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Telecom, tech and banks push national strategy, information sharing and tech solutions to curb scams
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Summary
Industry witnesses told the California Senate committee that existing traceback efforts, call authentication and private‑public partnerships help, but criminals adapt quickly; companies urged a national strategy, scaled information sharing and stronger cross‑border enforcement.
Representatives of the telecommunications, technology and financial sectors told the California State Senate committee they are investing in tools to detect and block scam activity but said broader coordination and policy changes are needed.
Josh Bercue, senior vice president for policy at USTelecom and executive director of the Industry Traceback Group, described industry efforts such as Traceback analyses and call authentication frameworks (STIR/SHAKEN). He said robocalls are down from peak levels but criminals have adapted, using shell providers and SIM‑box routing to obscure call origin. "For every new defense, whether technical measures or regulations, criminals find their workarounds," Bercue said, and called for a national strategy and a central coordinator to scale successful work.
Sean Farrell of Microsoft's Digital Crimes Unit described technical and information‑sharing efforts and offered to follow up on individual victim cases. He told the committee Microsoft processes massive telemetry and threat data and has developed browser protections to flag scareware pop‑ups similar to the tech‑support scam described in the hearing. "We receive about 78,000,000,000,000 security signals per day," Farrell said, and stressed stronger public‑private data sharing and clarity about legal authorities to exchange threat information.
Dylan Hoffman of TechNet said online platforms use automated account‑behavior signals, user education and enforcement to block malicious accounts and urged more formal cross‑platform information sharing. Darius Kingsley of JPMorgan Chase described bank prevention steps, branch education for seniors and participation in the Aspen Institute National Task Force on Fraud and Scam Prevention, a private‑sector effort that aims to release a unified national strategy by the end of 2025.
Industry witnesses repeatedly urged stronger cross‑border enforcement, clearer information‑sharing authorities, a centralized strategy and scaling existing technical measures that work today.
