Scammers dial in their caller ID skills

By Charles Sowell  

DECEMBER 21, 2011 6:01 p.m. (0)

Scam artists increasingly are tapping into a growing trend by telemarketers to disguise their real identity and phone numbers by using computer software that enables them to generate a false caller ID.

It is illegal, under federal law, for telemarketers to use a false caller ID or robocalls. The federal trade commission has reported a spike in consumer complaints about robocalling. In September the agency got 140,000 complaints more than double the 61,000 of September a year ago.

Law enforcement officials say it is now easy to route a call onto the Internet and back into the public phone network. This masks the calls true origin. There is also free software or inexpensive services that can be used to create telephone aliases.

There are legitimate reasons for debt collection companies to want to use these softwares. Increasingly criminals and telemarketers are using it for less benign purposes, federal officials said.

“It’s here, big time,” said Carri Lybarker, spokeswoman for the state Department of Consumer Affairs. “Most often we see it used to make it appear that a call from out of state is actually a local call.”

The reverse can be true, too, she said.

“We see this particularly in the lottery scams where they want to make it appear that they are calling from Washington, DC, or some other likely source for lottery notification.”

Telemarketers disguise their real identity in an effort to get consumers to pick up the phone for their sales pitch. The caller ID for Humane Society might well not be the folks who care for stray animals and the I.R.S. might well be a pitch for credit cards.

“Increasingly, we’re seeing the fake caller IDs being used by criminals to spook consumers into revealing personal information, or to mail them a check,” Lybarker said. “This is very popular among scammers who are running a fake debt collection ring.”

Scammers also pay close attention to headlines, she said.

“Back when Wells Fargo took over all the Wachovia branches and were changing out the signs a popular scam was to call a consumer with a fake Wells Fargo ID and then tell them they needed to confirm information or their accounts would be frozen,” she said.

Shea Smith, of the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office, said scammers who use internet calling to bounce their calls around the globe are particularly tough to catch.

Mostly it is a nuisance, he said, unless the person getting the call actually falls for the scammer’s pitch.

He said several deputies got a series of calls from scammers claiming to be from a law firm, or from the federal Justice Department, who were trying to collect a debt.

“The bottom line is,” Lybarker said, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn’t.”

The same is true if it sounds too bad to be true, particularly on debt collection scams.

If a consumer knows they don’t owe money they should ignore the call and report it to the appropriate agency, Lybarker said.