| > I'm not specifically wanting call verification I'm wanting them to detail origin if they have it (they can use the callerID field to forward that information to me) or to refuse to route calls that are clearly spoofed. The phone company that provides you service simply does not have this information at the time of the call. They only know for certain who to bill. Changing this requires replacing a lot of deployed equipment. Furthermore, it is already illegal to spoof caller ID in the USA[1], and the UK[2] and elsewhere. You can indeed tell your phone company to reject calls without caller ID, and indeed from various switches. If one gets through, you will need to note the time that you received the call and file charges with the authorities. The phone company will then research the call, and produce for law enforcement who in fact made the call. > If the callerID is 0 then the phone company knows it's spoofed and can block it, but they don't get paid for that You are confused: The callerID field (aka "presentation number" in the UK) is in-band and transmitted by the calling station, the billing field is out-of-band and transmitted by the receiving station's "next hop". It is also not normally presented to the callee, although with a special kind of connection you can receive it. > when I look at the callerID display and it says my number I know that it's not possible You should contact law enforcement. This is a crime. > Are you telling me that at the point the company decides to carry a call from an external source they don't know if they're going to be able to bill that company for the call? Yes. Your phone company doesn't bill the caller. They only bill the other phone company that handed them the call. > Surely they know the network origin of the call The "network origin of the call" as you put it, is the phone company that handed them the call. It is not the person who dialled the number. Even if all of the phone companies are really one (limited) company, the individual switching offices don't send this information down with the call for efficiency reasons. > So when I get a foreign call centre spammer on the line the company knows at the very least that was forwarded to them from, let's say, France Telcom No. "The company" only knows the company that switched them the call. It takes research to work out who actually made the call that is normally distributed by separate offices because it's more efficient. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caller_ID_spoofing#United_Stat... [2]: http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/telecoms/policy/calling-lin... |