In June and July, the Czech Telecommunications Authority (ČTÚ) will launch new measures in the fight against so-called spoofing – due to the misuse of a telephone number, the consumer has the impression that the fraudster is calling him from a real number of a bank, office, etc.
The regulator established two new conditions for the use of public telecommunications networks.
The first one, which will apply from July, is the evaluation of how the caller is marked in the signaling message of a call coming from abroad. “The analysis will evaluate whether the subscriber is not marked with a certain type of so-called Czech number (with prefix +420), and if so, the call will not be connected. The condition currently does not apply to mobile numbers that may be in roaming, and calls from abroad marked with such a number may be completely legitimate,” said office spokeswoman Tereza Meravá.
From June, the second condition will apply, which is aimed at calls initiated directly in the Czech Republic. “The addition enshrines the rules for what information (telephone number) the operator can insert into the signaling message to identify the calling party. Fulfillment of the condition should ensure that this designation always contains a real telephone number linked to a specific subscriber or electronic communications service and can be called back,” adds Meravá. According to the office, this will prevent situations where meaningless information is given.
Spoofing is the name given to a fraudulent practice where a phone number is misused in some way (via manipulation of a CLI parameter) – typically an institution such as a bank. The call to the potential scammer then appears to be from the number of this institution, and the scammer can extract sensitive information from the victim.
This type of fraud can harm even a person who would otherwise not just jump on something: if someone has a bank number saved in their mobile contacts, it looks as if the bank is really calling them. If you don’t have the number saved, you may – if you are very attentive – notice that it shows up with the international prefix +420. If the bank really called from the Czech Republic, the number without the prefix would be displayed.
editorial office of Peníze.CZ
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