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People rely on the caller ID information they see on their phones when they decide whether to answer a call. It tells them who is calling, so they can decide whether to take the call then or call back later.
If the caller ID on your phone reads “Microsoft Support 1-800-555-1212” or something similar, you assume the person on the other end of the line is from Microsoft. Caller ID lends legitimacy to the caller. Many people don’t realize that scammers use Voice Over IP technology and other tricks to fake or spoof caller ID information in the hope of acquiring credit card numbers or other personal information.
Scammers use caller ID spoofing to make their scams believable.
How Scammers Spoof Caller ID Information
Scammers spoof caller ID information in several ways. One of the most popular ways is through the use of internet-based caller ID spoofing service providers. These spoofing services can be purchased cheaply.
A Typical Spoofing Scenario
The typical Caller ID spoof works like this:
The person (scammer) who wants to conceal their number logs in at a third-party spoofing service provider website and submits payment information.
Once logged in to the site, the scammer provides their real phone number. They then enter the phone number of the person (victim) they are calling and provide the fake information that they want the caller ID to display.
The spoofing service calls the scammer back at the provided phone number, calls the intended victim's number, and bridges the calls together along with the spoofed caller ID information. The victim sees the fake Caller ID information as they pick up the phone and are connected to the scammer.
The Effectiveness of Spoofing Caller IDs
Caller ID spoofing can be an incredibly effective tool for scammers. The Ammyy scam, where victims received phone calls from scammers claiming to be from Microsoft support, was a huge scam that bilked people out of millions of dollars worldwide.
The Ammyy scam wouldn’t have been nearly as effective if it weren't for Caller ID spoofing. When Ammyy scam victims answered the phone, most of them looked at the Caller ID to see that Microsoft was calling them, and many of them believed it.
Pretexting as a Scamming Technique
The scamming technique used in the Ammyy scam is known as pretexting. Pretexting occurs when someone creates an artificial scenario so they can mask their true intentions under the guise of something that is not threatening. The pretext usually involves developing credibility so that the scam is acceptable and believable.
A real-world example of establishing false credibility for pretexting occurs when someone uses a police uniform to pass themselves off as a police officer to gain access to a section of a building that is normally off limits.
Caller ID in scams is used in the same manner as a phony police uniform is in the real world. When people determine a caller’s identity, all they have to go by is who the person says they are and who the caller ID says they are. If this information matches, most reasonable people believe the pretext and some of them end up as victims of a scam.
![Fake Caller Id Fake Caller Id](/uploads/1/2/5/5/125579298/338999394.png)
Is Spoofing Caller ID Information Legal?
In the U.S. and many other countries, it is illegal to falsify Caller ID information. The United States Truth in Caller ID Act makes it illegal to spoof caller ID information for unlawful purposes.
If you live in the U.S. and believe that someone who called you has spoofed their caller ID information to scam or mislead you, report it to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
How to Protect Yourself Against Caller ID Spoofing
Don’t place all your trust in the caller ID information presented to you.
Now that you know this information is easily spoofed by the use of third-party caller ID spoofing services and other tools, you won't be as trusting in the technology as you have been. This should help you in the quest to scam-proof your brain.
Never give credit card information to someone who calls you.
Don’t conduct any business over the phone when you didn't initiate the call. Get a call back number and call back if you are interested in a product or service. Use Google to reverse lookup the phone number before you call back and see if it is associated with a known scam.
Caller ID information is not to be trusted. Judging by the reactions I've gotten from colleagues and friends recently after they've been the victims of spoofed-ID demonstrations, it's not common knowledge that caller ID information, primarily the phone number that often appears on the recipient's telephone display, can be easily faked. Best of all for the mysterious caller, it's not illegal in the U.S. (except in cases where fraud occurs). Calls for the purpose of amusement or revenge are perfectly legal.
With the help of easy-to-use Internet calling card services, it's possible to call up your friends, and have the originating caller number be something completely different, say, the White House switchboard (202-456-1414). For many of the services, it's as simple as punching in three phone numbers: your own number, your pal's number, and the number you want to show up on their phone's display when you call.
The calling card companies providing these services charge a fair bit--approximately 60 minutes of calls for $10. One of the major firms, SpoofCard, is nice enough to let users try their service out for free--two minute calls can be initiated for free from the company's Web site. For those of you doing the home-brew VOIP thing using an Asterisk server at home, faking your Caller ID information is as simple as editing a configuration file.
Being able to change the originating call number can actually be really useful--for the bad guys.
Many voice mail systems do not prompt you for a PIN or password when you appear to be calling from the number associated with that voice mail account. Some credit card companies require that new cards be activated upon receipt by calling up an automated phone system from the cardholder's home phone number. Many people screen their calls, looking first at the display before deciding if they will pick up the phone. Such people can be tricked into picking up the phone by someone who would ordinarily get ignored. Caller ID spoofing is a priceless technique when conducting social engineering or industrial espionage. Being able to call someone else in a company and have the number come up as as an internal office phone number can make it much easier to pretend to be 'Bob from accounting.'
Using a fake caller ID service, it should be possible for a motivated criminal to stalk someone, listen to their voice mail and then activate a credit card stolen from the victim's mailbox. Creepy stuff
So what about the law? Caller ID spoofing services do not appear to violate any federal criminal law, according to an interview published with Orin Kerr, a law professor at the George Washington University Law School, and a former Justice Department computer crime lawyer. 'It doesn't violate the Wiretap Act or the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act or anything like that,' said Kerr.
Congress attempted to pass legislation earlier in 2007 making it illegal to spoof caller ID. The bill, The Truth in Caller ID Act of 2007, sailed through the House of Representatives but has yet to make it through the Senate. The law would outlaw causing 'any caller identification service to transmit misleading or inaccurate caller identification information' via 'any telecommunications service or IP-enabled voice service.' Law enforcement is exempt from the rule.
With the legislation apparently stalled at the federal level, some states have begun to pas their own laws. According to USA Today: 'Florida Gov. Jeb Bush signed a law banning commercial telemarketers from using ID spoofing. Violators can be fined up to $10,000 per incident. Alaska and New York have considered anti-spoofing legislation. Delaware has no law that specifically bars people from misrepresenting their name and number on the recipient's caller ID. If done for commercial purposes, however, the practice could be treated as a violation of the state's Deceptive Trade Practices Act or the Consumer Fraud Act, says Barbara Gadbois, who directs the Consumer Protection Unit of the Delaware Attorney General's Office. Extracting personal information that is then used to steal money or commit another crime is a felony punishable by up to eight years in prison, Gadbois says.'
Even the state laws that have been proposed only ban the commercial use of caller ID spoofing and cases of fraud. The use of such services by individuals for amusement or revenge is still perfectly legal. Thus, until the feds can agree upon and pass stronger legislation, fake caller ID is here to stay.
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