U.S. government probes Caller ID spoofing
2006-03-22
The U.S. government is becoming interested in commercial Caller ID spoofing services for a possible role in illegal activity.
Kevin Poulsen of Wired News reports that Florida's Attorney General Charlie Crist has issued subpoenas to five difference spoofing sites. The sites, which include Telespoof, SpoofTech, Canadian-based SpoofTel, SpoofCard and Tricktel, offer services that allow customers to enter fake Caller ID information when calling arbitrary numbers. Most services charge a per-minute fee and offer web interfaces to configure the Caller ID phone number and text data that will be displayed to a caller. The services often promote themselves for use in "prank calls" or for "entertainment purposes only."
The report follows a previous article detailing detailing FCC demand letters already sent to some of these same service providers.