Cullen International’s research shows that more national regulators across Europe are acting against spoofing practices, which can undermine end users’ trust in telecommunications services.

Fraudsters often illegally manipulate their calling line identifier (CLI) to make their calls or SMS appear coming from a number which their victims trust, while the call is really made from another number or even from abroad.

Telecoms regulators are using different tools to tackle this issue.

Out of the 15 European countries covered in this updated research, eight now impose obligations to block incoming international calls that have a national CLI.

These rules just entered into force in 2024 in Belgium, the Czech Republic, Ireland, Malta, and Sweden.

Six countries adopted a do-not-originate registry, collecting numbers that can never be used for outgoing calls. 

France implemented the STIR/SHAKEN protocol in October 2024, to authenticate CLIs for VoIP calls using a national fixed number. 

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