What are telephone providers doing to stop scams?

We've all been there, in the middle of dinner and we get a scam call. For most of us, the signs of a scam are obvious, it appears our Amazon account or credit card has been compromised.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) says that about 25 percent of all calls sent in Canada today are scam calls.

In the United States people lost $29.8 billion in phone scams last year alone.

We reached out to Telus, Rogers, and Bell and asked them what they are doing to protect their customers.

Telus told us that the "fraud team at TELUS is closely monitoring the situation related to the increase in reports of phone scams, including calls using the "spoofing" technique where fraudsters replace their phone number with a local number or one from a trusted source."

Rogers said, "We know receiving unwanted calls is frustrating for our customers and we have been working closely with the CRTC and industry partners to combat them, including implementing this new feature by the end of this month to let our customers know if the caller can be trusted. This new technology is one way we are addressing unwanted calls and we continue to work on an array of solutions."

Bell told us, "Bell supports the CRTC’s various efforts to protect Canadians from the harmful effects of nuisance, fraud and mis-identified voice calling, including the November 30 implementation of STIR/SHAKEN, just one of many such protective measures."

As per new CRTC regulations, as of November 30 carriers will implement "STIR/SHAKEN", a technology that allows customers to verify whether the phone number is trustworthy.

STIR/SHAKEN is a suite of protocols and procedures intended to combat caller ID spoofing on public telephone networks.

The safest thing to do is not answer any calls from people you don't know.