By Kevin Poulsen, SecurityFocus Aug 27 2004 2:37PM
Overdue debtors beware: You may not be able to rely on Caller I.D. to screen out those annoying bill collectors much longer. A California entrepreneur has a plan to bring the hacker technique of Caller I.D. spoofing to the business world, beginning with collection agencies and private investigators.
Slated for launch next week, Star38.com would offer subscribers a simple Web interface to a Caller I.D. spoofing system that lets them appear to be calling from any number they choose. "It creates an extra avenue for them to have someone pick up the phone," says founder Jason Jepson.
Caller I.D. spoofing has for years been within the reach of businesses with certain types of digital connections to their local phone company, and more recently has become the plaything of hackers and pranksters exploiting permissive voice over IP systems. But Star38.com appears to be the first stab at turning Caller I.D. spoofing into a commercial venture. Jepson claims the service will charge a twenty-five cent connection fee for each call, and seven to fourteen cents per minute.
SecurityFocus took the site for a test drive, and found it worked as advertised. The user fills out a simple Web form with his phone number, the number he wants to call, and the number he wants to appear to be calling from. Within two seconds, the system rings back, and patches the user through to the destination. The recipient sees only the spoofed number displayed on Caller I.D. Any number works, from nonsense phone numbers like "123 4567" to the number for the White House switchboard.
Jepson says the backend system doesn't rely on the most common methods of Caller I.D. spoofing -- PRI lines and VoIP -- but otherwise declined to comment on how it operates, for fear that competitors will launch copycat sites.
now what am i gonna do when i get those annoying fucking phone calls at dinner time from assholes trying to sell me 40 lbs of meat and a freezer to keep it in
