STIR/SHAKEN has been implemented, why am I still receiving robocalls?

If you’ve ever received a robocall from an unknown source, you know how annoying it can be. Robocalls are a massive problem, Americans receive millions of them everyday, personally it is not even irregular for me to receive two or more a day. Thankfully, the FCC has taken note and requires all carriers to participate in the STIR/SHAKEN protocol, which is intended to stop call spoofing.

Blocking Robocalls with STIR/SHAKEN

STIR/SHAKEN is a cheeky forced acronym, STIR standing for “Secure Telephony Identity Revisited”, and SHAKEN standing for “Signature-based Handling of Asserted information using toKENs”. These two services work together to sign and verify the identities of callers, as Caller ID by itself is not secure, and can be easily spoofed. Have you ever received a spam call, called back, and talked to the actual phone number’s owner? It is really unfortunate that it has taken this long to address this annoying security gap, but thanks to the FCC and the power granted to them via the TRACED ACT, all US carriers were obligated to implement STIR/SHAKEN by June 30, 2022. Of course there are still loopholes being used by scammers, but the protocol is in place. If you have a compliant phone, you can see this for yourself via the mark for a verified phone call.

The Truth About Robocalls

Robocalls are illegal and annoying. With the advent of STIR/SHAKEN, we are on the path to eliminating them entirely, but it is obvious that scammers and unsavory businesses are still spoofing numbers. Spoofing prevents plain call blocking from working, because the bad actor can simply select a new number to circumvent any call blocking a user has in place. This makes it really difficult for reputation based call blocking as well, as reporting a spoofed number can negatively impact the number’s true owner too. Loopholes are gradually being addressed, international calls have always been difficult, due to the number of involved parties, but they too must be compliant with STIR/SHAKEN on June 30, 2023.

How to Block Robocalls

With my phone, I have noticed that the vast majority of spam calls do not pass the STIR/SHAKEN verification. I would like to block all non-verified calls from reaching my phone, but as of yet I haven’t found a way that works for me personally. As an Android user, I have done some poking around and noted that for Android 11+ the STIR/SHAKEN verdict is available to applications. I finally found an application that specifically blocks non-verified calls, but won’t recommend it. The app comes with many call blocking tools, but considering my phone already comes with them I don’t see the point. As well, I think this niche would be better served as a feature that is part of the cell phone, or a small open source app that is specifically for blocking non-verified calls.

Getting Started with Blocking Robocalls

Other websites have said that using the “block unknown numbers” setting should also block unverified calls, but again this hasn’t worked on my phone. YMMV, perhaps better than in my case, so here is that setting location for both Android and iPhone.

Android

iPhone

Conclusion

In conclusion, STIR/SHAKEN Caller ID Verification is an important protocol that has been implemented by US carriers to address the issue of robocalls and call spoofing. While the protocol is not perfect and scammers are still finding ways to circumvent it, it is a significant step forward in preventing illegal and annoying robocalls. With compliant phones, users can now see the mark for a verified phone call, which provides greater assurance that the call is coming from a legitimate source. While blocking non-verified calls is not yet possible on all phones, it is an area that will likely see more development in the future. In the meantime, there are still some ways to block robocalls, such as turning on the “Block calls from unknown numbers” setting on Android or the “Silence Junk Callers” setting on iPhone. By taking advantage of these features, we can continue to fight back against robocalls and make our phones a more peaceful and productive part of our lives.

#Cellular #STIR/SHAKEN #Robocalls