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AT&T and TransUnion Launch a Branded Caller display with Logos

In an effort to protect companies from phone call spoofing, AT&T and TransUnion announced a program Tuesday to allow businesses to tag outgoing calls so a brand name and logo will appear on the wireless phone of the person who receives the call.

STIR/SHAKEN is used to verify that the number was not illegally spoofed.

According to AT&T, if a business is participating in the program, the telecom’s wireless customers will be able to easily recognize and have more confidence in the identity of the caller, which helps those customers decide more accurately which calls they want to answer.

“We’re obsessed with giving our customers secure and trusted calls, so we’re excited to work with TransUnion for a richer, more helpful visual experience,” AT&T Senior Vice President of Mass Markets Product Management Erin Scarborough said in a statement.

She continued: “And because we use STIR/SHAKEN authentication,” she said, “our clients will be able connect with greater trust to the brands that they may need or want to connect with.”

Restoring Trust to Phone Calls

The FCC explains on its website STIR/SHAKEN as acronyms for Secure Telephone Identity Revisited(STIR)and Signature-basedhandling of Assertedinformation Using Tokens (SHAKEN). It means that caller identification can be “signed off” by originating phone companies and validated before it reaches consumers.

STIR/SHAKEN validates digitally the handoff of calls that pass through the complex webs of networks. This allows the phone company receiving the call, to verify if the caller is the one displayed on the Caller ID.

TruContact Branded Call Display technology developed by TruContact will display logos of businesses participating in the anti-spoofing programme on consumer phones. Neustar.

“The delivery of Branded Call Display logos represents the culmination of years of collaboration between AT&T and Neustar, now part of TransUnion,” TransUnion Senior Vice President and General Manager for TruContact Communications Solutions James Garvert said in a statement.

He continued: “We’ve delivered caller identification for landlines and evolved to the first-generation of branded calls, and now, we’ve laid the groundwork for Branded Calls display logos.” This is helping to restore trust in the telephone, which protects both consumers and enterprises.

Great TransUnion Purchase

Liz Miller, Vice President and Principal Analyst with Constellation ResearchCupertino is home to a technology consulting and research firm.

“This is exactly where Neustar played — at the intersection of security and brand security, looking to turn brand security into a conversation point,” she told TechNewsWorld.


She said that brands are examining the damage that a weak security posture can do to their brand’s value proposition. Expect to see more solutions and services like this as Neustar’s thought leadership and capabilities become more integrated into TransUnion products.

Jack E. Gold founder and principal analysts with J.Gold AssociatesAn IT advisory company from Northborough in Massachusetts pointed out that only companies who wish to be affiliated with the program can participate.

He told TechNewsWorld that the reason people want to identify themselves is so they will pick up their phone when they do call. “If I receive a phone call from someone I do not know with a unknown caller ID, I will not pick up the call.” It’s that bad.”

Wily Adversaries

It has been noted that the problem of call spoofing dates back a long time. Jeff KaganTechNewsWorld spoke with, a Marietta-based technology analyst.

“It really went into high gear with new technologies like wireless and VoIP — Voice Over Internet Protocol,” he said. “Anyone can be tricked by someone who can use any telephone number, whether it is VoIP or wireless.”

He said that new technology could do great things but also bad things.

The FCC released STIR/SHAKEN technology in March 2020 to address these “bad things”, but the technology’s adoption has been slow. Gold said that STIR/SHAKEN required upgrading phone systems. There’s still a lot old equipment around. This is especially true outside the U.S. because the FCC doesn’t have the authority to regulate it.

He added, “It is not something that you can upgrade over night.”


Furthermore, carriers and regulators are also dealing with an elusive adversary. Miller said that “bad actors are much better at this than people give them credit for.”

She continued, “They are exceptional at using technology to do everything, from setting up false numbers faster than they could be taken down to impersonating other people, using fake number, faking a local number, and jumping into gaps in global security measures.”

Fraudsters are able to make 10 times more bad things than good, she said.

Mexican Prison Telephone Scam

The United States is still ahead of the rest in its efforts to combat call spoofing. John Strand, of John Strand of Strand Consult, a Danish consulting company with a specialization in telecom.

“I work globally, and I must say that the responsibility shown by the FCC and the American carriers — with few exceptions — is unique,” he told TechNewsWorld. “In the majority of countries, operators don’t do anything. “We are not talking about anything.”

“Spoofing costs serious companies lots of money. It’s a much larger problem than people realize,” he said. It makes communication with customers more complex and expensive. Spoof emails are spam on steroids.”

Kagan said that in today’s world every user must be suspicious of every contact, whether they are a business or a consumer. Always assume that it is a criminal trying to enter.

A retired family member recalled receiving a call saying their grandson was being held in jail and they needed cash to escape. The family transferred thousands of dollars, only to discover later that the grandson was safe at home.

Kagan says that there are times when these calls can be legit, but it’s not worthwhile to trust and get burned.