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Finally, the FCC is cracking down on caller ID spoofing

By Tiana Lowe Doescher

Published November 6, 2018 10:17pm ET

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Finally, the FCC is cracking down on caller ID spoofing — Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai announced last week that the FCC would roll back "net neutrality," which led to many complaints from Democrats. But they need to answer this: Why is it better for the federal government rather than customers to decide how networks should handle data? (Federal Communications Commission via Wikimedia Commons)

You get a call from a number with digits similar to your own, but when you pick up the phone, it’s clearly a robocall. And then, it happens again and again and again, until you stop answering calls that appear to be local.

This annoying phenomenon, which has somehow gotten even worse over the past few months, is known as caller ID spoofing. Technically, it’s already illegal, but the phone industry has turned a blind eye to these robocalls. Not anymore.

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Federal Communications Commission