ID Verification Will Definitely Stop Robocalls (how spoofing works)

Added: 2026-05-23

[00:00:00]Welcome back to another episode of Teddy's Cabin. The FCC has just proposed to rid the US of robocalls. A very noble endeavor that would involve enforcing telecom providers to use modern authentication protocols.

[00:00:13]Actually, no. That makes too much sense and this is the FCC we're talking about.

[00:00:18]It's going to be through ID verification. This proposal wants to force everyone to attach an ID to each mobile device that they purchase when they purchase it. This will save humanity from those dastardly phone scammers. Now, you're probably already aware that this is some stupid reasoning, but allow me to illustrate just how stupid this is. Spam calls originate from someone that is already verified. Typically, a business will feign legitimacy somehow and many providers already use their own know your customer policies for whoever buys a trunk. And the scammers can get past just fine by running a legit business up front while the scam business is hidden in a closet somewhere. But, even that doesn't matter because they're going to spoof their number anyway. The way spoofing works is that each telecom provider has something called a CNAM database. This is where caller ID comes from. Basically, it's a giant database of numbers associated to names. So, if a phone number gets marked as spam a bunch of times, the CNAM database will associate that number with a scam-likely caller ID. But, in the meantime, Microsoft's tech support number or Chase Bank's number will always show up as Microsoft or Chase. In a lot of VoIP clients, you have the option to set an outbound caller ID number. Sometimes it's called caller ID passthrough, but basically you can set this to any number you want. For a legit business, this is pretty useful because typically in a business, you have multiple different phones and instead of calling a client from a random number, you can always appear as if you're calling from the business's number. The reason this works is that most of the telephone network doesn't use authentication protocols to verify a real client matches their caller ID. It operates on an old protocol called SS7. SS7 basically just takes the caller ID signal and forwards it along. The provider of whoever you're calling matches the number to a caller ID in their CNAM database and that's how numbers get spoofed. And let me tell you something, it's a pain in the ass to deal with, especially if your number is the one being spoofed and calling random people. Because the only way to investigate it is to have the random person who got the call open a ticket with their carrier, and then the carrier has to go to the provider of the VoIP number, and then the VoIP provider has to do a SIP trace to find out where exactly the caller came from. And normally, if you're a regular-ass person and not a business, the carrier will just tell you to screw off. Don't ask me how I know. So, why does this matter?

[00:02:25]Why do you need to know all this? So, the robocall problem is basically just criminals exploiting a trust-based protocol, and the FCC's solution to this is attaching an ID to every phone that's purchased. But, spam calls have nothing to do with ID verification. They don't even relate. So, why does this matter?

[00:02:43]You know, what if you're one of the people that says, "Hey, I've got nothing to hide." Sure. In a just world, good versus evil, you might be correct. But, here's the problem. You don't decide if you have something to hide or not. Let's say a season detective shows up at your door to arrest you because an AI tool in a camera network that your tax dollars paid for falsely flagged your license plate in a crime you didn't commit. Or, let's say you're a woman who just left your ex-boyfriend, and that ex-boyfriend now uses the same camera network to track and stalk wherever you go. Neither of these victims had anything to hide, yet they were persecuted anyway. So, when the next yahoo comes along and says that ID verification is for your safety in defeating robocalls, you know exactly what's happening. I hope you guys got something out of this video. Links to my sources down below. I'll catch you guys in the next one.