Caller ID Spoofing
On this page
- What is Caller ID spoofing?
- Is Caller ID spoofing illegal?
- How do I protect myself from spoofed calls?
- What else is the CRTC doing about it?
What is Caller ID spoofing?
Your caller identification display (Caller ID) normally indicates the phone number and name associated with the line used to call you. Caller ID spoofing is the act of altering the Caller ID displayed to the person receiving the call. Caller ID spoofing can be used for legitimate and illegitimate purposes.
Examples of legitimate use of Caller ID spoofing
- A call centre that places legitimate calls on behalf of clients and alters its Called ID information to display its client’s name and telephone number.
- A doctor calling to discuss a patient’s lab results may want to display the hospital’s general call back number as their Called ID to direct all future inquiries appropriately.
Examples of illegitimate uses of Caller ID spoofing
- Illegitimate telemarketers that change their Caller ID information to misrepresent themselves and to trick Canadians into answering the call.
- The Caller ID is altered to match the first 6-digits of your telephone number so that it looks like a local call, perhaps even from a neighbour in your area. This practice is often referred to as “neighbouring”.
- The Caller ID is altered to display your own telephone number. This practice is often referred to as “mirroring”.
- The Caller ID is altered to display the number of another individual and/or organization (i.e., pose as a recognizable brand or a government organization).
Is Caller ID spoofing illegal?
Telemarketers who make calls to Canadians are required to accurately identify themselves and their client. However, when telemarketers use technology to spoof their Caller ID to display inaccurate, false or misleading information, they are in direct violation of this requirement. As a result, each violation of the Unsolicited Telecommunications Rules can lead to fines of up to $1,500 per violation for an individual and up to $15,000 per violation for a corporation.
How do I protect myself from spoofed calls?
- Register your telephone number on the National Do Not Call List
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File a complaint about an unwanted telemarketing call
Note: If you suspect fraud, you can report it to your local police force or the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (1-888-495-8501), a national service jointly operated by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Ontario Provincial Police and the Competition Bureau.
- Check out our Telemarketing Consumer Alerts page to help you identify common problematic telemarketing campaigns that use Caller ID spoofing.
- Be cautious if you are asked to provide personal information (e.g., banking information, passwords). When in doubt, hang up and call the number on your bank statement or the organization’s website.
- Certain calling features may be available to you to block or filter unwanted and illegitimate telemarketing calls. Phone service providers and other parties have to provide information on the calling options and features available to help Canadians protect themselves from these calls. Read the Summary of Options Currently Available to Canadians to Manage Unwanted Calls.
What else is the CRTC doing about it?
Following a public consultation, we have issued a notice of consultation to better protect Canadians against unwanted and nuisance calls. The following measures are being implemented by phone service providers.
Traceback process
At our request, a telecommunications industry working group developed and deployed a call traceback process. The objective is to identify the origin of unwanted calls on the Canadian network, regardless of the type of technology used by the caller.
The end goal is to enforce the Unsolicited Telecommunications Rules by enabling corrective action to be taken at, or close to, the source of such calls.
Caller ID authentication and verification measure
We directed telecommunications service providers to implement a framework to authenticate and verify caller identification information for Internet Protocol (IP)-based calls.
This framework is called STIR/SHAKEN, which stands for Secure Telephony Identity Revisited/Signature-based Handling of Asserted information using toKENs.
The STIR/SHAKEN framework enables service providers to certify whether a caller’s identity can be trusted by authenticating and verifying the caller ID information for IP-based voice calls. This framework empowers Canadians to determine which calls are authenticated, reducing the frequency and impact of caller ID spoofing.
Presently, not all calls received will be authenticated due to a variety of reasons such as:
- network compatibility
- calls being not entirely performed over an IP-voice network
- complex call scenarios and the fact that only smartphones are able to display the STIR/SHAKEN information
More Canadians will be able to see the effect of the STIR/SHAKEN framework as service providers continue to:
- upgrade their network to IP technology,
- make compatible phones available to their customers
- improve their capacity to properly authenticate caller IDs
We expect STIR/SHAKEN, to partner with the analytical capacity of service providers to effectively protect Canadian consumers against fraudulent automated call systems and other similar nuisance calls.
Universal Call Blocking and Call Filtering
Phone service providers that are not already offering an opt-in call filtering system are required to block all calls with caller IDs that:
- exceed 15 digits, or
- are not dialable according to the North American Numbering Plan (For example, calls from the number “999-999-9999” would be blocked before reaching the subscriber).
The call filtering option, which can be offered as an alternative, should be able to detect suspicious calls and intercept them (either by sending them directly to voicemail or requesting the caller to provide an input on their phone keypad to reach the customer).
Industry Initiative
On December 9, 2021, we approved Bell Canada’s application to deploy its new call-blocking technology. The call-blocking system leverages artificial intelligence to analyze telecommunications traffic to flag anomalies that suggest possible fraudulent activity at the network level. The approval is a direct result of a successful trial period, during which more than 1 billion fraudulent calls were blocked.
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