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Handling Caller ID Spoofing?
An anonymous reader writes "A nice little old lady I know has had her number spoofed by some car warranty scammers. They're calling hundreds of potential victims per day pretending to use her phone number, and the angry ones call her back; some of them have even left death threats. She's terrified. Some well-intending anti-telemarketing folks have posted her address on the 'net as well. How can we figure out where these scammer bastards are, and what's the state of the current legislation to prevent caller ID spoofing? I called the FBI in Boston (near where she lives) and they said they can't help. She's called her phone company, but they said they can't help either. She's had the same number for over 50 years and doesn't want to change it." If the Feds can't or won't handle it, what's the best approach here?
Give us what you know about the scammer, though if you don't want to include the victimized phone number we can understand. Then just let Slashdot work its magic. The Scammers will be on their knees begging in no time...
...why doesn't she just change her phone number?!
It surely seems like an easy solution to the problem, and she'll stop getting angry calls from random people. Not to mention the fact that the number will no longer be valid, and the spoofers will have to get a new number to fake. Though I wonder how they got her number in the first place. Someone randomly punch in numbers, or did they actually pick her out for some reason?
we need an angry mob to find these car warranty robo-caller bitches and give them hell. i get a call from them (from a different number each time) like once a week. you have to listen all the way to the end of the message to hear what button to press to be removed, and doing so doesn't appear to take you off the list. this is a clear violation of the do-not-call laws and i want in on a class action lawsuit to put them out of business. kthxbye.
Doesn't this count as wire fraud?
Mind you this practice will get attention when the numbers used are not those of citizens but those used by government lobbying corporations.
"Because we are not employing at entry level, offshoring will kill our industry stone dead."
1) Have her set up an answering machine with a short explanation.
2) Get the mainstream media involved.
Trolling is a art,
Call the State Attorney General, then call the US Senators (John Kerry and Ted Kennedy), then the Governor's office. Explain what has been done and the reaction received. I bet the Attorney General will do something about it.
You're looking for:
Digitcom Services, Inc.
12923 Venice Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90066
Phone (310) 358-7000
TollFree(800) 464-5446
Fax (310) 437-4105
Please note: I am not posting this so you can pester, annoy, harass, or threaten them. If you call, call once, speak to their manager, and politely let them know what you think about their business practices. What you do with this is up to you, I hold no responsibilty for the actions of others.
and told others what i did and surmised later that i don't know HOW close i was to being potentially arrested.
See, i'd been ripped off, losing a sizable chunk of money by a scammer in 2001/2002. I was laid off, had a mortgage, was desperate, and when you've been unhirable for almost a year, and burning down your vested stocks because some CEO got a bonus to lay you off when that bonus (several $10s of millions from what i heard) could have kept me and others employed for a few more months), your world starts to implode.
So, i gambled (and lost) some $700 on an asshole who made a dumbass out of me. He promised (IIRC in writing as well as verbally) to return my investment if in 30 days (or so) i wanted to cancel my involvement. He dragged my ass out for weeks past that time, and then I called the FBI. I suggested this guy, one Anthony Brown (who claimed to have contacts at Cisco and ohter places, and claimed he was having meetings at times at their Milpitas location), might be doing this in an interstate manner. I was told they couldn't do anything. The local police in the Sacramento & San Joaquin areas couldn't help either. I suggested to the FBI agent that if they or law enforcement couldn't help me that I should probably find some criminals who would not take kindly to being ripped off, and that I should make an appointment with Mr. Brown (if that was even his real name and real ID), and "steer" him toward some mob or gangster types who would probably also not know Brown was a bottom-feeding piece of scum about to meet his Hell on Earth. I actually wanted BLOOD. I wanted to KILL that m'f'r, as $700 was a serious amount of money to take, STEAL, from someone whose world was already on fire. So, if he actually took their money, and then fucked THEM, he'd be sorry he ever met me or them.
The FBI agent responded, "You're calling the *FBI* with a question like THAT?" Then he paused, giving me a hint i better hang up.
I hung up. Later, friends and family helped me out a little more, but it is a shame that vigilantism is/can be illegal.
My advice: If your world is on fire and you get involved with anybody who is going to get money from you, get their fingerprints off a restaurant glass, a writing pin from which you can lift the prints with cello tape, or something. Make him/her sign YOUR documents that their ass is voluntarily on a hook to YOU since their exploiting your pitiful situation. But, then if you're that smart, you might not be in my "hindsight is 20/20" situation.
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
They love to make themselves look good with stuff like this. They'll get the FBI hopping. Caller ID spoofing is fraud, and it's prosecutable.
"Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking
I've gotten several of these calls as well, which I started receiving shortly after I took my vehicle in to a dealership to be serviced. It may be coincidental, but I suspect not. Anyway, the numbers were always had spoofed caller id numbers, but it was the same warranty 'company' every time. The people on the other line refused to give you any information whether it be phone numbers, physical location, etc. I asked several times to be taken off their list. My cell phone provider (T-Mobile) said there was nothing they could do, even though these calls were illegal.
I stopped receiving these calls after awhile, I'm guessing this particular company moved on or got busted. Frankly, it's about time we had some ability as consumers to deal with this sort of fraud. The do-not-call laws do absolutely no good if these guys can spoof their numbers to get around being traced.
http://www.policystew.com/
I got one of these calls. It was to my cell phone, from a caller ID of 414-302-xxxx. It was a robocall asking about renewing my "vehicle warranty", and that I should press 1 to talk to a rep. So I pressed 1 and asked the rep what vehicle warranty this was about (as I don't have any vehicle under warranty). She said that she couldn't tell me for security reasons (!!) and that it was usually a '95-'97 model year. I told her I had no such vehicle, and she said she would "remove me from their list." End of call.
