SpoofCards are prepaid phone cards that offer “the ability to change what someone sees on their caller ID display when they receive a phone call.” This technology is now even more accessible as an iPhone application and as a Facebook application.

The application promotes caller ID spoofing, voice-changing, and call recordings.  A SpoofCard also allows users to change the gender of their voice to further hide their identity from the other party.  While it is legal to use this technology, some states have passed laws making spoof caller ID illegal when it is used “to mislead, defraud or deceive the recipient of a telephone call.”  However, in July 2009, a Florida District Court held that the state’s recently enacted Caller ID Anti-Spoofing Act was unconstitutional because the law had the effect of regulating commerce outside of the state and was therefore in violation of the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution. On the federal level, the House of Representatives has reintroduced a bill to amend the Federal Communications Act of 1934 to prohibit the manipulation of caller identification information.   A House committee is currently reviewing this bill.

Sometimes, SpoofCards are used fraudulently.  For example, someone can take advantage of credit card companies’ use caller ID to authenticate newly-issued credit cards.  In situations where credit card holders are asked to call a 1-800 number from their home phone or cell phone to validate their new credit card, spoof card technology can actually spoof “validation method,” thereby allowing a stranger to acknowledge receipt of someone else’s credit card.  If such abuse occurs, the abuser “Credit card thief” can then fraudulently use the other person’s credit card without that person knowing their money was stolen until their bill arrives in the mail.

In 2005, SWAT teams surrounded a building in New Jersey after police received a call from a woman claiming she was being held hostage in an apartment.  Her caller ID had been spoofed, so the 911 call appeared to come from her apartment.  Actually, the woman living there was not in any danger. Instead, a teenager had pretended to be the woman, and he called 911 using SpoofCard technology so that the 911 operator thought the call came from the woman’s apartment.  The teenager was later found and charged with conspiracy, initiating a false public alarm, and making a fictitious report to police.  He admitted to committing the hoax to take revenge on the people who lived in the apartment.

Another example of potential abuse of spoofing technology includes the ability to break into someone else’s cell phone voice mailbox. Many cell phone systems are automatically set up to accept calls from the account owner’s cell phone number to activate a replaying of all voicemail messages left on the phone. SpoofCards can create the appearance of being the active cell phone such that the spoofer can listen to someone else’s voicemail messages.  In divorce cases, one spouse might use this software to listen to the other spouse’s voicemail messages so attorneys should educate their clients about this potential danger and advise clients to use password protect their cell phone voice mail.

Particularly relevant to divorce litigants is a situation New Jersey attorney Deborah Alexander encountered.  Her client was a victim of domestic violence and had a restraining order against her ex-husband.  The ex-husband wanted to overturn the restraining order against him by attempting to show the victim was calling him incessantly, thereby, proving to the court that the victim did not fear him.  The ex-husband attempted to prove that many “missed calls” on his phone supposedly originated from his ex-wife’s phone on his caller ID.  However, the ex-husband was using spoofing technology to make it appear the ex-wife was trying to contact him, when in fact, he was calling himself and inputting her number himself. To catch such abusers, computer forensic specialists and cell service providers can sometimes assist show that the victim did not place a phone call at a certain time or to a certain person by downloading the “real” cell phone’s records because it is easier to show that a text was not sent from a certain phone at a certain time than proving the illegitimacy of a call or text that was received.

Next Post:  The Abuse of Trap Call Cards by Stalkers & How to Protect Yourself

[1] SpoofCard Frequently Asked Questions, http://www.spoofcard.com/faq (last visited Nov. 9, 2009).

[1] Id.

[1] Federal Court Strikes Down Florida Anti-Caller ID Spoofing Law, http://www.newsguide.us/technology/

telecommunications/Federal-Court-Strikes-Down-Florida-Anti-Caller-ID-Spoofing-Law/(last visited Dec. 12, 2009).

[1] Truth in Caller ID Act, H.R. 1258, 111th Cong. (2009).

[1] Bruce Schneier, Schneier on Security, http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/03/caller_id_spoof.html (last visited Nov. 9, 2009).

[1] Id.

[1] Id.

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