Phone Spoofing: simple prank or serious concern?


by John Cuoco

TEMPLE- One young Temple girl was brought to tears after a phone call she thought was from her mother turned out to be a cruel trick called phone spoofing.

It was just before 11 p.m. Wednesday night when 15-year-old Cierra Wagner got an unusual call, with an unusual voice from what she thought was her mom’s cell.

“I picked it up and they told me to come downstairs,” Wagner said.

A confused Cierra got up out of bed and asked her mom what was going on, she looked at her phone and it didn’t say anything about her mother calling her. She said she couldn’t sleep for the rest of the night.

“She was just scared, like who would do this,” Cierra’s mother, Caroline, said.

Caroline soon found out her daughter was spoofed, using a caller ID-faker.


News Channel 25 found a number of call spoofing sites on the Internet, programs like “SpoofCard” and “Phonegangster.”

All the sites let you sign up or download a phone application to cover your caller ID with another name, number, and sometimes even voice. Shockingly, it’s all legal.

Most sites we found put a positive spin on spoofing. Some had slogans like “Be who you want to be.” Other toted the product as a way to protect your kids.

For the Wagners, its something they wont risk again, Caroline Wagner has already warned her kids.

“I told them don’t trust caller ID, if someone calls you or texts you and it’s strange, hang up, call them back, or text them back,” she said.

Last month President Obama signed the Truth in Caller ID Act of 2009, which makes it illegal to use spoofing to defraud, cause harm, or get anything of value. In the case we told you about the prankster didn’t do anything illegal.

Truth in Caller ID Act of 2009

Article source: http://www.kxxv.com/Global/story.asp?S=13799962


Tags: caller id, email spoofing, ip, spoofem, Text

Category: Spoofing

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