New phone regulations won’t stop scammers, tech expert says

A technology expert thinks new regulations that target scam phone calls won’t be as effective as planned.

The new Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission rules will require telephone companies to block “spoof” calls — those that use a fake number to appear legitimate.

Dave White, the co-founder of TRINUS Technology, thinks their intentions are good, but doesn’t think it’s a practical plan.

He told Brent Loucks that technology to automatically block these calls does exist, but it comes with a major flaw.

“You have to have co-operation on both ends of the call, from both telephone companies,” White said. “If a call is coming from outside Canada or the US, from some company or country that doesn’t use this new technology, then there’s no way they’re going to be able to identify accurately if this is a legit call or a spoof call.”

White still thinks the regulations are a step forward, but he doesn’t see them as the end-all-be-all solution.

White also has concerns about how the regulations will be perceived by the public.

“If they start promoting it as ‘Oh, we’ve got this new system, it’s blocking calls and it’s doing a great job,’ I think it’s going to lull people into a false sense of security,” he said.

“In fact, there are still going to be spoof calls coming in from other countries outside of Canada and the US.”

According to him, education is the best way to protect people from fraud.

“If you pick up the phone and you say ‘Hello,’ and there’s a delay and then it sounds like you’re connected to a call centre, it’s time to hang up immediately,” he explained.

“The other thing is that the police, Revenue Canada, the bank, Microsoft … they never ask for money over the phone. Keep your bank card in your wallet and never give any of that information out over the phone.”

Over-the-phone scams are far from uncommon, he added.

White shared that over 26 billion robo-calls were made in the first 10 months of 2019. In that same timeframe, Canadians were tricked out of approximately $17 million.

“I hate to say it, but it’s big business,” he said.