Industry witnesses tell House traceback work and STIR/SHAKEN helped cut spoofing but gaps remain

Industry representatives told the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee that the combination of STIR/SHAKEN caller authentication, the TRACE Act and private traceback efforts has reduced many large-scale spoofing campaigns but has not eliminated scam calls and texts.

An industry traceback representative said the industry portal uses a hop-by-hop process to trace calls and that their efforts have identified thousands of providers across dozens of countries in investigations used by the FCC, FTC and state attorneys general. CTIA described its Secure Messaging Initiative as a cross‑sector effort to share actionable robotext data with law enforcement; it said the initiative has produced information packages on common scam themes and that carriers blocked tens of billions of texts last year.

Witnesses and members described operational limits: intermediary service providers can number in the thousands and may be registered with minimal vetting in the FCC's mitigation database, making accountability difficult. They said STIR/SHAKEN helped reduce spoofing-based mass robocalls, but fraudsters shifted to obtaining valid U.S.-based numbers or to more targeted campaigns, which the framework does not always prevent.

Committee members asked about concrete fixes. Witnesses recommended better vetting and consequences in the Robocall Mitigation Database (including bonding or stronger delisting consequences), faster international cooperation via MOUs and enhanced industry–bank partnerships to trace spoofed bank numbers and identify downstream victim transactions. They stressed that traceback, authentication and blocking are complementary tools that must be paired with enforcement.

No formal actions were taken at the hearing.