Call blocking comes into force; more protection from nuisance calls 

Canadians will soon have access to a call-blocking system that better protects them against unsolicited and illegitimate calls.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) required telecommunications service providers to implement this system within their networks by December 19, 2019.

With the implementation of this system, calls with caller identification (caller ID) information that either exceed 15 digits or does not conform to a number that can be dialed (for example, 000-000-0000) will be blocked before reaching the subscriber.

Providers that offer their subscribers call-filtering services, which provide more advanced call-management features, will not have to implement call blocking.

“Canadians need to have the right tools to manage nuisance calls,” said Ian Scott, Chairperson and CEO of the CRTC.

“With the implementation of a call blocking system, calls that are malformed will be stopped within the network. At the same time, we are working with the industry on other tools to better protect Canadians from nuisance calls, including a process to alert them when the caller ID has been spoofed. ”

Filtering services, such as call blocking, provide consumers with services that could take certain actions to manage suspect nuisance calls on their behalf.

Call blocking is part of an array of measures tackling nuisance calls. The CRTC is working with telecommunications service providers to authenticate and verify the caller ID information and to trace nuisance calls back to their points of origin.

The CRTC asked telecommunications service providers to implement, by September 2020, the STIR/SHAKEN framework which is a caller ID authentication and verification measure.

Canadians should never provide personal information (such as banking information or Social Insurance Numbers) over the phone without first verifying whether the request is legitimate.