Even if there is thorough, mandatory KYC for VOIP services, we will just have robocalls being routed through simboxes filled with prepaid SIM cards. The whack-a-mole game will move there and the carriers will lose just like they do in Africa and the Middle East where people use them on a giant scale to arbitrage termination rates.

it would cost a lot of money, especially if carriers limit the number of numbers you can call each month before an additional charge (100-200 numbers / month then extra fee ?)

> You can get local phone numbers for a trivial amount of money

and companies that provides phone numbers them can also monitor suspicious traffic.

I remember that when I first opened an account at Callcentric, they froze it until their support could reach me to ask a few questions.

Now, I've had it for a few year, did just a few calls, and I no longer have to go through that to subscribe to more services.

On a slightly different topic, cloud providers have learned to keep their IPs clean, even if you can get some for cheap. They just check what you're doing.

So it can be done !

Anything like this would still have to be affordable enough for call centers and businesses. A pharmacy can easily have 10-20 lines: A few for the cash registers, a couple for the office, and a bunch for the pharmacy (they might still have a fax line too). It is easy to see how a call center or a large department store (wal-mart) might reach 100 lines.

And on top of that, you'd somehow have to make this international and get other folks to enforce this - and this is assuming the scam call centers are following the law in ways that the country in question can actually enforce.

I always like the sound of the simple solutions, but every time I get look into these details, I can understand why they don't just work.