<story><title>The FCC has fined robocallers $208M and collected $7k</title><url>https://www.foxnews.com/tech/the-fcc-has-fined-robocallers-208-million-its-collected-6790</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>themagician</author><text>Can someone explain to me how spoofing is even possible and why it is allowed? That’s what I’ve never understood about this whole thing. Does it has any legitimate use?&lt;p&gt;Robocalls would be much easier to address if you could block&amp;#x2F;report the actual number they come from.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>zackmorris</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s because:&lt;p&gt;1) Caller id was conceptually flawed from the beginning so was implemented as an honor system instead of something required to communicate (like an IP address)&lt;p&gt;2) Caller id is unregulated, so there is no penalty for spoofing&lt;p&gt;My previous comment on it:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=19303931&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=19303931&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;From the linked article:&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Unlike phone numbers and domain name service (DNS), wherein there are internationally recognized databases that are authoritative sources, there is no central authority or regulation for caller ID. No FCC guidelines regulate carrier accuracy, and although federal regulations exist regarding telemarketers and spoofing, carriers can maintain their caller ID databases as they see fit.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.onsip.com&amp;#x2F;blog&amp;#x2F;how-caller-id-works-why-it-might-take-months-to-update&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.onsip.com&amp;#x2F;blog&amp;#x2F;how-caller-id-works-why-it-might-...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>The FCC has fined robocallers $208M and collected $7k</title><url>https://www.foxnews.com/tech/the-fcc-has-fined-robocallers-208-million-its-collected-6790</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>themagician</author><text>Can someone explain to me how spoofing is even possible and why it is allowed? That’s what I’ve never understood about this whole thing. Does it has any legitimate use?&lt;p&gt;Robocalls would be much easier to address if you could block&amp;#x2F;report the actual number they come from.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>eridius</author><text>AIUI spoofing is possible because the phone systems were designed back in the days when a single entity controlled the entire network and so everything just trusts everything else.&lt;p&gt;That said, I don&amp;#x27;t know why we still haven&amp;#x27;t fixed this. We&amp;#x27;ve had plenty of time. I guess the answer just comes down to it costs money to fix it and the phone companies historically haven&amp;#x27;t cared. Though at this point, given how many people outright refuse to answer numbers they don&amp;#x27;t recognize due to spammers, you&amp;#x27;d think the phone companies would be feeling financial pressure to work towards restoring trust in the phone system.</text></comment>