US House Passes Ban On Caller ID Spoofing

smarek writes "The 'Truth in Caller ID Act' passed the US House of Representatives on Wednesday. The legislation is trying to outlaw Caller ID spoofing. In some cases, this spoofing has led to individuals giving out information that has led to identity theft. Last year the NYPD discovered over 6,000 victims of Caller ID spoofing, who together lost a total of $15 million. A companion bill has already been passed by the Senate, and the two are on their way to 'informal conference to reconcile any differences.' The bill that results will most likely pass." PCWorld's coverage notes that callers will still be able to block their information entirely, and that the bill may have negative consequences for legitimate phone-related services, such as Google Voice.

Comments

Re:If Congress legislates Email From: headers...

[causality]

And if Congress legislates that in all email messages, the "From:" headers cannot be forged, THAT will stop SPAM. I'm certain of it. Just like this will stop caller ID spoofing.

Just require that the Evil Bit be set to 1.

Re:Yet another legal solution to a technical probl

[Locke2005]

Agreed, CID is crap. Just make the ANI available to the called party, just like it is to law enforcement. And no, I don't think there is any compelling societal interest in allowing anonymous phone calls -- that's what pay phones are for.