Beware...Caller ID can be Faked!

For some of you this may not be news. But in case some of my readers are not aware, I am here to explain that the Caller ID that is presented to you from an inbound caller can be altered by the sending party. Caller ID in its very early days was mainly managed by the Bell companies (aka: Baby Bells). Over time, the management of Caller ID has been decentralized to the point where just about anyone with a little industry knowledge and geeky prowess can manufacture just about any Caller ID number they wish.

I won’t use the scope of this blog post to go into the technical how-to’s. I will just summarize that anyone (not just phone service providers) who has access to the right equipment or software can generate custom Caller ID numbers.

So, where does that leave us? Well to me, it just means that the presented Caller ID should be regarded as a convenience, but not a validation of identity. This convenience makes it easy for us to screen calls, invoke certain actions (screen pops), and speed up transactions. Where I get a little more alarmed is when my automated bank teller tells me I don’t need to enter my pin because they see I am calling from one of the phone numbers in my profile.

Obviously, I can’t change the bank’s behavior. And, it doesn't keep me awake at night. This is just one of those little chinks in the armor they’ll have to work out at some point.

So for now, be armed with the knowledge that Caller ID is no guarantee of identity.