AgCom's second block against nuisance calls: what changes
Three months ago came the Authority's first intervention against aggressive telemarketing
by Lorenzo Pace
A new step against harassing phone calls. As of today, the second intervention by AgCom, the Communications Regulator, against aggressive telemarketing is active. The stop will concern commercial calls from fake Italian mobile numbers. Last 19 August, on the other hand, came the one against fake Italian fixed numbers.
How it works
From today, therefore, calls from abroad using an Italian mobile number will undergo an immediate technical check that will make it possible to understand whether that number really exists, to whom it is assigned, and where it is located. The system will ascertain to which operator the number belongs through the national portability database, using the actual location of that numbering. Thus, it will recognise whether the call is legitimately roaming from abroad or whether the number has been spoofed. Calls that do not pass these checks will be automatically blocked
Spoofing in Italy
An important test to see whether the new rules will be able to limit the 15 billion unwanted calls that, Codacons estimates, Italians receive on their phones every year. A EUR 3 billion turnover.
The phenomenon is called 'spoofing' and consists of the manipulation of the information carrying the identity of the caller (the so-called Cli) in order to prevent it from being identified and retrieved (the user displays a number that does not correspond to the person who actually originated the call).
Calls that will endure
"Unwanted calls will decrease, but they will not totally disappear - warns Codacons - calls from legal call centres operating from Italy, those from abroad with non-Italian numbers, those using fake Italian numbers but actually leaving from the national territory, and calls from foreign landline numbers that actually exist will continue to arrive. Finally, one has to consider the countermeasures to be taken by illegal call centres, which use increasingly sophisticated technologies to circumvent blocks and bans and target users'.
