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12 Major Telephone Companies Pledge to Fight Robocalls With New Technology

As part of an agreement with 51 attorneys general, the companies will take several measures, including implementing call-blocking technology.

Finally some good news is calling: Twelve of the country’s largest telephone companies have promised to help stop robocalls as part of an agreement brokered between the industry and 51 attorneys general to combat the epidemic. The companies, including T&T, Comcast, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon, said they would implement new call-blocking technology to combat the robocallers, offer free anti-robocall tools, and deploy a new system that would label calls as real or spam, according to The Washington Post.

The new technology, known by the acronym STIR/SHAKEN, aims to put an end to spoof callers who rang U.S. customers 4.7 billion times in July alone. Fraudsters aim to get victims to give out personal information or pay fees by claiming they can help lower credit-card interest rates or health insurance. There are no official regulations, and no date was announced for the beginning of the agreement.