Callers altering their IDs isn’t illegal, but doing it to scam is

The call was coming from inside the house – sort of.

When Sedgwick County Commissioner Karl Peterjohn’s land line rang at his home Thursday morning, he got quite a surprise when he saw who was calling.

His own name and phone number came up on his phone’s caller ID, a device that tells people who is calling so they can decide whether or not to answer a phone call.

“Wait a second! That’s me and my number,” Peterjohn said he thought to himself.

He called out to his wife, and by the time they looked again at the caller ID, the call had gone to voicemail. No one left a message.

“It was just a shock to have that pop up on my phone,” he said.

Peterjohn had been spoofed.

Spoofing is a service that allows people to use someone else’s name and number instead of their own.

It’s unlikely you’d answer a call identifying itself as coming from “SCAM USA,” but if you see it’s your mother calling, you might pick up (unless, of course, you’re a teenager).

As SpoofTel, which markets itself as the world’s leader in caller ID spoofing, explains on its website, www.spooftel.com, “Spoofing, or caller ID spoofing, is the ability to protect the identity of your telephone number by disguising it as another number. Instead of displaying your real telephone number when placing calls, sending (a text) or sending a fax, you can choose the number that you want to appear.”

Spoofing services charge a fee. SpoofTel says it charges 10 cents a minute for caller ID spoofing and 50 cents per text message. SpoofTel also offers a “voice-changing” feature that allows you to change the pitch of your voice for 25 cents per call.

Spoofing itself is not illegal. But using spoofing to scam someone is.

The Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office received about 20 complaints in August from people reporting that someone had called them purportedly from their own number, said Sharon Werner, chief attorney of the consumer protection division.

If Peterjohn had answered the call, he likely would have been talking to someone claiming they were trying to collect a debt and angling for financial information such as bank account or credit card numbers.

“Identity thieves who want to collect sensitive information such as your bank account or other financial account numbers, your social security number, your date of birth or your mother’s maiden name, sometimes use caller ID spoofing to make it appear as though they are calling from your bank, credit card company, or even a government agency,” the Federal Communications Commission says on its website, www.fcc.gov.

The Truth in Caller ID Act of 2009, according to the FCC’s website, prohibits caller ID spoofing “with the intent to defraud, cause harm, or wrongfully obtain anything of value.” Violators can face fines of up to $10,000 for each violation.

Werner said that as far as she knew, no one who had called the DA’s office about the problem had lost any money.

She said people should ignore calls that appear to be coming from their own number.

Though it’s tempting, of course, to answer a call coming from yourself.

“Curiosity killed the cat,” Werner said. After some people answer, though “they’re not so curious. They’re just mad.”

This story was originally published September 5, 2014 at 7:44 AM with the headline "Callers altering their IDs isn’t illegal, but doing it to scam is."