By Gary Haber, The News Journal
Caller ID -- the little telephone display that tells you who's calling -- is many people's protection from folks they'd rather not talk to, whether it's a telemarketer making a pitch at dinner time or a scammer trying to con them out of personal financial information.
Now, legislation pending in Congress would strengthen a line of defense that turns out to be more porous than many may think.
Technology readily available for sale over the Internet allows callers to fool caller ID with a bogus name and number. The practice is known as identity spoofing.
It's hard to get a handle on how widespread identity spoofing is, but it's gone well beyond harmless pranks.
The AARP Bulletin recently reported a scam in which people received fraudulent calls claiming they missed jury duty and asking for their Social Security number. The calls seemed legitimate because the telephone number of the local courthouse showed up on caller ID.
In Pennsylvania, constituents of Republican Rep. Tim Murphy were flooded with bogus calls from someone purporting to be from Murphy's office.
The primary worry for consumers is that if a call appears to be coming from their bank, credit card company or a government agency, they could be persuaded to give up financial data a thief could use to open new bank accounts or apply for loans and credit cards.