I mean there is something like that. It’s called a phone number. Problem is, that the way it was thought out is not the way it works today.
(My knowledge is a few years old, so please correct me if I’m wrong)
That said, the way it works is like this:
Your phone connects to your phone provider with your number and says: “Here I am, please route calls to me.” Or “Please route this call to number XYZ.” The provider then forwards it either to the next hop in the direction of XYZ or directly to XYZ’s provider. In the end the call lands at XYZ’s phone and the call begins. Great stuff.
But today it works a bit differently due to the way those companies “just trust” each other.
A malicious actor with a weird (malicious) provider just says: “This is my number, route a call to XYZ.” And then just provides a wrong number and instead of stopping them, the provider just routes it. And all the other providers trust them and just route the call normally.
If phone providers would just block list all traffic of malicious providers, all of this would last maybe a month and there would be no more scam calls from spoofed numbers. And afterwards providers could say to other providers “there is scam traffic coming from you with number XYZ, stop that or I won’t route your traffic.” and then call scams would just cease to exist in a year.
Even worse, malicious actors can register your number with one of those providers. Then the provider will tell the others and they will be like “well if you say so…” and just forward your calls to the wrong person.
(Yes, there is lots of wishful thinking in this comment, but let me dream of a better world)
I mean there is something like that. It’s called a phone number. Problem is, that the way it was thought out is not the way it works today.
(My knowledge is a few years old, so please correct me if I’m wrong) That said, the way it works is like this:
Your phone connects to your phone provider with your number and says: “Here I am, please route calls to me.” Or “Please route this call to number XYZ.” The provider then forwards it either to the next hop in the direction of XYZ or directly to XYZ’s provider. In the end the call lands at XYZ’s phone and the call begins. Great stuff.
But today it works a bit differently due to the way those companies “just trust” each other.
A malicious actor with a weird (malicious) provider just says: “This is my number, route a call to XYZ.” And then just provides a wrong number and instead of stopping them, the provider just routes it. And all the other providers trust them and just route the call normally. If phone providers would just block list all traffic of malicious providers, all of this would last maybe a month and there would be no more scam calls from spoofed numbers. And afterwards providers could say to other providers “there is scam traffic coming from you with number XYZ, stop that or I won’t route your traffic.” and then call scams would just cease to exist in a year.
Even worse, malicious actors can register your number with one of those providers. Then the provider will tell the others and they will be like “well if you say so…” and just forward your calls to the wrong person.
(Yes, there is lots of wishful thinking in this comment, but let me dream of a better world)