen the CNAM displayed. So a customer may better see who is calling and either accept or decline the call. Therefor, a nefarious company will not be able to load a company name and display a caller ID name. National ComTel has already begun to validate it’s customers and add them to the system through this new system.
Real Number – As a proven leader in registry management and data solutions, Somos has developed a proprietary Toll-Free Number Subscriber Authentication Service known as RealNumber. This solution works by validating the TNSP for Toll-Free Numbers based on the Responsible Organization (Resp Org) of Record.
Most of these “fixes” are in play, although not mandatory until June 2021, National ComTel has already completed it’s initial part in customer support and protection. Now the rest of the telecom world needs to join the party for our customers. Toll Free customer will be notified by their “local carriers” of the next steps.
