From the U.S. Government Accountability Office, www.gao.gov Transcript for: Fake Caller ID Schemes Description: This episode talks about the federal government's role combatting 'spoofing' phone scammers. Related GAO Work: GAO-20-153: Fake Caller ID Schemes: Information on Federal Agencies' Efforts to Enforce Laws, Educate the Public, and Support Technical Initiatives Released: December 2019 [ Background Music ] [ Andrew Von Ah: ] We as consumers can be vigilant certainly, and really just hang up the phone. Or don't answer it. [ Matt Oldham: ] Welcome to GAO's Watchdog Report, your source for news and information from the U.S. Government Accountability Office. I'm Matt Oldham. I don't know about you but some days I get up to four phone calls from scammers that appear to be calling from all over the country. And complaints to the Federal Communications Commission and Federal Trade Commission suggest these scam calls are a growing issue. With me is Andrew Von Ah, a Physical Infrastructure director, to talk about a GAO report reviewing federal efforts to combat fraudulent caller ID schemes. Thanks for joining me, Andrew. [ Andrew Von Ah: ] Glad to be here Matt. Thanks for having me. [ Matt Oldham: ] Could you talk about what spoofing is, and how it works? [ Andrew Von Ah: ] Well absolutely. And as you mentioned, we all get a lot of unwanted calls every day. I think I've had three already today. And what spoofing is, is when the caller ID that shows up is not the originating number. So it may show a name, sometimes it might be a local business or something like that, or it may show a number that looks familiar to you, it may have the same six digits or five digits as your number or some other number that looks familiar. And so it's inducing you to pick up the phone. [ Matt Oldham: ] So are there current laws against this activity? [ Andrew Von Ah: ] Well by itself it's not illegal. There are some legitimate purposes for spoofing. But it is illegal when it's used with the intent to defraud, cause harm, or wrongfully obtained anything of value. It's also considered an abusive telemarketing practice, and a violation of FTC regulations for telemarketers to be spoofing numbers. [ Matt Oldham: ] And then who takes a look at, or who enforces it when there are, cases of fraudulent activity or illegal telemarketing practices? [ Andrew Von Ah: ] So FCC enforces two different statutes that prohibit spoofing that's done with the fraudulent calls or to cause harm. FTC also enforces under, you know, unfair and deceptive business practices really those telemarketers that are using it in an abusive manner. And then, of course, DOJ will enforce the fraud statutes when it's with the intent to defraud a consumer. [ Matt Oldham: ] So then are these three facing any challenges as they try to discern what is illegal activity and what's legitimate? [ Andrew Von Ah: ] Well there are a number of challenges, and these agencies are coordinating and prioritizing their efforts. Certainly it's very cheap and easy to make these calls robocalls. You know there's software available. You know, there's millions of calls happening every day that are coming to our phones. There are tens of thousands of complaints being made. So the first challenge is just how do you figure out what's illegal, what's a problem, how do you prioritize. And so these agencies have coordinated to try to prioritize those scams that cause the biggest harm. The next challenge is once they start to investigate, it's hard to track down the perpetrator. It's very easy for those folks to change their numbers, to relocate. Many of these calls originate overseas, so they need to work with foreign jurisdictions to try to track them down. And then all that can be quite a challenge. [ Background Music ] [ Matt Oldham: ] So it sounds like DOJ, FCC, and FTC or handling enforcement of illegal spoofing. But their job can be difficult as they look for the sources of these spoofed calls, especially considering many of the calls come from overseas. Andrew, what can these federal agencies do differently to help combat this issue? [ Andrew Von Ah: ] Well, there's a few things that were mentioned that could help them to improve their enforcement. One was FCC enforces a couple of different statutes but they have different statutes of limitation so under one statute it's just one year, under another it's two years, so FCC would like those things to be harmonized. [ Matt Oldham: ] Is there anything that we can do? [ Andrew Von Ah: ] Well, we as consumers can be vigilant certainly, and really just hang up the phone. Or don't answer it. And then once we see that, there's you know, this is a call that we don't want, to block that number and there are a number of ways that you can do that. [ Matt Oldham: ] So then last question, what's the bottom line of this report? [ Andrew Von Ah: ] Well the bottom line is that federal agencies are doing about all they can do under current law, and within their resources to combat these calls. But there's you know one thing we haven't really talked about is another solution may lie with an industry initiative called STIR/SHAKEN which will start to identify legitimate caller ID information. This is a technological solution that holds a lot of promise to help lessen this problem, but will certainly require the cooperation from all of the carriers. And there are still some over technical challenges to overcome. [ Matt Oldham: ] Andrew Von Ah was talking about a GAO report reviewing federal efforts to tackle illegal caller ID spoofing. Thank you for time, Andrew. [ Andrew Von Ah: ] My pleasure. Thank you. [ Matt Oldham: ] And thank you for listening to the Watchdog Report. To hear more podcasts, subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts. And make sure you leave a rating and review to let others know about the work we're doing. For more from the congressional watchdog the U.S. Government Accountability Office, visit us at gao.gov.