The FCC is trying to stop robocalls, but the scammers won’t disappear

Published

4 years ago

September 18, 2021

admin

In this article

Rafael Abdrakhmanov | iStock | Getty Images

From fake social security calls to scammers impersonating Apple or Amazon, anyone with a cellphone or landline is no stranger to robocalls.

For decades, robocall scammers have graced phones and voicemails across the nation. Between June 2020 and 2021 these scams affected more than 59 million people who lost a combined $29.8 billion, according to phone number identification app Trucaller. Some robocallers look to sell legal products like a car warranty or new roof through illegal means, while others will steal your social security number or credit card.

In an effort to curb this longstanding problem, the Federal Communications Commission is requiring voice service providers to implement caller ID authentication standards via a set of industry rules known as STIR/SHAKEN. The FCC required large carriers like AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile to implement the standards by June 30, though smaller carriers, with under 100,000 customers, have an extension.

Simultaneously, voice service providers must submit a plan highlighting their robocall mitigation efforts in a recently launched database. If the plan isn’t in the database beginning Sept. 28, carriers will have to stop accepting calls from those providers.

STIR/SHAKEN is a good start to ending this ever-evolving issue of robocalls, and, while the updates will slow scammers down, experts say they won’t disappear.

“It’s a game of Whac-A-Mole,” said Paul Schmitt, a research computer scientist at the University of Southern California’s Information Sciences Institute. “Robocallers will find other ways to do what they want to do.”

What is STIR/SHAKEN?

STIR/SHAKEN refers to the set of industry rules requiring voice providers to authenticate that the call people receive is from the number displayed.

Attestation is the framework used for determining the legitimacy of the caller. It acts as a virtual signature indicating how confident a provider is that a caller is allowed to use a specific phone number. It’s broken down into three levels based on how much information the providers know about the caller, with the lowest level meaning the provider can verify where the call came from, but not the caller ID.

STIR/SHAKEN puts pressure on domestic carriers to increase their protected technology, create a database and will likely push illegal domestic robocalls out of the country, said Scott White, director of George Washington University’s cybersecurity program and cyber academy.

While it makes it harder to spoof or use false caller ID information to scam you, it’s not foolproof. The technology verifies that the original number is what shows up for the consumer, but scammers can falsify the number from the get-go. The system does not work on landlines.

When signing a call, some providers use the highest attestation without proper due diligence, said Josh Bercu, vice president of policy and advocacy at USTelecom, a trade group representing telecom companies. If the industry gets evidence of that, the provider could lose their ability to sign or attest.

“The industry hates these calls,” said Bercu. “We want to protect our subscribers, we’re doing everything we can and the impact is starting to really show itself.”

Fighting evolving robocalls

While STIR/SHAKEN can help crack down at home, the FCC has little jurisdiction abroad where many calls originate. The agency can work with international partners to catch scammers, but some countries won’t cooperate. Robocalls reel in billions of dollars in profits every year and many have found ways to use artificial intelligence or data to create targeted lists for scamming.

Some overseas scammers will purchase a block of numbers to make calls and disappear. Domestic scammers may use recent changes as an opportunity to move operations abroad where there’s less oversight, White added. Gateway carriers serve as the main form of entry into the U.S. for foreign calls but many operate outside the U.S.

The biggest issue is that robocalls are evolving faster than legislation can keep up, said White.

Next steps to ending robocalls

Robocalls are decreasing. In August, Americans received roughly 4.1 billion robocalls, down 4.4% from July, which decreased 4.8% from June, according to data from YouMail, a company that creates robocall blocking software.

YouMail is one of several third-party companies like Truecaller, RoboKiller and Hiya that offer spam-blocking software. YouMail’s CEO Alex Quilici, said the company can match audio to find repeat offenders, but only when they leave a voicemail.

Large telecom companies offer customers their own robocall blocking apps, with features like caller ID identification, personal blocklists and a number change. Some of these features cost customers an additional fee depending on their plan and provider.

A Verizon spokesperson said the company recently launched a social media campaign with a tech influencer to help consumers spot robocalls. Efforts to mitigate robocalls have led to 500 million fewer calls per month, they added. An AT&T spokesperson said the company labels 1 billion robocalls a month. T-Mobile verifies more than 300 million calls every weekday, a spokesperson said.

Bercu, the USTelecom VP, is working with both providers and the government on tracing back suspicious calls to shut down scammers. Another step is getting other countries to sign onto STIR/SHAKEN, said Eric Burger, a research professor of computer science at Georgetown University.

Despite concerns about its effectiveness, STIR/SHAKEN is not worthless legislation, said White. The process can help companies and the government do better analytics and gather information to use for the next attack.

“The people complained, and the government responded,” he said. “That’s what you want to see in a democracy.”

Technology

Google hires Windsurf CEO Varun Mohan, others in latest AI talent deal

Published

14 hours ago

July 11, 2025

admin

Google hires Windsurf CEO Varun Mohan, others in latest AI talent deal

Chief executive officer of Google Sundar Pichai.

Marek Antoni Iwanczuk | Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images

Google on Friday made the latest a splash in the AI talent wars, announcing an agreement to bring in Varun Mohan, co-founder and CEO of artificial intelligence coding startup Windsurf.