The whole thing was very hokey. I think they are looking for people with older cars because they usually have less money to fight back against them with. Preying on the weak, these people are really scum.
-molo
Using your sig line to advertise for friends is lame.
As a bemused observer from the UK, it seems strange to me that two of the methods offered here are "contact the media", or "get a lawyer".
I leave it to others to decide what this says about the US.
Get your own free personal location tracker
Since the spoofed calls are not coming to her number the records will only show the angry folks who are getting scammed. It is their phone records that will indicate the source. Purchase a call screening device ($60) and block calls from out of the area or any unrecognized number. Most machines allow you to use both a white list of good numbers a priority list of close friends and a rejection list that would include anyone else. We were getting a lot of drunks calling late at night waking us in a panic. We put a "caller ID with ring control" on the line and have not had a single unknown phone call. We have not had anyone we white listed blocked. So its a cheap answer to the problem.
You could fix the "who cares" part by forwarding calls to her number to the FBI or your local phone company.
You are using English. Please learn the difference between loose and lose; they're, there, and their; your and you're.
I'm a marketing consultant and I've dealt with the auto warranty industry extensively. We (they) have recently started a new watch-dog group called the Automotive Warranty and Service Contract Association, and one of their purposes is to stop the "robo-calling" and caller ID spoofing. Have your friend send an email to Larry Hecker, Executive Director of AWSCA. His email is [his first name] at warrantybestpractices dot com. Good luck!
I know how this old lady feels. .. i thought it might be a scam, but fell for giving my routing number, and said no to the coupons. they still trying to take my money, luckily i didnt have $400 in my account :)
It sucks to be violated by some punks that dont even know you.
I had some people call about my student loan and said they had a federal rebate for me, all i had to do is give them a routing number to my bank account. and then they started trying to get me to say yes on a recorded call to saying they could take $400 dollars for a bunch of coupons
After me being a dumbass i called the State attorney General and they told me to call the FBI. The FBI said it happens all the time and there isnt anything they can do, cuz they cant find them.
I think this is why its such a big problem, no one wants to handle it, the FBI just says, sorry no my problem, and the crooks prolly know this!
Go go Gadget Nailgun!
She could file a john doe lawsuit and get the CDRs via subpoena ala RIAA and then sue the telemarketers for damages.
$7.95/mo, 200 GB disk, 2TBxfer, MySQL, PHP, RoR.
You could fix the "who cares" part by forwarding calls to her number to the FBI or your local phone company.
Careful with that... I got my hand slapped by the FBI once because they wouldn't do anything so I redirected all the traffic I was complaining about to them. Took them 2 weeks but they had me hauled before a Federal Judge to tell me to stop. The judge vacated the charges on my promise to stop redirecting traffic.
I know that the way AT&T is set up, if you call a call phone and your caller ID is the number for that cell, it will not ask you for a password to check the voicemail. I've mentioned it numerous times to CSRs but they really don't seem to care. Seems like a pretty big security hole.
I think you are on to something there. The phone company in this country (US) has the unique problem of they have sold a phone to everyone who wants one. I read somewhere that some where between 98% and 99% of this country has a phone. How the phone company expands profits is by selling new services like call waiting and voice mail. Here is a new service that I would pay good money for; A phone company provided list of everyone who called my number in say the last month and I could take any number on that list, dial it, and get the person who called me. No spoofed numbers. They have this information, it's in the billing system.
Another day closer to redwood heaven
Extended warranty telemarketers, scum of the Earth or not, help keep the economy flowing;
Interestingly, the "Extended Warranty" schemes sound just like a Credit Default Swap, which is what caused the global credit crisis.
Basically, people were buying insurance (cf. warranty) on bonds they didn't own, then selling insurance on the same bond. If one were to buy insurance at a premium of, say, 2% of the bond's value, and then sell insurance at, say 4% of the value, one would basically be raking in 2% of the bond's value *for free*.
This all works out great until all the bonds tank at once and nobody can make good on the insurance policies they were selling.
That's exactly what happened when the housing market imploded. Since the housing market was considered one of the safest bets around, banks were using it to back tons of bonds. So, down they went like dominoes: first the housing market, then the bonds, then the insuring banks, then everything else.
I had to change phone numbers when switching from ISDN back to POTS way back when. The first number we got had been owned by a drug dealer, and we'd get collect calls from prison and people wanting a fix. That lasted for about a day. The next number we got had been the local Alcholics Anonymous chapter, and after a couple of bleary 2AM "if I don't quit drinking I think I might die" calls, we switched again. So far, so good.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
This happened to me for a while, until I kept them on the line long enough that I could start asking questions. The last time they called, I asked "Where are you located?", "How did you get my phone number?", and "Do you realize that by continuing to call me you're breaking the law?". While they never gave a straight answer, they hung up on me (after the breaking-the-law question) and stopped calling.
Granted this does nothing to punish someone who should be punished, but it did stop the calls.
No, it's not a crime to lie; but it is a crime (a felony actually) to impersonate a law enforcement agent.
That might get the FBI's attention, but try the locals first.
And the locals are the starting point for this problem too. If the scammers are next door, then there's no jurisdiction for the FBI.
You mentioned you're in the Boston area. Why not try "Help me Hank" - Channel 7's investigative reporter.
Here's an idea. Use the taxes you have for meaningful things, like enforcing laws, and not million dollar dinner parties, resort trips for elected officials, $60,000 lightbulbs, jobs to the highest bidder, etc.
There is never a good reason to raise taxes. There is always a good reason for more oversight in government spending.
Mr. Mabe is no longer with us...
Tom Mabe has filled several CDs with his "Revenge on the Telemarketers".