Call Spoofing: Blessing For Business Or Curse For Consumers

Caller ID has become many consumers' best friend. It allows them to screen their calls and avoid being hammered by telemarketers and others. However for every solution of course their is a way to get around it, and in this case it is call spoofing.

For those unfamiliar with call spoofing it allows you to mask your number as any other number you like. In some cases these call spoofing services even enable you to mask your voice and change it to sound like a member of the opposite sex. However its most notable uses have been businesses and scam artists.

Between the Do Not Call list and Caller ID, telemarketing has dramatically dropped in effectiveness. You literally can’t get people on the phone most of the time. Call spoofing has enabled companies to mask their phone numbers as local callers with similar digits to the recipients so that they may believe it is a friend calling and will answer the phone. Once answered of course they are open to the ensuing pitch. Maybe a little underhanded, but it has made a big difference in advertising effectiveness for many companies.

Though where the problem has really arisen according to the FCC is scam artists who are using call spoofing to take advantage of unsuspecting consumers. It seems that some unscrupulous individuals have been using call spoofing to make it look like they are calling on behalf of an institution they already do business with in order to get more personal information out of them and get access to their money or steal their identities. This is definitely something you may want to warn your customers about in order to protect both them and your company's name. Clearly publish your business phone number on all contact information and marketing and encourage them to call in to you if they ever have a question.

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