Verizon to introduce tools to block robocalls, prevent scams

Verizon will soon provide free spam alerting and robocall blocking tools for wireless customers who have smart phones that can support the features, including Android and iPhones, a report in USA Today said.
Verizon said it had identified nearly 300 million numbers linked to spam and robocalling.
Last week, AT&T and Comcast said they can authenticate calls made between AT&T's Phone digital home phone service and Comcast's Xfinity Voice home phone service. The authentication method uses a "digital signature" to identify legitimate calls and filter out spoofed calls that may appear to come from familiar businesses, friends or other local callers.
AT&T and Comcast said they will roll out the system to home phone users later this year at no extra charge and AT&T said it will also bring the feature to mobile users this year.
Other home voice providers, including Sprint, Charter, Cox and Vonage too have pledged support the verification system.
T-Mobile currently offers the Caller Verified feature on six devices – Samsung Galaxy Note9, Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+, Samsung Galaxy S10e, Galaxy S10 and Galaxy S10+ – with two more to come.
The Federal Communications Commission has said if carriers fail to implement the system by year's end, it will consider regulatory action.
Charities and political campaigns using robocall is not illegal.
About 4.9 billion robocalls were received nationally in February, according to YouMail, a company that provides a service to block such messages.
Consumers are increasingly receiving spoofed calls that appear to come from legitimate customer care numbers. Scams make up at least 46 percent of all robocalls, YouMail says.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2019/03/26/verizons-free-robocall-blocking-tool-spam-alert-due-week/3275108002/