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Apple wants iPhones to be able to detect spoofed call info

Apple has filed for a patent (number 20180295140) for the “detection of spoofed call information.” It would allow an iPhone to tell if an incoming call was from a spoofed number. If so, it would warn you before you answer the call.

Caller ID spoofing is the practice of causing a telephone network to indicate to the receiver of a call that the originator of the call is a station other than the true originating station. For instance, a caller ID display might display a phone number different from that of the telephone from which the call was actually placed.

Here’s Apple’s summary of the invention: “The mobile device checks parameters using templates to evaluate a consistency of the invitation with respect to a database in the mobile device. The templates include session protocol, network topology, routing, and social templates. 

“Specific template data includes standardized protocol parameters, values from a database of the mobile device and phonebook entries of the mobile device. Examples of the parameters include capabilities, preconditions, vendor equipment identifiers, a hop counter value and originating network information. 



“The originating network information may be obtained from the database by first querying an on-line database to determine a network identifier associated with caller identification information in the invitation. Then, the obtained carrier identifier is used as an index into a database to obtain template data characteristic of the identified originating network.”

Of course, Apple files for — and is granted — lots of patents by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. Many are for inventions that never see the light of day. However, you never can tell which ones will materialize in a real product.

Dennis Sellers
the authorDennis Sellers
Dennis Sellers is the editor/publisher of Apple World Today. He’s been an “Apple journalist” since 1995 (starting with the first big Apple news site, MacCentral). He loves to read, run, play sports, and watch movies.