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Caller ID Spoofing Firm Gets Death Threats
Frankie70 writes "Three days after the startup company Star38 began offering a service that fools Caller ID systems, the founder, Jason Jepson, has decided to sell the business. Jepson said he had received harassing e-mail and phone messages and even a death threat taped to his front door -- all of which he said came from people opposed to his publicizing a commercial version of technology that until now has been mainly used by software programmers and the computer hackers' underground. Details in the Houston Chronicle. Earlier ZDnet article about the service."
Attempts to trace the harassing calls failed due to their use of spoofed Caller ID information.
I didn't tape it to his door, I taped it to his mailbox.... ...NO WAIT! Ignore that last little bit....
"Music is everybody's possession. It's only publishers who think that people own it." - John Lennon.
Death threats may be going a bit far, but I don't really see a "legitmate" reason for a service like this. Telemarketers and debt collection agencies can NOT use services like this (at least where I am) and I really don't see a legitimate use for a service like this. I just wish it would be cancelled not sold to some other company.
If it's a death threat, police should be involved and trace the originators. Email and phone calls should be easy enough to trace if there's serious crime associated with them.
And if the phone threat's caller ID is spoofed, well, at least the threats are directly supporting the spoofing service.
Uselessful technology (Air-Charged
From the houston chronicle:
"The backlash against Star38 is the type of friction that can arise between for-profit software companies and hackers who resent the commercialization of technology they believe should remain free."
I really want to know if the majority of threats were from people who wanted the services to be free or if they were from people who decided that they didn't like the service at all! I fall into the second category and I'll bet everyone else does too!
*beep* *beep* BULLSHIT ALERT *beep* *beep*
...and this is just more free advertising.
The entire premise behind this "service" seems to be: fraud. I can think of no legitimate uses for it.
And now, the creator of the service is looking to sell out? If it's a dangerous life, why not just shut down? Obviously, he's looking for a quick buck, at the expense of the rest of us (and whatever shady organization snaps this up).
[snip]
The backlash against Star38 is the type of friction that can arise between for-profit software companies and hackers who resent the commercialization of technology they believe should remain free.
"In most countercultures, there is an aspect of selling out," said Caleb Sima, co-founder of Spi Dynamics, an online security company. "People who make money off technology are deemed to have sold out. Anyone who has a unique idea and is making money is going to get badgered."
[/snip]
No, I think it's that people don't like it when people use technology for slimy things, and want to get paid for the slimy things [pr0n aside]. I have no problems with Asterisk...I use it in my house, and have openly recommended it to some 'phone guy' co workers that like messing around with routing and stuff at home.
I know that caller ID can't be trusted...but that's only the first step in the puzzle. You've already got call ID block Block on your phones...so telemarketers decided to start putting 800 numbers and things like 555-555-5555 in as numbers on their outgoing CallerID.
I'm sure some people were upset. Legally, [IANAL], I think they could be on some shady ground, especially, if they're trying to represent someone else, when they're attempting to collect a debt.
I disable sigs...do you?
The article seems to suggest that hackers angry at the founder "selling out" were threatening him. Really? The guy lives in a gated community and a person managed to stick a note on his door and escaped unnoticed? I don't think so.
The guy might have just created this to get a good reason to sell the business. "Oh, it's so popular that people are trying to kill me. I'm not cashing out because, uh, the business might be illegal, etc."
A NYC lawyer blogs. http://www.chuangblog.com/
Anybody can generate fictitious Caller ID information. Instead of attributing the blame to Jepson, who merely developed a convenient method by which to do so, perhaps we should blame the telephone companies. They developed the insecure technology, after all, and appear unwilling to mitigate the problem(s).
Do you like German cars?
I've never been the target of one myself, but I used to always wonder why bankruptcy lawyer commercials always said stuff like "Stop creditor harassment."
I always thought, "Well honestly, if you're not going to pay your bills, then you should expect people to ask you for the money."
Nope. Its harassment. Its actually frightening stuff. I first started learning about this when I received an odd message on my answering machine. It was from someone from "Kansas City" who said that she was despirately trying to get in contact with my neighbor, and that she had called the police and they had said I was a neighbor, and could I PLEASE tape a note to their door giving them her number."
Well, it sounded fishy, so I called the number myself late at night after hours. The answering message didn't say where I had called, but I waited and found it was a collection agency.
Basically, they lied to ME, a 3rd party, to try and get me to do their fucking job for them, and probably ruin my relationship with my neighbors in the process. They clearly didn't call the police about an emergency like they implied. I'm glad I checked up with them, i'm sure my other neighbors got similar messages.
