NEW YORK — Last fall, U.S. Rep. 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.

“People thought we were making the calls,” Murphy said.

The calls, which the Pennsylvania Republican estimated in the thousands, were apparently placed with fake Caller ID. That has been possible for a long time, but it generally required special hardware and technical savvy.

In the last few years, Caller ID spoofing has become much easier. Millions of people have Internet telephone equipment that can be set to make any number appear on a Caller ID system. And several websites have sprung up to provide Caller ID spoofing services, eliminating the need for any special hardware.

For instance, Spoofcard.com 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.

Caller ID spoofing appears to be legal, though many of its uses are not. The Federal Communications Commission has never investigated the issue, spokeswoman Rosemary Kimball said.

Lance James, chief scientist at security company Secure Science, said Caller ID spoofing websites are used by people who buy stolen credit card numbers. They will call a service such as Western Union, setting Caller ID to appear to originate from the card holder’s home, and use the credit card number to order cash transfers that they then pick up.

Exposing a similar vulnerability, Caller ID is used by credit-card companies to authenticate newly issued cards. The recipients are generally asked to call from their home phones to activate their cards. Some card companies maintain, however, that they use additional means to confirm new cards. And caller ID spoofing may not work for calls to 1-800 numbers, where the hardware can identify calls using a separate technology.

Two spoofing services contacted by The Associated Press, Spoofcard.com and Telespoof.com, did not return messages seeking comment about their business. However, some of the five or so websites in the business don’t appear to be completely unscrupulous: James said he had been hired by a few of them, which he would not name, to help stop the Western Union scam.

Also, both Spoofcard.com and SpoofTel.com say they will surrender call logs to authorities in response to subpoenas. Spoofcard.com’s site says the service is “intended for entertainment purposes only.”

Telephone companies can trace calls to their origin regardless of the Caller ID information they carry, but the process is laborious, especially since a call may be carried by several companies before reaching its destination. The fragmented nature of the telephone network also makes it technically difficult for the carriers to prevent spoofing.

At Verizon Communications, security manager John Lewandowski said the company often gets complaints about fake Caller ID after a telemarketer has spoofed his number to cover his tracks.

In a typical case, someone will be jarred in the middle of the night by repeated telemarketing calls. He checks Caller ID, calls the number — which is false — and starts “cussing out” the person at the other end of the line, Lewandowski said.

“And that poor guy was asleep. It wasn’t him at all,” Lewandowski said. The company investigates and tracks down the callers, he added.

Apart from fraud and telemarketing, Caller ID spoofing can be used for pranks and spying.

In one case, SWAT teams surrounded a building in New Brunswick, N.J., last year after police received a call from a woman who said she was being held hostage in an apartment. Caller ID was spoofed to appear to come from the apartment.

It’s also easy to break into a cellphone voice mailbox using spoofing, because many systems are set to automatically grant entry to calls from the owner of the account. Stopping that requires setting a PIN code or password for the mailbox.

In a slightly more complicated fashion, spoofing was part of the technique used by a hacker who broke into Paris Hilton’s cell-phone voicemail in 2004, according to security consultant Kevin Mitnick, who said he was citing hacking sources. The hacker apparently called the celebrity socialite posing as a technical-support person from the carrier, and lured the password from her.

That is known as a “pretext” call — someone poses on the phone as a customer, employee or even a regulator to obtain personal information from companies and individuals. And indeed, while Spoofcard.com contends that its service is for “entertainment purposes,” it also notes that “Private Investigators will find Caller ID spoofing valuable for pretext calls.”

Robert Douglas, a privacy consultant in Colorado, testified before Congress last month that pretexters trade tips on finding the best spoofing services.

Pretexters generally claim their practices are legal, as long as they don’t involve financial information. A bill introduced in the Senate would make it illegal to pose as someone else to obtain phone records, or to buy records from phone company insiders.

Douglas would like legislation against Caller ID spoofing as well, but there appears to be little interest in Washington.

“If I’m paying extra for Caller ID, which I do … there should be some ability on my part to believe what I’m getting,” Douglas said.

In Alaska, State Representative Bob Lynn has introduced a bill to make spoofing a misdemeanor. “False caller identification is more serious than pranks, or the annoyance of intrusive telemarketing,” Lynn writes. “It facilitates fraud, and can be potentially deadly.”

