Over the past few weeks, one of my phone lines has been slammed with calls from businesses "returning calls from someone named ***."
I have seen some threads with responses from Verizon that they are working with the FCC to curb call spoofing. Is it really happening?
When I go to the FTC and FCC websites, both of their online complaint forms do not have the option to complain about being the victim of spoofing. So I am stuck talking to a live person on the phone. I have a case number with the FTC right now. It took some convincing to get it.
If Verizon could also convince these agencies to update their online complaint forms to include victims of spoofing, that would be helpful.
From what I am seeing, it's not illegal to spoof someone's number as long as no other laws are being broken (mainly, no one is getting physically hurt). Why doesn't spoofing fall under identity theft?
Consider this situation: When a VZW customer opens an account and obtains a new line and phone number, they are leasing that number from VZW. That number is a unique identifier that is tied to that customer account, and any other relevant personal information. To me, these unique identifiers (either in long or short term possession) are like your social security number, or a leased car's registration to a specific individual. When those numbers are used to commit a crime (fraud), that person registered to the unique identifier are held responsible until they can prove their innocence.
That's how I got a case number from the FTC: I didn't want to be blamed for businesses getting spammed with one of my numbers. My only back up is my call history that VZW has on record.
Shouldn't apps like Burner be denied the ability to generate numbers that are already in service? Before the digital age it was almost impossible to get someone else's number because of how the numbering system worked. It's the technology that needs to be reined in.
