Goodbye to the Opt-Out Registry? Not entirely, but starting tomorrow, August 19th, consumers will get a long-awaited change: telephone operators themselves will automatically block nuisance calls disguised as calls from abroad.

A breakthrough in the fight against spoofing, the technique used by call centers and international scammers to mask their numbers by making an Italian landline appear on the recipient's display.

Starting tomorrow, network operators will automatically filter all international calls pretending to be from Italy, preventing them from reaching the user.

However, calls originating from abroad will remain active , recognizable by the correct international prefix (for example, +33 for France or +44 for the United Kingdom). In this initial phase, the system will only affect landline numbers, with the goal of extending it to mobile phones later.

Unfortunately, the problem is well-known: those calls often conceal fraudulent investment offers or deceptively presented energy contracts.

The real crackdown will kick in on November 19, 2025, when filters will also apply to spoofed Italian mobile numbers . The process will be more complex: companies will have to verify, by cross-referencing roaming data, whether the caller is actually abroad. If not, the call will be blocked. Non-compliant operators face fines of up to €1 million .

The measure, consumer associations emphasize, could prove more effective than the traditional Opposition Register, because it acts directly on the network infrastructure.

However, there remains one limitation : the filter will not stop domestic telemarketing, i.e. calls from authentic and registered Italian numbers.

(Unioneonline/Fr.Me.)