However, it is unclear what effect the bill would have. As Lynn notes, Caller ID is a federal issue.

YourCallerID.com is based in Tampa, Florida. Any contact inquires can be forwarded to admin@yourcallerid.com.

While many consumers think they couldn’t be fooled by a telemarketing scam, police caution that fraud artists employ highly sophisticated techniques to manipulate, trick and bully. Consumers across the country were robbed of more than $1 million in 2006 in a variety of telemarketing fraud schemes, according to PhoneBusters, the national anti-fraud call centre. Cpl. Louis Robertson, of the RCMP’s Criminal Intelligence Analytical Unit, said fraud artists tend to cast a wide net. “You could be 16 years old or you could be 92 years old. You are a potential victim,” he said.

In December 2006, police in Montreal made a string of arrests, breaking up an alleged telemarketing ring that preyed on seniors and businesses in Canada and the U.S. Police say the alleged boiler-room plot, which targeted mainly Americans, defrauded its victims of up to $13 million over three years. One of the phone pitches allegedly had fraud artists persuading seniors to play phoney lotteries, in which the targets made fake tax payments on non-existent winnings. Authorities allege the scam artists targeted the vulnerable, aiming to rob people of their life’s savings.

Telemarketing fraud can have devastating results, leaving people emotionally shaken and in financial ruin. But experts suggest people can separate legitimate business calls from scams if they ask critical questions and hang up on suspicious callers. How to protect yourself “If it’s too nice, it’s not true,” Robertson said of telemarketing pitches that try to tap into people’s needs or desires. Fraud artists aim to exploit people’s vulnerabilities to their advantage by making lavish promises and offers. Who wouldn’t want a free Caribbean cruise to break a long and cold winter?

Why wouldn’t you want to enter a lottery if you were guaranteed to win? Consumers should slow down and ask questions before agreeing to anything. If you are unsure whether a service or offer is legitimate, take down callback numbers, ask the caller to mail additional information, and ask for references. The following tips will also help protect your savings: If you don’t remember entering a contest you have supposedly won, be skeptical and demand more information. Canadians cannot win out-of-country lotteries. If you are told you’ve won one, hang up immediately.

If a caller tells you that you need to pay for the delivery, taxes or processing of a prize, be cautious. Sometimes, telemarketers will ask their victims to send cash or money orders, as they cannot be traced. Ask for more literature to be mailed to you along with references before you agree to purchase a service or a product. If a person is calling on behalf of a charity, ask them to call back after you’ve done some research. Check Revenue Canada’s database to ensure it is a registered charity. Robertson said people who do surrender personal financial information over the phone are at risk of losing money and their identities. “Not only will you be a telemarketing victim, you are a potential ID-theft victim, next week, next month, next year, in five years, don’t know, but you will be put on the list and that list will be posted on the internet eventually,” he said.

Avoiding manipulation

To avoid getting entangled in a long and involved pitch, people should just end suspicious calls, Robertson said. “Hang up because they’re not scared of us,” he said. “With the new technology, it’s so easy to set up a boiler room.” People can now choose their own telephone numbers and area codes, making it difficult to trace calls, Robertson said. Consumers should also be alert to common manipulation techniques. Scammers will try to sell limited-time offers, encouraging people to sign up for a special deal before they’ve had a chance to do any research. Keep in mind that reasonable businesses will give their consumers a callback number and some time to consider special sales or deals.

Fraud artists also prey on people who are lonely by striking up a false friendship. A caller may use your first name and ask personal questions to create a profile and build some common ground. Be firm, and hang up on any suspicious callers. “They are professional phone callers,” Robertson said, noting they will try to cajole and convince with pleasantries and sweet voices. Alternately, some scam experts may try to use positions of authority to manipulate their victims. The caller may purport to be a government official, a bank manager or a lawyer as an intimidation technique. If you are concerned about a potential problem, ask for a callback number and contact a lawyer or a trusted third party to respond. A scam in January 2007 saw people pose as Canada Revenue Agency workers. Callers were asked to provide personal bank account information. The federal agency warned it never asks people to deposit money into bank accounts registered to an individual, noting all tax debts are payable only to the Receiver General for Canada. What to do if you’ve been scammed Many people who have been scammed are embarrassed or figure it’s too much bother to do anything about it. A poll conducted in 2006 by the Strategic Counsel for the Competition Bureau of Canada found that four in ten respondents said they “did nothing” to resolve incidents of marketing fraud. The top two reasons respondents gave for their inaction was that they assumed it would be too arduous a process and the amount of money stolen was not worth reporting.

