Posted on 05/24/2006 8:04:05 AM PDT by tlb
KMBC's Jere Gish reported that is is called Caller I.D. spoofing, and it is readily available online at Web site such as SpoofCard.com and TeleSpoof.com.
The Web sites allow people to chose any number they want to pop up in someone's Caller I.D.
Computer hackers have been able to do this with special equipment for years. But only recently have Web sites popped up to offer it to anyone. Just log in, sign up, pay with your credit card and you're ready to go.
All of this is legal. Gish reported that it is often used by debt collectors. A representative with TeleSpoof said most of its clients are bounty hunters and private investigators.
But it can have illegal uses, often for credit card scams, Gish said.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Since when do debt collectors abide by the law in making their calls? They routinely harass and intimidate and call unrelated parties.
This is falsified identity. And in a commercial transaction, that can't be on the level.
I've discovered in my old age that I am not required to answer the phone. If I don't recognize the number, the answering machine picks it up.
It's very liberating. :-)
I agree with you only i'm not so old. LOL
I refuse to be a slae to te phone or e-mail. If I am busy when the phone rings i let it ring and the machine pick up. Same if i dont recognize the number. As for e-mail, i tell people i may not check it but once or twice a week.
In urgent matters i can always be reached but i will not be a slave to strangers.
Still works OK for me.
If I don't recognize the number, or it is undeterminable, I don't pick up the call. Simple as that. I have a machine, and none of those people will leave a message. Guess reaching me wasn't all that important after all.
My opinion is that anyone who is hiding their identity and won't leave a message is probably not worth talking to. Life's too short to waste talking to telemarketers.
Of course, I'm also currently not being tracked by bounty hunters. (at least I hope not)
Exactly.
I'm with you. My phone is there for my convenience, not for the convenience of others I know not.
If I don't recognise the number, I rarely answer.
If I do answer and my caller ID has been spoofed, I just hang up the phone.
I look at phone callers as guests in my home and expect them to act as such. Those entering under false pretences will be shown the door. Pronto.
Only my close friends and family and work have my cell phone number. Those are the people I want to talk to.
Everyone else gets the home number, ringer off, and the answering machine.
My ringer is turned off
Same here. One reason I don't have caller ID. And it is interesting to figure out which friends have caller ID and then don't answer your calls. I had one go loony with that last year. Told me via e-mail that she wouldn't "be bullied into answering her phone". It was real interesting since it was my son trying to call her son. I decided then and there that I didn't need a "friend" like that.
All I have is a cell phone. I don't answer any number I don't recognize.
Bump for later, thanks for posting! :)
Before I got on the do-not-call list I was plagued by telemarketers. Now it's only politicians and charities that call.
Actual conversations I've had with telemarketers...
Geeez : (
I share a phone with my bf. He sells car parts, etc. I have to pick up the phone. What's really bugging me right now is that our phone # apparently belonged to deadbeats. I have told them repeatedly that the number was assigned to us earlier this year. No comprende! I wouldn't answer, but my auntie calls, and it's "unknown name/#, and I don't want to miss her call.
I hate phones!
I have several different phone numbers. One of them is a Vonage line with no phone attached, but Vonage e-mails me whenever anyone leaves a message. That's the number I give out to all those businessess and agencies that demand my phone number. I get almost no telemarketing calls at all on my other lines, because one's a cell phone, and the other number (which I reveal only to friends and family) is unlisted, has anonymous call rejection and private call blocking.
That's part of the point of spoofing the ID box. They find out some phone number you will answer and walla, you pick up the phone.
Of course then there are the times when you do have to answer the phone, that's when you really learn to hate telemarketers. When you have a relative that's dieing and every time the phone rings you expect it to be THAT call, then it turns out to just be some dork trying to sell you a new roof, that's a time in your life when if someone walked up to you and said "hi, I'm a telemarketer" you would kill them on the spot with your bare hands.
Phone companies are able to assign a distinctive ring tone to a certain number, then you can know exactly when it is your aunt calling.
(I have Bellsouth - they have this service)
Now, that would really tick me off. Woe to the person who tries that little tactic with me!
Unlisted phone number, problem solved.
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