Caller ID spoofing is a practice that causes the telephone network to show the call recipient that the caller is a station other than the actual original station. For example, the caller ID display may show a different phone number than the phone where the call was placed. This term is commonly used to describe a situation in which motivation is considered harmful by its originator.
Video Caller ID spoofing
Histori
Caller ID spoofing has been available for years to people with dedicated digital connections to phone companies, called ISDN PRI circuits. Billing agencies, law enforcement officials, and private investigators have used this practice, with varying degrees of legality.
The first caller ID spoofing service, Star38.com, was launched in September 2004. Star38.com is the first service that allows fake calls to be placed from the web interface. It stopped offering services in 2005, as several similar sites were launched.
In August 2006, Paris Hilton was accused of using spoofing caller ID to break into a voicemail system that uses caller ID for authentication. Caller ID spoofing has also been used in fraudulent purchases on websites such as Craigslist and eBay. The deceptive caller claims to be calling from Canada to the US with a legitimate interest in purchasing the advertised item. Often sellers are required to obtain personal information such as copies of registration titles, etc., before the buyer (scammer) invests the time and effort to see the items being sold. In the 2010 election, false caller IDs from ambulance companies and hospitals were used in Missouri to get voters to answer the phone. In 2009, a Brooklyn wife who likes to avenge spoofed the office of her husband's lover's doctor in an attempt to trick another woman into taking a drug that would make her miscarriage.
Often, caller ID spoofing is used for prank calls. For example, someone might call a friend and arrange for "White House" to appear on the caller's screen. In December 2007, a hacker used a caller ID spoofing service and was arrested for sending a SWAT team to the home of an unsuspecting victim. In February 2008, a man from Collegeville, Pennsylvania was arrested for making threatening phone calls to women and having their home number appear "on their caller ID to make it look like the call was coming from within the house."
In March 2008, several residents in Wilmington, Delaware reported receiving telemarketing calls during the morning hours, when the caller seemed to fake ID callers to awaken the 1982 Tommy Tutone song "867-5309/Jenny." In 2014, an increase in illegal telemarketers displaying their own victim numbers, either verbatim or by some random digits, is observed as an attempt to avoid the caller ID-based black list.
In May Canada's federal elections May 2, 2011 both direct and robocall calls are alleged to have been placed with false caller ID, either to replace the caller identity with fictitious persons (Pierre Poutine of Joliette, Quebec) or disguise calls from the Ohio call center as Peterborough domestic calls, Ontario. See Robocall scandal.
In June 2012, searches on Google resulted in nearly 50,000 consumer complaints by individuals receiving multiple continuous over IP voice (VoIP) calls on leased/derived channels from "Pacific Telecom Communications Group" located in Los Angeles, CA (at mailbox store), clearly violates FCC rules. Such companies rent thousands of phone numbers to anonymous voice mail providers who, in combination with dubious companies such as the "Phone Broadcast Club" (which do actual spoofing), allow phone spam to become a widespread and widespread problem. In 2013, the misleading caller's name "Master Phone" was reported on a large number of robocalls advertising credit card services as a ruse to fool students' families in answering unwanted calls with their erroneous beliefs coming from local schools.
On January 7, 2013, the Center for Internet Crime Torture issued a scam warning for various denial of telephone service where fraudsters use fake caller IDs to impersonate police in an effort to collect counterfeit day loans, then place abused recurring calls to the police with the number of victims shown. While police imitations are commonplace, other frauds involving impersonation of utility companies threaten businesses or households with disconnection as a tool to extort money, imitate immigration officials or medical insurance criminals to obtain personal data for use in identity theft. Fake caller IDs have also been used in grandparent scams that target parents by posing as family members and requesting money transfers.
Maps Caller ID spoofing
Technology and methods
Caller ID is forged through different methods and technologies. The most popular way of calling spoofing ID is through the use of VoIP or PRI lines.
Voice over IP
In the past, caller ID spoofing requires advanced knowledge of phone equipment that can be very expensive. However, with open source software (such as Asterisk or FreeSWITCH, and almost all VoIP companies), one can spoof a call with minimal cost and effort.
Some VoIP providers allow the user to configure the displayed number as part of the configuration page on the provider's web interface. No additional software required. If the caller's name is sent with a call (instead of being generated from a number by database search at the destination), then the name can be configured as part of the settings on the client's analog phone adapter or SIP phone. The degree of flexibility depends on the provider. Providers that allow users to bring their own devices and unbundles service so direct inward call numbers can be purchased separately from outgoing call minutes will be more flexible. Operators that do not follow existing hardware standards (such as Skype) or lock customers from configuration settings on hardware owned by customers directly (such as Vonage) are more stringent. Providers that market "wholesale VoIP" are typically meant to allow the displayed number to be sent, because the retailer will want their end-user number to appear.
In rare cases, the number of destinations served by voice-over-IP can be reached directly at known SIP addresses (which can be published through mapping of ENUM phone numbers, DNS records.tel or those located using intermediaries such as SIP Brokers). Some Google Voice users are directly accessible to SIP, as all iNum Initiative numbers are in country code 883 5100 and 888. As the Federation VoIP scheme provides a direct Internet connection that does not pass through the signaling gateway to the public switched telephone network, it shares the benefits (almost free access unlimited worldwide) and losses (ernet apps).
