Great, you just missed a call from Miss Delaware.
Posted on 08/31/2004 5:34:50 PM PDT by wjersey
Your Caller ID feature may no longer be telling the truth.
This week, a company is launching technology that will make it possible for someone to choose what appears on phones that have Caller ID, the feature for displaying identifying information about an incoming call.
It could be a different phone number, or even a few words, said Jason Jepson, founder of Star38, which has developed the commercial Caller ID spoofing service.
Sales of Star38 will be limited to licensed private investigators and collection agencies, Jepson said. The service will cost $20 a month plus airtime charges.
The technique for replacing the usual bits of identifying information, such as phone number and name, that accompany inbound calls was discovered a few years ago by hackers. Privacy advocates fear that in the wrong hands, commercial services have the potential to be abused. For instance, telemarketers could use technologies similar to Star38's to trick people into answering a call that looks like a familiar phone number.
Star38 aims to overcome the stigma created by earlier pranksters and thieves.
"Unfortunately, what's happened is some hackers have got to it first and gave it a bad name," Jepson said. "If they step back and see the forest through the trees, they'd realize what they are doing is hard and illegal. What we are doing is neither."
The company plans to explore other markets as well. For example, Jepson said he's begun talks with Musicphone, a San Francisco-based service that lets people send songs, along with personalized messages, to any kind of phone--cellular or standard.
Musicphone wants to use Star38's software to send even more information about certain artists, he said. A Musicphone representative could not immediately be reached for comment.
If the collection agencies try using this service they are stepping in deep doo-doo. Consumer Protection laws regarding collection agency practices/behavior forbid use of deceitful or fraudulent acts.
My answering machine says, "Please leave a message. I screen calls"
If you don't leave a message, you don't talk to me.
The added bonus is my MIL will not leave a message so I never have to talk to her!!!!!!!!
So a creditor could have the name "mom" and cathc unsuspecting people? Sounds illegal
Callers from India use this a lot. I might get a number from the states, but on the phone is a telemarketer from India.
Caught a new trick about a week ago. A company left a message on my cell phone, which when I listened to it called the company back.
They had encoded the dialing codes into their message to me. What ticks me off is that I will be charged for the call.
Most people who disturb me during dinner time are people I know, students, family, etc...
-PJ
LOL
Well, if some telemarketer uses deceit to get people to pick up the phone thinking that a family member is calling then I don't think they'll get too far.
As if we need MORE fees on a bill
I wonder if it could violate the identity theft laws when a "familiar phone number" is used to misrepresent the origin of the call.
If they don't want to tell who they are, don't call. I don't have caller ID its a rip off. Most companies have "out of area" or some 800,888 or other number you can't call back anyway. It's ludicrous to spend money on something that doesn't pay for itself, somehow. You can set caller ID so that they have to display their number or they can't call you. Phone services usually do not give you a good return on the cost, unless you have a business.
Why pay for long distance if you have a cell phone that gives you free calling.
People call here and I don't recognize their voice, I tell them "whoever they ask for" is UNAVAILABLE, may I take a message. I don't talk to salesman, every Fred, Dick and Susan who wants a donation, and I don't take surveys that take 15-20 min of my time. People waste hours monthly on unnecessary phone calls.
Great, you just missed a call from Miss Delaware.
If I ever have time off from Marketing my highly successful and wildly popular tasty treats on a stick, I think I could market a product the reverses charges at the touch of a button (ie tellemarketers pay for the phone call plus my phone minutes)
Extended options may include $9.00 per second for bothering me.
This Free Enterprise System just ROCKS, why Retire? This is too much fun.
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