March 19, 2025
How Organizational Identity Could Combat Telecom Fraud
Scammers have long used telephones to target potential victims. According to the Federal Trade Commission, phone calls were the second-most common way for fraudsters to contact consumers.
Fraud and robocall detection technology has improved over the years, but criminals have always found ways to evade security protocols. Recently, criminals have used robocalling and AI voice-cloning to trick people into sending them money or providing information that lets them commit identity fraud.
Now, industry leaders hope an emerging protocol called “organizational identity” will provide a new level of protection from fraud.
The Threat of Artificial Intelligence Voice Cloning
AI voice cloning is particularly concerning because it can replicate the voices of loved ones, politicians, celebrities, and colleagues. During the 2024 Democratic primaries, a political consultant used artificial intelligence to clone President Joe Biden’s voice. He used the cloned voice to spam the public with calls urging them not to vote.
Criminals can also clone the voices of loved ones to trick people. In one case, a woman received a call she believed was from her mother-in-law. Someone had cloned the mother-in-law’s voice to make it sound like she had been kidnapped. The criminal on the other end of the line said he wanted $500 in exchange for the relative’s life.
After paying the ransom, the woman called her father-in-law’s phone. He said that his wife was safely asleep in bed. It was a relatively small amount of money for a person’s life, but this shows how much havoc criminals can cause when they use artificial intelligence.
What Is an Organizational ID?
Organizational identity, also called “Entity Identity” by some organizations, is a proactive technology that ensures caller ID screens display accurate information about incoming call origins.
Organizational identity starts with robust Know Your Customer (KYC) policies that establish a trustworthy ecosystem within the telecommunications industry. For example, when a company signs up with a communications service provider, the service provider would confirm the company’s identity and create an ID associated with the company’s numbers.
Similarly, service providers could use the data encoded into STIR/SHAKEN authentication tokens to confirm client identities and dialing behaviors.
If the service provider notices that a client participates in abnormal dialing behaviors, it could further investigate the situation to determine whether numbers have been spoofed.
Ideally, all service providers would work with third-party authenticators to confirm client identities and monitor calls. This would create a system where all service providers, clients, and consumers could trust call sources.
Telecom service providers will need to invest in new technologies and infrastructure to meet the demands of organizational ID. Doing so, however, has the potential to increase public trust that has eroded over decades of fraud attempts.
Determining AI Proof-of-Life (PoL) ID
Organizational ID takes a significant step toward protecting consumers and giving organizations better control over their phone number reputations. However, the technology has a potential shortcoming that could benefit criminals. As Gerry Christensen, Caller ID Reputation’s Head of Regulatory Compliance, notes in a public comment to the FCC, Organizational ID “can represent virtually an infinite number of descriptions.”
The ability to include a nearly infinite range of descriptions makes Organizational ID a useful tool for practically all organizations. Even as the business and technology landscapes evolve, carriers can provide accurate information about all of their clients.
While essential, this flexibility could confuse consumers by bombarding them with overwhelming amounts of information. Any confusion on the consumer’s behalf creates an opportunity for fraudsters to target their victims.
Simplifying Caller ID Information With PoL ID
Christensen advocates for an additional protocol he calls “Proof-of-Life (PoL) ID.” PoL ID would give consumers straightforward information about whether calls originate from human dialers or bots. With this technology, caller ID screens would display simple graphics, such as a blue checkmark that indicates calls come from a human and a bot icon that indicates calls originate from AI dialers.
Combining Organizational ID and PoL ID offers the best of both worlds. Caller ID screens would show accurate, detailed information about a call’s source while warning consumers when those calls likely originate from bots. This easy-to-understand approach would enable all consumers to make quick decisions based on useful data.
Protect Your Phone Number Reputation From Telecom Fraud
Organizational ID and Proof-of-Life ID have the potential to protect consumers and organizations from AI-powered fraud. While early versions of these technologies exist, there’s still a lot of work to do.
You don’t have to wait for emerging security tools to take control of your outbound phone numbers. Caller ID Reputation makes it easy to monitor your phone numbers, get caller ID screenshots from real smartphones, and redress phone numbers that get incorrectly flagged as threats.
Create a free trial account to learn more about how Caller ID Reputation can monitor your numbers and help you reach more customers.