Service provider
Some spoofing services work similar to prepaid calling cards. Customers pay in advance for a personal identification number (PIN). The customer dials the number assigned to them by the company, their PIN, the destination number and the number they want to appear as the caller ID. The call is bridged or transferred and arrives with a fake number chosen by the caller - thus cheating the so-called party.
Many providers also provide a web-based interface or mobile app where users create accounts, log in, and supply source numbers, destination numbers, and fake caller ID information to display. The server then places calls to each of the two endpoint numbers and bridges the call together.
Some providers offer the ability to record calls, change sounds and send text messages.
Orange box
Another method of spoofing is to emulate FSKG 202 signals. This method, informally called boxing orange, uses software that generates audio signals which are then combined to the phone line during a call. The goal is to trick the so called party into thinking that there is an incoming call waiting call from a fake number, when in fact there is no new incoming call. This technique often also involves the accomplice who can provide a secondary voice to complete the illusion of call-waiting calls. Because the orange box can not actually spoof the caller ID entered before answering and relies on a certain level on caller's deception, it is considered a social engineering technique as a technical hack.
Other methods include switch access to Signaling Network 7's network and operator of a social engineering phone company, which places calls for you from the desired phone number.
Caller name display
Manufacturers of telephone exchange equipment vary in their handling of caller name display. Most of the equipment produced for Bell System companies in the United States only sends caller numbers to a remote exchange; The switch must then use database search to find the name to be displayed with the call number. Canadian ground exchanges often run Nortel equipment that sends names and numbers. Mobile, CLEC, Internet or independent exchanges also vary in the handling of their caller's name, depending on the manufacturer of the switching equipment. Calls between numbers in different country codes represent further complications, since caller IDs often display the local part of the call number without indicating the country of origin or in a format that may be misinterpreted as a domestic or invalid number.
This results in several possible outcomes:
- The name given by the caller (in the analog phone adapter configuration screen for voice-over-IP users or on the web interface of the spoofing provider) is blindly passed up verbatim to the so-called party and can be falsified at will
- This name is generated from the phone company's database using a fake caller ID number.
- The destination provider may not display the name or just the geographic location of the phone area code provided on the caller ID ( eg , "ARIZONA", "CALIFORNIA", "OREGON", or "ONTARIO"). This is often the case where the destination operator is a low cost service (such as a VoIP provider) that does not run an outdated database or data where the number is not found.
- If the number shown is in the recipient's address book, some handsets will display the name of the local address book instead of the name that was sent. Some VoIP providers use Asterisk (PBX) to provide similar functionality on the server; this may cause some switching with priority going to the handset's own destination users as the last link in the CNAM chain.
Legal considerations
Canada
Caller ID spoofing remains legal in Canada, and has recently become so prevalent that the Canadian Anti-Fraud Center has "added [ed] automated messages about [practices] to their fraud reporting hotlines." CRTC estimates that 40% of complaints they receive about unsolicited calls involve spoofing. The agency recommends Canada to file a complaint regarding the call, provide a list of protection options to handle them on its website, and, from July to December 2015, hold a public consultation to identify "technical solutions" to resolve the issue. The regulator has set a target date of 31 March 2018 for the implementation of the CID authentication system.
India
According to a report from the Indian Telecommunications Department, the Indian government has taken the following steps against the CLI spoofing service provider:
- Website offering caller ID caller spoofing service is blocked in India as a direct measure.
- International remote operators (ILDOs), national long-distance operators (NLDOs) and access service providers have been warned of the existence of such spoofing services, and should be jointly prepared to take action to investigate cases of caller ID spoofing as they reported.
Appropriate DOT, using a fake call service is illegal like the Indian Telegraph Act, Sec 25 (c). Using such a service may result in a fine of three years or both.
United Kingdom
In the UK, a fake number is called a "presentation number". This should be allocated to the caller, or if allocated to a third party, it is only for use with third party explicit permissions.
United States
Caller ID spoofing is generally legal in the United States, unless it is done "with the intent to deceive, cause harm, or wrongly get something of value". The relevant federal law, Truth in Caller ID Act of 2009, makes exceptions for certain law enforcement purposes. Callers are also still allowed to maintain their anonymity by choosing to block all caller ID information out on their phone line.
Under the law, which also targets VoIP services, it is illegal "to cause caller identification services to consciously transmit misleading or inaccurate caller identification information with the intent to deceive, cause harm, or wrongly obtain something of value.... "Forfeiture penalty or criminal penalties up to $ 10,000 per violation (not exceeding $ 1,000,000) may be imposed. The law maintains exceptions to block caller ID information out on its own, and law enforcement is not affected.
The New York Times sent number 111-111-1111 for all calls made from its office until August 15, 2011. The fake number was intended to prevent its reporter extensions from appearing on the call log, thereby protecting journalists from having to divulge made calls to anonymous sources. The Times left this practice because of proposed changes to the caller ID law, and because many companies blocked calls from famous numbers.
References
Further reading
- BBC News
- California State Senate Bill SJR15-Florez article
- October 29, 2004 Washington Post
- Wired FCC investigative news report
- Arstechnica: Congress bans all Caller ID spoofing (VoIP too)
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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