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Mississippi Makes Caller ID Spoofing Illegal
marklyon writes "HB 872, recently signed into law by Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, makes Caller ID spoofing illegal. The law covers alterations to the caller's name, telephone number, or name and telephone number that is shown to a recipient of a call or otherwise presented to the network. The law applies to PSTN, wireless and VoIP calls. Penalties for each violation can be up to $1,000 and one year in jail. Blocking of caller identification information is still permitted."
I think not, as the law is pretty clear about requiring
...THE INTENT TO DECEIVE, DEFRAUD OR MISLEAD;
and since your Google Voice number is still a number belonging to you, I doubt it would be a crime to use it as your caller id.
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There is a subtle difference between caller ID and ANI. ANI is used by the telco billing system and cannot be spoofed because it identifies the access line. CID can sometimes be spoofed by inserting bad data on a PRI line. Some telcos, however, check it.
You really need to read the law: "however, when a person making an authorized call on behalf of another person inserts the name, telephone number or name and telephone number of the person on whose behalf the call is being made, such information shall not be deemed false information."
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"Most people's cell phones don't actually do caller-id. They merely cross-reference the number from your contacts list."
Hate to be pedantic here, but I do work in telecommunications. Pretty much every cellphone on the US market supports Caller ID Number, but not the Caller ID Name. If they didn't support Caller ID Number, then there would be no way to cross-reference the number to a name in your contact list.
Another side note is that Caller ID Name is not something supported in all locations or all countries - even other industrialized nations.
However, here’s my take, and why it still doesn’t need to be illegal IMHO. The companies who spoof are generally doing stuff that should be illegal anyway, right?
No they aren't. For example my company spoofs so that patients who hit *87 or return the call go to a number where their calls will get handled rather than some internal number that might just be an outgoing only line.
The bill includes intent. Unless one is trying to deceive or defraud your customer, there is no violation.
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