By PETER HUSSMANN
A Maytag retiree checked the number on his caller ID and scratched his head. Why in the world would a call be coming to him from a former Maytag Company telephone number.
When he answered he found the reason. A telemarketer was using the telephone number to hide their real identity and skirt the "Do Not Call" telephone solicitation laws.
The man, who asked not to be identified, had been "spoofed."
Caller ID spoofing is the practice of causing the telephone network to display a number on the recipient's ID display that is not the actual originating telephone number. Caller ID spoofing can make a call appear to have come from any phone number the caller wishes the recipient to receive, like another Newton man wondering why the Jasper County Community Center was ringing him up.
Spoofing service providers act much like a pre-paid telephone calling systems. Customers pay in advance to allow them to make calls for a certain amount of time. Customers select the options they wish to use - telephone numbers to call and the number they wish to appear on the caller ID display - and the call is made.
Currently such services are legal in the United States. However, earlier this year the House of Representatives passed the "Truth in Caller ID Act of 2010" that makes it illegal "to cause any caller ID service to transmit misleading or inaccurate caller ID information, with the intent to defraud or deceive." Exemptions are included for law enforcement and the right to block one's own outgoing caller ID information. President Obama is expected to sign the measure.
For the time being, however, who's calling may not be who's calling.
Recent Comments