On Wed, Jul 27, 2005 at 02:16:25PM -0700, Alex Pui wrote: > I don't know the second reason, but the first one in fact is illegal :). > > Alex
Yeah, lots of people have listed collection agencies trying to get money as a legit use for caller ID spoofing. One of the companies that was offering the service selectively even stated they would only give accounts to private investigators, collection agencies, and other similar users. The only profession that could use such a service legally, or at least have a chance of it being legal, would be bounty hunters, in states where bounty hunters are legal. The amount of stuff they can do legally is pretty amazing. I know they can enter a house and search it without a warrant as well as lie about who they are on the phone so wouldn't be surprised if they could legally spoof caller ID. As for companies trying to collect money. The specific law that comes into play is the Fair Debt Collections Act. § 807 - "False or misleading representations" states: A debt collector may not use any false, deceptive, or misleading representation or means in connection with the collection of any debt. Without limiting the general application of the foregoing, the following conduct is a violation of this section: Item 10: The use of any false representation or deceptive means to collect or attempt to collect any debt or to obtain information concerning a consumer. Item 14: The use of any business, company, or organization name other than the true name of the debt collector's business, company, or organization. Interestingly the next section makes it illegal to use false information for the return address and states that no name may be used on the return address other then the companies actual name (unless it implies the form of business the company is in). I imagine it could be argued that caller id spoofing would be a similarly unfair practice (§ 808 is headed "Unfair Practices) and had caller id spoofing been considered, it would have been included directly in the act like mailing return address. Though, I think the intention of this provision was protecting the privacy of the recipient in the case that a neighbor or other friend might see the envelope. Michael
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