said by HiVolt :

its hilarious

quote:

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Caller ID isn't the trusty old crystal ball that it used to be. Revered for years by persnickety consumers who like to screen their telephone calls, the premium service is now being appropriated by identity thieves.

Such scams are made possible by technology that enables con artists to manipulate the phone number and even the name that shows up on the unsuspecting recipient's caller ID, allowing them to masquerade as officials of churches, banks and courthouses. Known as "spoofing," the endgame is to persuade consumers to reveal their Social Security numbers or other sensitive information. Spoofing is the phone industry's version of phishing, in which criminals use fake e-mails to fool computer users into divulging personal information. But phishing is so yesterday compared with spoofing, one security expert says. "Phishing started about three years ago, and now many people know it's a scam, but the use of caller ID" as a crime tool is becoming more prevalent, said Jack Vonder Heide, president of Technology Briefing Centers Inc., an Oak Brook-based technology consultant to the financial services industry. "A year ago, I wasn't aware of any incidents [involving caller ID], but now I speak at banking conferences all over the world and this is one of main topics they want to hear about."

In June, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the bipartisan Truth in Caller ID Act of 2006, which makes it a crime to transmit misleading caller ID information with the intent to defraud or harm...

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