Caller ID Spoofing “CIDS” is the ability to appear on another persons home phone, cell phone or business phone as someone you are not. For instance anyone can trick another's caller ID to appear to be coming from the White House, or even from your local bank…

Where it came from

Caller ID Spoofing has been around for years and was originally used by corporate offices to make any call they made appear to come from one phone number even if that call wasn’t originating from there.

Telemarketers and collection agencies are notorious for using “CIDS” to hide their identity in the course of their business. Its use has increased tremendously by so many people and businesses that there are now many Caller ID Spoofing companies that let you create an account with them and then use their services by the minute for a small fee.

Scams

For instance spoofing someone's local bank on a caller id and then impersonating one of the banks officers requesting an unsuspecting bank customers account passwords, is an easy way to get into private online accounts.

How about spoofing a stock trading company and calling investors, claiming a glitch in the system that requires the traders password verification.

I think you get the idea… NEVER TRUST CALLER ID and if a legitimate institution calls you, they won’t mind if you call them back after you look up the number,

Where to get it

Here are two sites that anyone can spoof caller id from

http://www.spoofcard.com

http://www.telespoof.com

The Law

Caller ID spoofing services do not appear to violate any federal criminal law, according to an interview published with Orin Kerr, a law professor at the George Washington University Law School, and a former Justice Department computer crime lawyer, although laws may be passed very shortly. This is true especially if Caller-ID spoofing fraud increases and the FCC may get involved.

The US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation has passed S. 704, a bill that would make it a crime to spoof caller ID.

Dubbed the "Truth in Caller ID Act of 2007," the bill would outlaw causing "any caller identification service to transmit misleading or inaccurate caller identification information" via "any telecommunications service or IP-enabled voice service." Law enforcement is exempted from the rule.

As with spyware legislation there are two sides to every coin. There are legitimate uses or so says  Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK) "Caller ID provides critical information to those who rely on it,".

Either way it seems that "CIDS" is another double edged sword that can be used for good or bad but the bottom line is we all need to protect ourselves and our families by keeping up with what's going on in the world of technology.