But police warn that if you have surrendered information or money, you may be added to a “sucker list” — a database of potential victims that is traded among fraud artists. PhoneBusters notes that telephone fraudsters who have succeeded once will continue to pursue their victims.

Authorities say consumers should also call their local police, banks, PhoneBusters, or the Competition Bureau. Online complaints can also be logged on the RECOL (Reporting Economic Crime On-Line) website (www.recol.ca). Complaints are filed, prioritized, and directed, where appropriate, to partners, including PhoneBusters, the RCMP and the U.S. Internet Fraud Complaint Center. For computer automated calls coming from mysterious numbers, consumers should go online and check databases for telephone numbers and company information. Robertson urged people to take the time, no matter how small the amount.

“If you lose $40, are you going to take the time to call your local police and be on the phone here for 15 minutes?” he asked. “But if the bad guy hits 400 people at $50, at the end of the line, it is a fairly large amount of money.”

Almost every state has a free, opt-in “do not call” service, which renders moot the primary feature of the VTech TZ2551 cordless phone system. The phone offers a digital-spread-spectrum cordless phone with a built-in, three-mailbox digital answering machine in the base station, but it’s hard to overlook its many flaws.This phone’s main selling point is the TeleZapper feature. TeleZapper emits a signal that tells predictive-dialing computers (which just dial numbers sequentially until someone answers) that your number is disconnected. Since our test lines are doubly protected by both the New York “do not call” list and by caller ID blocking, we could not test TeleZapper’s effectiveness. Regardless, TeleZapper is more gravy than it is a reason to buy this model.

Although the box reads “2.4GHz,” the TZ2551 is actually a hybrid phone. The 2.4GHz is used only for your end of the conversation, from the handset to the base. Your caller’s voice travels from the base to the handset using the more interference-prone 900MHz bands, although neither our Wi-Fi setup nor the nearby microwave oven seemed to cause any undo interference.

We’re not particularly fond of the TZ2551’s silver-and-black design, but it’s not hideously ugly either. The keys are well spaced but aren’t backlit, while the LCD has only a faint, pea-soup-green backlight that rendered the dim type in the three-line display difficult to read. As with many upright phones, the handset sits uneasily in the charger and is prone to being accidentally dislodged.

But this phone’s worst ergonomic feature is the 1.5-inch, hard rubber antenna on both the base and the handset. For some reason, the antenna’s tip comes to a rather sharp point, making it especially dangerous and painful if you somehow hit your ear with it when bringing the handset to your head. This is definitely not a phone for a home with young children.

As with most modern cordless phones, you get call-waiting caller ID, assuming you subscribe to this service from the phone company. The phone holds as many as 99 names and numbers in its internal caller ID memory (most phones only store about 50 numbers), 40 names and numbers in its phone book, and 10 speed-dial numbers. The digital chip can hold 15 minutes of messages, but there’s no way to limit the length of an incoming message. A caller can spend as long as 4 minutes rambling. The machine cuts people off only if there’s just 30 seconds left on the chip.

Sound quality is below average, rather tinny and buzzy. The VTech TZ2551’s range fell well short of that of other 2.4GHz phones we’ve used–barely 50 feet–probably because of its hybrid nature. We got most of the rated and above-average six-hour talk time and a bit more than the below-average six-day standby time.

VTech TZ2551 Specs and Features

System Requirements:

• Pentium75 CPU or faster

• Windows 98/ME/2000/XP

• 32M RAM

• Voice Modem (Caller ID supported)

• Sound Card and Speaker (optional)

• Caller ID service from your telephone company

  Program Features:

  • Caller ID informs you of who’s calling

  • Two types of black list (private black list and public black list)

  • Auto answers calls in blacklist and play SIT tone to the caller

  • Play a wave message (”please put me on your do not call list”) to blocked calls and then hangs them up automatically

  • Complete history of all calls received

  • Works in two modes (Transparent or Replace Ringer)

  • Auto load while system starts up

  • Minimize on start up

  • Hide to systray

  
  Software Download: (475K Bytes)
  http://www.kengolf.com/download/teleblocker.zip

The links below provide information about do-not-call laws and list programs in each state.

