The anti-spoofing regulation is intended to ensure that when an Austrian phone number is shown on the display, the calls “are actually made from Austrian connections,” said Klaus M. Steinmaurer, Managing Director of the Rundfunk und Telekom Regulierungs-GmbH (RTR) for the telecommunications department, in a statement.
Almost 8,000 complaints about telephone number misuse
More than 7,800 complaints about number misuse in the category “misuse of one’s own number” were registered with the RTR between January and the end of August, but it is assumed that the number of unreported cases is much higher. The regulation stipulates that Austrian operators must verify the calling phone number when calls are made from Austrian phone numbers from abroad. If verification is not possible, the calling phone number is suppressed on the display. “If it is certain that a so-called spoofing case has occurred, the call can be blocked altogether,” it said.
