Spoofing is when a caller deliberately falsifies the information transmitted to your caller ID display to disguise their identity

Robocalls are when you receive a call and hear a recorded message instead of a live person.

Robocalls and spoofing have been a problem for a while and keeps getting worse.

Effective June 30, the FCC implemented a new technology to cut down on the calls uses a technology called Stir/Shaken. "STIR/SHAKEN is a framework of interconnected standards. STIR/SHAKEN are acronyms for the Secure Telephone Identity Revisited (STIR) and Signature-based Handling of Asserted Information Using toKENs (SHAKEN) standards. "

From the New York Times,
"In short, the F.C.C. is trying to make sure that if you’re getting a call, the network on which it is being made is verifying the caller."

"The F.C.C.’s first step was setting a June 30 deadline for what it calls “voice service providers” (you know them as phone companies) to register their efforts to reduce the scourge of scams in a public Robocall Mitigation Database. So far, more than 1,500 of them have, the F.C.C. said.

Starting on Sept. 28, phone companies must refuse calls from providers that have not registered with the F.C.C."

"The carrier uses the STIR/SHAKEN technology to create a digital signature that authenticates the number’s path from start to finish."
...
“At the end they can say ‘Ah, this call is actually from this number,’” he said. “There is end-to-end verification, which gives you insight into the caller and how legitimate they are.”

According to Jim McEachern, the principal technologist for Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions, “The key thing here is it was never intended to be a silver bullet,” he said, speaking of the F.C.C.’s new push with Stir/Shaken. “It was intended to be a tool to help.”

We can only hope this new technology helps. It does appear that our robocalls/spoofs have gone down in the past week but we'll wait and see.

The robocallers/spoofers will be working on ways around this new technology. Just recently the FCC issued a $225 million fine against a health insurance telemarketer for spoofed robocalls. Will it make a dent? It remains to be seen.