Caller ID Spoofing - Valid Reasons To Spoof Caller ID

Valid Reasons To Spoof Caller ID

There are legitimate reasons for modifying the caller ID sent with a call.

1. Calls from a large company, especially with multiple branches, where sending the main number makes sense. For example, a hospital might have the primary number 555-1000, with perhaps 250 lines inside the main building, and another 100 at the clinic five miles away. While some of the phones will have "555-10XX" numbers, many won't have any identifiable line. Having all calls "come from" 555-1000 lets the recipients know it's a hospital call.
2. A company with a toll-free telephone number may prefer the caller ID to display this number.
3. A call center making calls on behalf of many clients may prefer the caller ID to display a different number for each client's calls.
4. Commercial answering-service bureaus which forward calls back out to a subscriber's cell phone, when both parties would prefer the caller ID to display the original caller's information.
5. Most calling-card companies display the caller ID of the calling-card user to the called party.
6. Business owners have been known to use caller ID spoofing to display their business number on the caller ID display when calling from outside the office (for example, on a mobile phone).
7. Skype users can assign a caller ID number in order to prevent their Skype-Out calls being screened by the called party (the default Skype caller ID in the USA is 0000123456).
8. Google Voice displays its users' Google Voice number when they place calls through the service using their landline or cell phone.
9. Gizmo5 sends the user's Gizmo5 SIP number as outbound caller ID on all calls. Because Gizmo5 IDs are in the format 747NXXXXXX, it is possible to confuse calls made from Gizmo5 with calls made from area code 747.
10. The New York Times sent the number 111-111-1111 for all calls made from its offices until 15 August 2011. The fake number was intended to prevent the extensions of its reporters appearing in call logs, and thus protect reporters from having to divulge calls made to anonymous sources. The Times abandoned this practice because of the proposed changes to the caller ID law, and because many companies were blocking calls from the well-known number.