By New York Times staff
PLENTY OF PEOPLE rely on a quick glance at their phone’s caller ID screen to decide whether a call is worth picking up.
But as Matt Richtel reports in Wednesday’s New York Times — http://tinyurl.com/7dzfwjo — caller ID is not foolproof.
Regulators in many states have been hearing increasing numbers of complaints about spoofing: the name on the screen looks innocuous or even alarming, like “F.B.I.,” but answering the call reveals a telemarketer on the other end.
The Truth in Caller ID Act, passed last year — http://tinyurl.com/3l8ku2y — makes it illegal to send inaccurate caller ID information “with the intent to defraud, cause harm or wrongfully obtain anything of value.”
But technology, including Internet calling, has made it easier for callers to cloak themselves — and has made it harder to catch them.
The article has prompted a batch of responses from frustrated consumers.
On Twitter, @shirleykaiser says: “Ugh. This problem keeps worsening. Drives me nuts!!” And @Africana_Beauty writes, “Don’t pick up your house phone!!”
On DSL Reports, whose members like to chew on telecommunications issues — http://tinyurl.com/74zqqc3 — a discussion of the New York Times article has drawn a few comments from people who take this issue very seriously.
One said he had filed more than 30 complaints with the Federal Communications Commission about spoofed IDs, but “nothing happens.”
And a commenter using the name N9MD outlined his elaborate system for dealing with unwanted calls, using the blacklisting features offered by Internet calling services.
He said he gets many calls from collection bureaus, even though “I don’t owe anything to anybody . . . except my second-grade teacher Mrs. Johnson who lent me a nickel for lunch in November of 1949.”
