Caller ID shows as MY PHONE #

[scotthylton]

Why is my own Name and # showing up as the Caller ID when a Marketing Call is being placed to my home?  I am very disappointed that Verizon allows this to occur...

[gs0b]

It's not a Verizon specific problem.

The issue lies in the fundamental design decisions made decades ago by the engineers and scientists who developed the (then) modern computerized telephone switching system.  When it was developed, all nodes on the telephone network were trusted.  As such, there was no need to verify CallerID information as it is passed from node to node.

Fast forward to today.  VoIP systems can place calls into the traditional telephone network and provide any CallerID they want without verification.  This is called "CallerID" spoofing and is quite easy to do.  It can be done with any call to anyone, including Verizon, Comcast, AT&T and so on.  You can even get an app that allows you to place spoofed calls from your smart phone or tablet.

There is no one easy fix for this.  It requires significant money to be spent to redesign and redevelop significant parts of the telephone system.  In short, it is neither cheap nor easy.  Funding to fix this is difficult to come by in today's competitive service environment.

Instead of complaining about this, you could consider it a feature.  Any call that arrives with your phone number has clearly identified itself as junk.  Deal with it as you see fit.

Enjoy.