Toward authenticated caller ID transmission: The need for a standardized authentication scheme in Q.731.3 calling line identification presentation

Abstract

The rising prevalence of phone fraud is hurting consumers and businesses. With about a half million reports each year in the United States, phone fraud complaints have more than doubled since 2013. In the current calling line identification presentation scheme, the caller ID is trivially spoofed. Scammers are using spoofed caller IDs to trick their victims into answering unwanted calls and further a variety of scams. To provide a solution to this problem, this paper proposes an authentication scheme that provides the possibility of a security indicator for the current Q.731.3 calling line identification presentation supplementary service. The goal of this proposal is to help prevent users from falling victim to phone impersonation scams, as well as provide a foundation for future defenses to stop unwanted calls based on the caller ID information. This work will help to guide the future development of a standardized scheme in authenticating SS7 identities.