These people do everything short of theatening to break your fingers. They'll say "We're going to call your boss and tell them you're not paying your bills. I'm going to try and get you fired." They threaten to tell your neighbors, to tell your children's school, etc. They'll call you 5-7 times a night demanding that you immediately send them the money.
There have been many stories of people who sent them a part of their bill, and then the collection agencies illegally used their checking account number to withdraw the whole amount, causing a chain reaction of them now being late on ALL of their bills, instead of the one they just couldn't pay.
So its no surprise that collection agencies would use something like this to fool people.
Yes, some people are deadbeats, but there are a lot of people who have lost their jobs and need to choose between food and their gas bill.
Caller's should be allowed to block or reveal their ID, but not spoof it. Receivers should be able to accept or reject calls with a blocked ID.
I've had more than enough calls from "0" which were not from the operator. I've had plenty of calls from other numbers that are obviously false (not 7 or 10 digits). I've had plenty of calls from numbers that were "out of service" when I called them.
If the phone companies are unable to prevent spoofing, the government should implement laws either to make spoofing illegal or to mandate an upgrade to the phone system to make it impossible.
Edward Burr
Having a smoking section in a restaurant is like having a peeing section in a swimming pool.
I was going to do some modding here today but I'll forego that for some good advice:
don't do this.
Years ago I got a cel phone at the same time as a friend of mine. Back in those days, the codes came with the phones if you read all the literature. I found my way into the programming area and, among other things, managed to permanently screw up my low battery shutdown point. I was able to change my number to a friend's number, and answer his phone calls.
When I mentioned this to my service provider, they said "you must not have done it very many times..." The reason was, when they get five (5) incorrect ESN/Phone Number match-ups, they deactivate your phone by it's ESN, and then you have to take it back to them to get it turned back on. So just don't. (and no, you can't change your ESN... at least not unless you own a specific model of Motorola phone for which Motorola got fined heavily by the FCC for producing it in that modifyable way)
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
After working at an answering service, I would page anywhere between 2-10 doctors a night with emergencys from hospitals or patients with sick babies, women worried about their pregnancys, adults having athsma problems, chipped/painful teeth, or other problems. Some that should go to the ER, some that could of waited till the next day, and others that just really just needed a call back. Doctors cannot give their home telephone number out. Most anyone who thinks they have a medical emergency thinks they should call direct instead of going through "channels." This means doctors use caller ID blockers.
There would periodically be problems with doctors using caller ID blocks being unable to call people back who block those calls, leading to sometimes unimaginable frustration in the middle of a medical emergency. The first time I saw this service, I saw immediatly that it could and probally would be abused, but for doctors who got stuck in that situation, it would be invaluable.
I thought that caller ID was done through the phone company and people couldn't alter it. And I always thought it would be a great method for dial-up authentication and private networking. With caller ID, a computer recieving a data call could identify that the calling computer was physically located at a land line. This would be extremely useful for businesses to business transactions and banking. Having to rely on encryption while connecting through the internet just isn't as secure as a direct physically secured phone call.
Sure, there could be legitimate uses; say for example that you have a call forwarding feature provided by the phone company and you are having calls to your number forwarded to a phone at your location. It would be useful to be able to have calls from that location display your caller ID if you need to return a call. However, that shouldn't be up to a company like this. It should be a feature connected with calling card billing; if you use your calling card from a remote location and it is being billed to your phone number, it should also display your caller ID. Connecting caller ID to billing would also work well for tax accounting. If you were making a phone call for business, you would want your business number caller ID to appear. And you would want the call to be billed to your business phone number as well, for tax purposes.
The options for using this service legitimately don't compare to the possible illigitimate uses for it. This would be the next "spamming" type of business, making money out of putting others through misery. The fact that caller ID is called "caller ID" is so that it can work just like proper identification. Using a service like this to pretend you are someone else calling would be the equivalent of using a fake driver's license, even though it isn't percieved that way by the legal system yet.
I can think of *one* good use for spoofing- calling cards. Why not have the company performing the calling card service to take the number you call them from and then spoof that when they make the call through their system?
Ever since I misdialed a number, relized it was the wrong number and hung up.
Couple minutes later I got a call with some ass screaming at me, so I hung up. And then again, and again. That jackass kept calling me. Finally, I changed my number.
Then there was the time I called someone on a business matter. Sometime later her husband came home, saw my unmber on there caller ID, called me up and kept trying to get me to admit I was sleeping with his wife.
Gah, I hate caller ID.
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