The US Congress recently approved a bill that will make it illegal to spoof Caller ID in the USA.

A while back the FCC announced the wanted to crack down on Caller ID spoofing as it was still too easy.

The amount of the forfeiture penalty (…) shall not exceed $10,000 for each violation, or 3 times that amount for each day of a continuing violation, except that the amount assessed for any continuing violation shall not exceed a total of $1,000,000 for any single act or failure to act.

The title of the act is “A bill to amend the Communications Act of 1934 to prohibit manipulation of caller identification information”

It was introduced on February 28, 2007 and updated 27th June 2007.

You can find the full text here.

The short name “Truth in Caller ID Act of 2007″.

Source: Library of Congress

The FCC wants to clamp down on Caller ID spoofing it seems.

If you’ve ever used one of the half-dozen websites that allow you to control the phone number that appears on someone’s Caller ID display when you phone them, the U.S. government would like to know who you are.

Last week the FCC opened an investigation into the caller-ID spoofing sites — services that began popping up late 2004, and have since become a useful tool for private investigators, pranksters and more than a few fraud artists.

One of the example services that received the 7 page FCC report is called Telespoof.

On their website it says..

Telespoof.com offers the first domestic and international Caller ID spoofing service, allowing business professionals to remain anonymous when calling from anywhere in the world, to anywhere in the world. We like to think of it as “mobile invisibility”, the highest quality Caller spoofing service available anywhere in the world.

Another example is Spoofcard.com that sells a virtual ‘calling card’ for $10 that provides 60 minutes of talk time. The user dials a toll-free number, then keys in the destination number and the Caller ID number to display. The service also provides optional voice scrambling, to make the caller sound like someone of the opposite sex.

USA Today also reported on how Caller ID spoofing has become easier, saying..

Tim Murphy’s office started getting phone calls from constituents who complained about receiving recorded phone messages that bad-mouthed Murphy. The constituents were especially upset that the messages appeared to come from the congressman’s own office. At least, that’s what Caller ID said.

So if you have used one of these services for whatever reason, the federal government is interested in YOU..

The FCC is demanding business records from both companies, as well as the name of every customer that has used TeleSpoof, the date they used it and the number of phone calls they made.

Dated February 24th, the FCC letter gives TeleSpoof 20 calendar days to respond.

Source: Wired