As part of the deal, Google will also hire other senior Windsurf research and development employees. Google is not investing in Windsurf, but the search giant will take a nonexclusive license to certain Windsurf technology, according to a person familiar with the matter. Windsurf remains free to license its technology to others.

“We’re excited to welcome some top AI coding talent from Windsurf’s team to Google DeepMind to advance our work in agentic coding,” a Google spokesperson wrote in an email. “We’re excited to continue bringing the benefits of Gemini to software developers everywhere.”

The deal between Google and Windsurf comes after the AI coding startup had been in talks with OpenAI for a $3 billion acquisition deal, CNBC reported in April. OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The move ratchets up the talent war in AI particularly among prominent companies. Meta has made lucrative job offers to several employees at OpenAI in recent weeks. Most notably, the Facebook parent added Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang to lead its AI strategy as part of a $14.3 billion investment into his startup.

Douglas Chen, another Windsurf co-founder, will be among those joining Google in the deal, Jeff Wang, the startup’s new interim CEO and its head of business for the past two years, wrote in a post on X.

“Most of Windsurf’s world-class team will continue to build the Windsurf product with the goal of maximizing its impact in the enterprise,” Wang wrote.

Windsurf has become more popular this year as an option for so-called vibe coding, which is the process of using new age AI tools to write code. Developers and non-developers have embraced the concept, leading to more revenue for Windsurf and competitors, such as Cursor, which OpenAI also looked at buying. All the interest has led investors to assign higher valuations to the startups.

This isn’t the first time Google has hired select people out of a startup. It did the same with Character.AI last summer. Amazon and Microsoft have also absorbed AI talent in this fashion, with the Adept and Inflection deals, respectively.

Microsoft is pushing an agent mode in its Visual Studio Code editor for vibe coding. In April, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said AI is composing as much of 30% of his company’s code.

The Verge reported the Google-Windsurf deal earlier on Friday.

WATCH: Google pushes “AI Mode” on homepage

Technology

Nvidia’s Jensen Huang sells more than $36 million in stock, catches Warren Buffett in net worth

Published

23 hours ago

July 11, 2025

admin

Nvidia's Jensen Huang sells more than million in stock, catches Warren Buffett in net worth

Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, holds a motherboard as he speaks during the Viva Technology conference dedicated to innovation and startups at Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris, France, on June 11, 2025.

Gonzalo Fuentes | Reuters

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang unloaded roughly $36.4 million worth of stock in the leading artificial intelligence chipmaker, according to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

The sale, which totals 225,000 shares, comes as part of Huang’s previously adopted plan in March to unload up to 6 million shares of Nvidia through the end of the year. He sold his first batch of stock from the agreement in June, equaling about $15 million.

Last year, the tech executive sold about $700 million worth of shares as part of a prearranged plan. Nvidia stock climbed about 1% Friday.

Huang’s net worth has skyrocketed as investors bet on Nvidia’s AI dominance and graphics processing units powering large language models.

The 62-year-old’s wealth has grown by more than a quarter, or about $29 billion, since the start of 2025 alone, based on Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index. His net worth last stood at $143 billion in the index, putting him neck-and-neck with Berkshire Hathaway‘s Warren Buffett at $144 billion.

Shortly after the market opened Friday, Fortune‘s analysis of net worth had Huang ahead of Buffett, with the Nvidia CEO at $143.7 billion and the Oracle of Omaha at $142.1 billion.

Tesla to officially launch in India with planned showroom opening

Published

1 day ago

July 11, 2025

admin

Tesla to officially launch in India with planned showroom opening

Elon Musk meets with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Blair House in Washington DC, USA on February 13, 2025.

Anadolu | Anadolu | Getty Images

Tesla will open a showroom in Mumbai, India next week, marking the U.S. electric carmakers first official foray into the country.

The one and a half hour launch event for the Tesla “Experience Center” will take place on July 15 at the Maker Maxity Mall in Bandra Kurla Complex in Mumbai, according to an event invitation seen by CNBC.

Along with the showroom display, which will feature the company’s cars, Tesla is also likely to officially launch direct sales to Indian customers.

The automaker has had its eye on India for a while and now appears to have stepped up efforts to launch locally.

In April, Tesla boss Elon Musk spoke with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss collaboration in areas including technology and innovation. That same month, the EV-maker’s finance chief said the company has been “very careful” in trying to figure out when to enter the market.

Tesla has no manufacturing operations in India, even though the country’s government is likely keen for the company to establish a factory. Instead the cars sold in India will need to be imported from Tesla’s other manufacturing locations in places like Shanghai, China, and Berlin, Germany.

As Tesla begins sales in India, it will come up against challenges from long-time Chinese rival BYD, as well as local player Tata Motors.

One potential challenge for Tesla comes by way of India’s import duties on electric vehicles, which stand at around 70%. India has tried to entice investment in the country by offering companies a reduced duty of 15% if they commit to invest $500 million and set up manufacturing locally.

HD Kumaraswamy, India’s minister for heavy industries, told reporters in June that Tesla is “not interested” in manufacturing in the country, according to a Reuters report.

Tesla is looking to recruit roles in Mumbai, job listings posted on LinkedIn . These include advisors working in showrooms, security, vehicle operators to collect data for its Autopilot feature and service technicians.

There are also roles being advertised in the Indian capital of New Delhi, including for store managers. It’s unclear if Tesla is planning to launch a showroom in the city.