·        Older people are disproportionately targeted by fraudulent telemarketers. That’s because they’re home to get the calls, they have money saved that can be robbed, and they’re too polite to hang up.

·        It’s important to know who you’re dealing with. If a company or charity is unfamiliar, check it out with your state or local consumer agency and the Better Business Bureau. Fraudulent operators open and close quickly, so the fact that no one has made a complaint yet doesn’t guarantee the company or charity is legitimate. Ask for advice about the type of pitch you received and the danger signs of fraud.

·        Some telemarketing pitches are blatantly fraudulent, and you should know the signs. It’s illegal for telemarketers to ask for a fee upfront if they promise or claim it’s likely they’ll get you a credit card or loan, or to “repair” your credit. It’s also illegal for any company to ask you to pay or buy something to win a prize, or to claim that paying will increase your chances of winning. And it’s illegal to buy and sell tickets to foreign lotteries by phone or mail.

·        Other danger signs of fraud may he harder to recognize. They include: pressure to act immediately; refusal to send you written information; use of scare tactics; demands to send payment by wire or courier; demands for payment of taxes or customs fees to claim a prize; requests for your financial account numbers even though you’re not paying for something with them; promises to recover money you’ve lost in other scams, for a fee; claims that you can make lots of money working from home; and refusal to stop calling when you say you’re not interested.

·        Beware of identity thieves. Crooks pretending to be from companies you do business with may call or send an email, asking to verify personal information they should already have. Contact the company directly to confirm before providing information.

·        How you pay matters. If you pay for a transaction with cash, checks, or money orders, your money is gone before you realize there is a problem. Paying by credit card is safest because you can dispute the charges if you don’t get what you were promised. You don’t have the same dispute rights when you pay with debit cards or give your bank account number. Bank debits have become fraudulent telemarketers’ preferred form of payment.

·        Where telemarketers are located matters, too. Some fraudulent telemarketers are deliberately located in other countries because it’s more difficult for U.S. law enforcement agencies to pursue them. It may be hard to tell where they are; they may have mail forwarded from the U.S. and use telephone numbers that look like domestic long-distance. Be very cautious when dealing with unknown companies from other countries.

·        Be prepared when you answer the phone. Think about the advice you’d give someone else about how to detect fraud, then follow that advice yourself. Use Caller ID or an answering machine to screen calls. Don’t hesitate to hang up on suspicious calls.

·        Know your “do-not-call” rights. Put your number on the national “do-not-call” registry to stop most telemarketing calls. Call 888-382-1222, TTY 866-290-4326 or go to www.donotcall.gov. You can also tell companies not to call you again on a case-by-case basis. Report violations of your “do-not-call” rights through the “do-not-call” number or Web site. Report telemarketing fraud to the NFIC at 800-876-7060, www.fraud.org.

Yes, in many cases! You can also forcefully recapture your telephone and your privacy.

Few consumers know that under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 (TCPA)*, a company that calls you without your permission or without a prior business relationship must remove your name from their calling list immediately after you ask them. Armed with this little-known law, you can banish telemarketers from your life. If the company calls you again, you may sue them for $500 for the first violation and for triple damages for each violation thereafter. You can also collect $500 plus triple damages if you can prove other violations. And even if they never call you back, you can still take action against the company for damages. For example, the law requires that the company maintain a “Do Not Call List,” and a written “Do not Call Policy” which they must provide to you on demand.

Since most companies do not have a written policy, they can be sued for not providing a copy of the policy. The words “on demand” are critical to the interpretation of this law. It is the same wording used in the California Vehicle Code requiring you to provide your driver’s license to a police officer. Legally the company must comply with your request for the “Do Not Call Policy” under ordinary standards of reasonableness. We think five working days is reasonable, although a strong case could be made for demanding the policy via fax or overnight courier.

