FYI AT&T cellular routing spoofed calls to AI?

[Jake]

I have a long time client that has for 10 plus years been spoofing a disconnected phone number to make outbound calls. This number is one digit outside of their assigned DID block. They do this as a way to prevent callbacks because they are a secure shelter. I only found out a few years ago they didn't actually own the number.

The reason for this is if they call with a blocked CID then people will not answer. I knew this setup would be a problem someday and the time has come.

Now when calling out to AT&T cell phones, at least the two that I tested, it will not ring the cell phone. However, the call does one of three things:

1) The call rings and then disconnects
2) A random voicemail prompt answers that is not associated with the phone
3) And the strangest is an AI bot will answer with a different voice each time and sometimes curse at you for calling them

I'm interested if anyone else has experienced this? Is it AT&T doing this or a strange routing issue?

It started over the weekend. And, yes, I've fixed the issue by changing our outbound number to one we do own and set the incoming destination for this number to "play no service message."

 

[atsak]

STIR/SHAKEN at work.

 

[kenn10]

Shelter or not, it is improper to transmit a caller-id number that does not belong to them. Your solution is the legitimate way to do this. It would likely be only a matter of time before the number they were using got reassigned to someone.

As to routing, I'm seeing more instances where non-dialable unassigned numbers are being rejected by various carriers but I would not expect to see them go to a voicemail not associated with the number.

 

[Bleistift]

If the number you're spoofing is in a non-existent prefix, the call is likely to be blocked either by your phone company or the destination phone company. I've found that BulkVS and VOIP.MS both block attempts to make outbound calls to numbers in non-existent prefixes.

You can check a prefix's existence by going to ... https://localcallingguide.com/lca_prefix.php ... and entering the area code (NPA) and the prefix (NXX).

For prefixes that do exist, both of those companies allow the call to go out. The calls complete without a hitch.

CID spoofing is legal in the USA unless it violates the Truth in Caller ID Act. This is from the FCC's Caller ID Spoofing Consumer Guide located at ... https://www.fcc.gov/sites/default/files/caller_id_spoofing.pdf :

When is spoofing illegal?
Under the Truth in Caller ID Act, FCC rules prohibit anyone from transmitting misleading or inaccurate caller ID information with the intent to defraud, cause harm or wrongly obtain anything of value.

 

[prynze]

That unassigned number is defo causing the issue. I use net2phone to play recorded messages, so you could use a business number you actually own and route calls straight to a recording. An auto-attendant can work if you need to handle callbacks differently. It may not fix AT&T’s weird AI responses, but it will eliminate the need to spoof a number.