217-344-0347

The usual Card Services credit card scam. Been calling with increasing frequency over last several weeks, and I answered today. Disturbing part is that CallerID number is a local exchange and has no previous reports. I wonder are these scammers now targeting people by using local numbers?

Yes they are! People are more likely to answer a call from within their own area, so the card service scammers are spoofing numbers that appear to be local. Seeing that the card service scammers are criminals, they have no regard as to whether the number they spoof is actually a working number of some totally innocent person or business. Many persons and businesses have been accused of being the originator of the scamming calls.

I was wondering if they spoof people's legitimate phone numbers.

Yes, they can.

We can no longer believe the phone number we see on our caller IDs (CID) belongs to the person who called!  The bad guys are now using easily accessed technology to "spoof" the CID numbers, so their real number does not appear.

The problem has gotten so bad, the US government actually passed an Act, called "The Truth in Caller ID Act of 2009", making such spoofing illegal.  See http://www.fcc.gov/guides/caller-id-and-spoofing
for more information.

The FCC adopted that Act in June, 2010, stating that violators could be fined up to $10,000 for each violation.

However, the bad guys are ignoring this law ... after all, they are criminals, and that is what criminals do.  Although we now have a "law" against spoofing, it is very difficult to enforce it.

So, if you see a CID number on your phone when you are called by some scammer or telemarketer, it might not belong to the scammer!  It might be the number of some unsuspecting third party ... or, it might be one of those numbers that charge $25 (plus about $9 per minute) if you call it back.

They not only spoof people's legitimate phone numbers, they will spoof *your* number. Count on it, before long you'll be receiving phone calls that show your own number as the caller.