Bell asks CRTC for ‘urgent’ approval to block Wangiri calls

BCE Inc. has filed an application with the CRTC asking it for “urgent expedited and ex parte approval” to block so-called Wangiri — one-ring phone scam — calls, saying doing so would allow the company to better address high call volumes caused by the country’s collective social distancing. It’s asking the regulator for permission to block the calls until June 1, or “such other date that the Commission determines that the extraordinary circumstances associated with the COVID-19 crisis has ended.” Bell said in a Part 1 application that call volumes are at an unprecedented level while Canadians are working from home as part of the country’s response to the COVID-19 virus. By giving Bell permission to block the scam calls, “the Commission can assist in removing considerable volumes of fraudulent calls from our networks so that this capacity can be dedicated to the legitimate interests of legitimate users.” It said it’s looking to block Wangiri fraud calls, or those in which bad actors target mobile subscribers and let the phone ring once or twice before hanging up. “They hang up in the expectation that the call recipient in Canada will be intrigued enough about the incoming call, which appears to them to originate in an overseas location, that they will call the originating telephone number appearing on their call display back,” Bell’s application explained. The scammer subscribes “to a number of premium service lines comparable to 900 services in countries, such as Vanuatu, Tonga or Western Samoa,” Bell said. When the victim returns the call, the scammer tries to keep them on the line as long as possible. “Because payment for such premium services is based on minutes, the longer the duration of the inbound call from Canada to that foreign jurisdiction, the more revenue generated by the Wangiri fraudsters,” Bell outlined. Jonathan Daniels, Bell’s vice-president of regulatory law, told a Parliamentary committee earlier this month that would allow the company to identify and block an additional 120 million fraudulent calls a month. It said the technology it would use to block the calls would be the same as that it described in a confidential filing, as part of its application asking the CRTC for permission to begin a three-month trial of artificial intelligence-based blocking technology. “We can confirm that there have been a number of alarming developments with adverse impacts on our networks,” Bell said. It outlined that on any given day last week it recorded anywhere from more than 500,000 to 2.2 million such calls being placed on any given day. “This is an extraordinary period in Canadian telecommunications. Canadians, businesses and governments have never before relied on our networks to the extent they are as we all try to do our part to engage in social distancing to blunt the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Bell said. “By granting us permission to block demonstrable and confirmed instances of Wangiri fraud, the Commission would enable us to materially improve the network experience for all Canadians by removing illegitimate fraudulent call volumes.”

Bell asks CRTC for ‘urgent’ approval to block Wangiri calls

Brief | March 26, 2020

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Bell asks CRTC for ‘urgent’ approval to block Wangiri calls

Brief | March 26, 2020

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