On Sun, 16 Oct 2011 19:40:21 -0700, Patrick Elliott wrote:

> Was an article on that one in at least two recent 2600 magazines. Seems,
> there are two numbers that can come up, one is the "local exchange"
> number, which can be spoofed, and the other is a number identification
> thing, which can't. But, do to how the bloody system is set up, the one
> your caller ID box gets is the "local" spoofable one. Spoofing, if I
> remember, involves triggering an ID failure on the calling end, such
> that the system can't properly figure out where the call is from, then
> substituting data into the system, which it takes as a "local exchange"
> ID, or.. something like that. I really don't remember.
> 
> Basically, there *is* a way to figure out who really called you, but
> doing it requires more understanding of the system than like 99.9% of
> the people using it, including most of the people at the phone company
> you might contact about it, especially certain operators, which have to
> rely on the same ID data that just got mis-reported to your own phone.
> The only reason this *is* possible, ironically, is because they decided
> to design the system with such a flaw, instead of using something less
> prone to error, and redirection.

I'd be interested in knowing more about this, because those damned credit 
card interest rate scams spoof the entire number, it seems.  800-300-0000 
doesn't seem like a legitimate number at all, but IIRC that's the last 
one that hit our phone.

Jim

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