The telephone rings, and like many modern consumers, you glance at the Caller ID display to see who is calling before you pick up. I’ve had Caller ID for years and rarely ever pick up without checking it. I love Caller ID.

Now who would expect that the name and number you see on the Caller ID display is not legitimate? It’s connected to the telephone, right? And that’s connected to the telephone company. How could the information on the Caller ID display possible be bogus? Well, it just might be.

Caller ID “Spoofing” is a “service” that is being offered by some questionable (to say the least) companies to anyone willing to pay for it and this spoofing allows the caller to make your Caller ID display whatever they want it to display.

I don’t know about you, but if got a call from my bank and the Caller ID showed the actual name and phone number of my bank, that sure would cause me to drop my guard and very possibly say things I would not want heard by some scam artist regarding my bank account.

I don’t know a heck of a lot about how the telephone system works, but I find it quite shocking to find out that this spoofing is even possible. It seems to me like something that could be easily stopped by the telephone companies, and if not, it reveals a rather gaping hole in the security of the data that is used to display information on Caller ID displays.

The good news is that Congress is considering new legislation that would ban Caller ID spoofing. I’m normally not one to cheer on new legislation, but I am behind this kind of legislation in a big way.

As this article points out, anyone like a bank or utility company calling to ask about personal information should already have it and should not be calling you to ask about it.

If you have any doubts about a call you receive, do not provide the caller with any personal information and tell them you will call them back. Just be sure you look up the actual number of the company the caller claimed to be affiliated with and do not call the number that was displayed on your Caller ID or any number the caller provides you with, unless you can verify that it is the actual telephone number of the company in question.

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