Overview
- From November 19, Italian operators must auto-block foreign-origin calls that present as Italian mobile numbers if rapid checks fail on number existence, operator assignment, or current roaming location.
- AGCOM warns the clampdown will cut, not erase, nuisance and fraud calls, with legal domestic telemarketing, non-Italian caller IDs, and in-country spoofing still reaching users.
- Noncompliant carriers risk suspension of incoming roaming to Italy until they deploy the required verification measures, with advance notice to affected customers mandated.
- The move follows an August filter that largely neutralized spoofed Italian fixed-line numbers, after which illicit call centers pivoted to falsified mobile IDs.
- AGCOM estimates roughly 50 million spoofed mobile-number calls per month within a problem sized by consumer groups at about 15 billion unwanted calls a year, and it is preparing a third phase targeting satellite and machine-to-machine ranges.