Click here to see the violations for which a telemarketing company can be sued.

Believe it or not, telemarketers are trained to “enjoy” the experience of being rejected by you. They are playing a numbers game. Here’s why: They know that on average, one out of 25 people will say “yes” to their offer. As a result, they actually count the “No” responses, with the understanding that for every 24 rejections they will get at least one sale. However, this constant rejection by hundreds of people a day takes its toll. This is why most telemarketers only work four to six hour shifts. The strain of constant rejection is both emotionally and physically exhausting. As a result, when you actually seem glad to hear from them, they are inclined to spend more time with you, even if all you are doing is talking about the weather and gathering the information you need to sue their employers.

Kill them with kindness

We advise never being hostile to a telemarketer —they are trained to deal with hostility, but none of them know how to deal with cheerfulness and enthusiasm. Telemarketers are trained to “take control” of the sales call. When they call you, they have only one intent: to make a sale. Your objective is to get enough information to use the law against them. This means that you have to turn the tables and take control of the conversation. The best way to take control is by being cheerful and asking frequent questions in a non-threatening manner. On page 4 we showed you the information you need to gather in order to sue successfully. In telemarketing terms, this is called “qualifying the prospect.” And the best way to control the call is to interrupt their script by using your script. Read on…

Putting the “Yes/No/Maybe” sales principle to work for you

Most telephone sales people are trained using a sales technique called “Yes/No/Maybe.” The objective of “Yes/No/Maybe” is to get you to say “yes” or “no” as fast as possible. Once you say “Maybe” and start asking unusual questions you slow the marketer down.

Almost 99% of the time, the person calling you will be reading a script. The script is used because years of market research show that salespeople who read a script over the phone and stick to it with minimal deviation tend to make more money. Phone scripts are especially designed to prevent you from asking questions that put you in the costly “maybe” category. All they want from you is a sale. But what you want is the information required to optimize your chances of winning a lawsuit or getting an out-of-court settlement. Your job is to “reel them in.” Yes, it takes hard work and time, but remember, the cruelest thing that you can do to telemarketers is to keep them on the phone without buying anything. Every minute you spend, every question you ask, is costing them money. The kindest thing you can do is hang up the phone. Some consumer advocates have claimed that if everyone in America kept a telemarketer on the phone for just one minute, instead of hanging up, the industry would be bankrupted in a matter of months. After you have qualified a target company as an eligible lawbreaker (they are not a survey firm or a tax-deductible non-profit), you need to send them the following letter. This letter is especially designed to make the strongest possible legal case. Send this letter five working days from the time of first contact.

Now you simply wait for the company to violate the law.

You sent your letter and now you wait. Enjoy the increased silence of your phone in the meantime. Inevitably, one of the companies will break the law in one of five ways: 1) They call you again in the next 12 months. 2) They neglect to put you on the “Do Not Call List” 3) They are not maintaining a “Do Not Call List.” 4) They do not have a written “Do Not Call” policy. 5) They were unable to provide a copy of the “Do Not Call” policy on demand. Once any of the above are violated, you are poised to exercise the full rights of the law. We call this the “F.I.S.T.” legal strategy. “FIST” stands for “File, Inform, Settle, or Trial.”

Telemarketing fraud costs Georgia consumers nearly $500 million annually, according to the Georgia Governor’s Office of Consumer Affairs.

As an attempt to educate consumers, the state designated this week as the first annual Georgia Consumer Protection Week.

“The people who engage in (telemarketing) are professionals,” said Michael Rupured, University extension consumer economics specialist. “They are so good that they can persuade people who know better to give out credit card information for bogus products.”

Sweepstakes opportunities, prize offers and charity requests are all chances for con-artists to make money off unsuspecting victims.

The best way to make sure the person on the other end represents a legitimate business is by asking questions and checking the caller’s references, according to a Georgia consumer affairs office publication.

Telemarketers acquire names using different sources, such as magazine subscription lists and warranty cards, according to the publication.

A goal of the task force is to increase the number of consumers on the Georgia No-Call List. The list is sent to companies nationwide notifying them of people who want to be removed from call lists, he said.

To be placed on the Georgia No-Call list consumers can visit (www.ganocall.com).