Who’s on the Line? Increasingly, Caller ID Is Duped - NYT frontpage

[Bozita]

Who’s on the Line? Increasingly, Caller ID Is Duped
By MATT RICHTEL
Published: November 22, 2011

Caller ID has been celebrated as a defense against unwelcome phone pitches. But it is backfiring.

Telemarketers increasingly are disguising their real identities and phone numbers to provoke people to pick up the phone. “Humane Soc.” may not be the Humane Society. And think the I.R.S. is on the line? Think again.

Caller ID, in other words, is becoming fake ID.

“You don’t know who is on the other end of the line, no matter what your caller ID might say,” said Sandy Chalmers, a division manager at the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection in Wisconsin.

more...
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/23/us/whos-on-the-line-increasingly-caller-id-is-duped.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=caller%20ID&st=cse

[dembotoz]

1. you can modify your outgoing name but not so much the number

depending on the type of circuit and phone system you are using

not much new there......

[msongs]

2. evidently people will still give $$ to liars or this practice would die lol nt

[Tesha]

5. If you're operating a P(A)BX, you can send whatever you want.

To allow "inside lines" to show up with their actual direct-dial
phone number, Private Branch Exchanges send the outgoing
Caller ID info. It's easy to either get that wrong or deliberately
set it fraudulently.

Tesha

[kenny blankenship]

3. Any legal penalty? Falsifying fax headers is illegal - not sure about caller ID information.

[Tesha]

6. Only if someone is willing to enforce it and, nowadays, what are the odds of that happening? (NT)

[Pacifist Patriot]

4. It's still easy enough to use.

If I recognize the name or number I pick up. If I don't, I let it go to voice mail.

[saras]

7. Yep. We get to recognize numbers.

There's always the voicemail message "try leaving us a message, and we'll decide whether we want to talk to you or not." It makes more sense with old-fashioned answering machines where you can hear people leaving their messages. Those are a GREAT way to screen calls.

[eppur_se_muova]

8. Can't see who told me I just won $950,000 and a Mercedes!

All I have to do is send them my account number and Bob's your uncle ... :evilgrin: