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- Caller ID Spoofing
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- In the 14 years I have been
actively skip tracing for a living I have come to despise
Caller ID. It seems that every person I call has Caller ID
and uses it to screen unwanted or unknown telephone calls.
Most importantly of course, I neither want to give up my
identity nor do I want to tip someone off to the underlying
reason for my telephone call while skip tracing. I have
employed countless measures to defeat or get around Caller
ID since its inception; I’ve used inconvenient calling
cards, dialed the (mostly useless) *67 prefix, paid for
restrictive “blind lines” and then there’s the hugely
expensive method of having a telephone operator connect my
call.
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- Imagine having the ability
to call anyone on the telephone and have the number of
your choice appear on that person’s Caller ID
equipment! Your telephone pretexts would have real
believability and your telephone calls will be answered when
the target may otherwise be screening his or her calls.
Best of all, your anonymity is guaranteed as long as you
don’t give up any personally identifying information or the
telephone number from which you are calling.
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- Recently, several companies
have been offering a service via the Internet that allows
anyone to trick, or “spoof,” standard Caller ID service.
Skip tracers, Investigators, Bail Recovery Agents and anyone
else employed to find people for a living can instantly
understand the potential of such a service and I am excited
to say that this tool has been a HUGE boost to the skip
tracing professions! Best of all, these services have been
deemed legal by the Federal Trade Commission as long as it
is not used for illegal purposes such as spoofing a 911
call, fraud, a call from law enforcement, a legitimate
business entity, etc., etc. I hold out hope that it will
remain legal because it has become so important to the
successful completion of many of my own bail enforcement
assignments.
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- First let me explain how
this service typically works and then we’ll integrate its
use within several real-world skip tracing scenarios.
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- First you have to sign up for an account with one of the
services available on the Internet; most sites only require
$20 deposit to be made with a credit card or through
PayPal. There is very little in the way of user
authentication or identification (for real anonymity buy a
$20 Visa gift-card and use it along with a Yahoo! email
account to sign up for an account). The user is then given
an account number and special numbers to call to begin a
spoofed call. When calling, the user first enters his
account number, then the telephone number that he or she
would like to appear on the target’s Caller ID display.
Lastly, the user enters the number he or she wants to call.
That’s it! When the call is connected the target will see
the spoofed number and the name that is on file with the
telephone company for that number. In certain circumstances
the target may see an “Out of Area” message or something
similar in nature, but never the investigator’s number or
identification.
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- The typical spoofing service charges the account for
every minute spent on an outgoing call made through the
service; I’ve seen rates from $.05 to $.25 per minute.
Considering it’s effectiveness when used with a solid
suitable pretext and how inexpensive this service is when
compared to a typical database search, it has become my
personal favorite and one of the first tools I use on every
assignment (since I believe that the telephone is still the
most powerful skip trace tool available).
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- The first rule to follow when using a call spoofing
service is to never use this tool to commit a crime. With
that said, the second rule would be to never give out your
own name or the telephone number from which you are
calling. Instead, leave your “trap line” number on the
target’s Caller ID equipment and give that number to the
target, that way you will capture the number that the target
uses to call you back; we can do a lot with the average
telephone number. The last rule is to always test the
number you are going to spoof and make sure that the Caller
ID information that will be displayed will be “convincing”
enough to get your target to pick up. The name that will
show up on Caller ID equipment is dependant upon the number
you spoof and is not always complete or descriptive enough
for our purposes.
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- If you haven’t already started to think of at least a
hundred ways to use this service while looking for someone
let me give you a few examples in which a spoofed call
allowed me to close a case very quickly or made the
difference between certain failure and resounding success.
I make no representation as to the legality or ethics of
these calls.
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- Several weeks ago I had a fugitive case that had pretty
much come to a standstill and I had very few leads left.
The one thing that I did have was an unlisted landline
telephone number where no one would ever answer the phone.
I knew that the defendant was probably unemployed and that
he was a skilled pipe-fitter and welder having worked many
large-scale construction projects. So I spoofed the call
and made it look like it was coming from the local labor
union, figuring that the call would go unanswered again.
Much to my surprise a man answered the phone and I
introduced myself as a recruiter for the “Local 156” and
asked for the defendant by name. He said that that the
person I was looking for was not in and asked if he could
take a message. I told him that I got his name through an
“employee referral network” and that I needed some more
welders ASAP for a shopping center that was being built
downtown. I explained that I needed so many employees that
I was hiring people with experience on the spot. I left him
my cell phone number (which was actually my trap-line
number) and asked that he call me anytime, day or night, if
he needed a job that would last several weeks. The guy told
me that he was a welder too and that he needed a job but did
not have transportation- I told him that it could be
arranged if he lived in the area. He asked me how much the
job paid per hour and I told him that I’d have to see him
cut and weld first but that it could be around $30 an hour
(I still have no idea if that is the going rate) if he did a
reasonably decent job. To sweeten the pot I told him that
if he passed the qualification test and brought on
additional welders that I would pay him a $250 bonus for
each referral that also passed. He mentioned the
defendant’s name and said that he was “real good with lots
of experience.” The trap had been set.
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- When I hung up, I changed the voice mail message on my
trap line to reflect the pretext I was using and, as I
predicted, the defendant called me later that afternoon and
left a message. I called back a little later and, to make a
long story short, I arranged for the defendant to meet me at
a local job site where I was waiting to make the
apprehension. Everything went smoothly… case closed.
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- In a similar situation, I spoofed a telephone number of
a local temporary employment firm and called a defendant’s
mother. I explained to her that I was conducting a
reference check on an applicant (using the defendant’s name)
and asked her how she would rate him as an employee… she was
clearly confused by my assumption that she was an employer;
I was using a common pretext tactic of creating confusion in
order to create opportunity. She said, “I think you are
mistaken, I am her mother not an employer.” She paused for
a minute and repeated the name and telephone number that
showed up on her caller ID equipment (I had not given her
that information) and she asked if she could have her
daughter call me back to clear up the confusion. I
apologized profusely and said that I had actually just
misread the application in front of me, explaining that “I
do a hundred of these a day it seems.” She laughed like she
understood. I asked if we could back up and try again… then
asked her what she would consider the defendant’s best
qualities to offer and employer and we talked for a few more
minutes. My last question was to inquire if she was
currently employed to which she replied that she was. I
said, “Great… looks like I got to this one a little late.”
The mother laughed again and said that she hated her job at
(the local picture framing company in the mall) because she
hated working weekends. I replied, “Well perhaps I can find
another opportunity for her and that I would call her as
soon as I went through my list” and thanked her for her
time. I went straight to the defendant’s workplace and took
her into custody. Caller ID spoofing had clearly been the
deciding factor in whether my pretext was going to work or
not.
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- I’ll share with you one last instance in which caller ID
spoofing made the difference in a bail enforcement
assignment just to reinforce the power of this technique. I
often use a package pretext where I need a defendant to sign
for an insured package (this one works!); this pretext not
only gets me to the defendant’s door but ensures that they
are going to open the door when I show up (in plainclothes
of course). Until recently it was a bit of a chore to
convince the people on the other end of the line, whether it
was the defendant or his or her acquaintance, that I was
representing a delivery service. Now that I can put the
world’s most popular delivery service’s telephone number on
the caller ID box it has gotten almost too easy! Just last
week I called an indemnitor who told me previously that she
was not going to help me in my investigation because the
defendant was being wrongly accused and afterwards would not
answer my calls. I uses the voice changing feature provided
by my service provider to disguise my voice (as a woman
too!) and used the package pretext on her- the indemnitor
gave me the -new address- for my “delivery” to the
defendant. Another case closed. It really can be that easy
with the right tools.
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- On a lighter note, I called my buddy (he infamously
screens all of his calls) once and spoofed the White House’s
number as a joke and he actually picked up when I was just
going to leave a message. I had set up the voice changing
feature so I wouldn’t get caught so easily and spent 3 or 4
minutes busting his chops for making negative comments
against the government (He is constantly emailing the White
House about various current affairs and considers himself a
bit of an activist.)- he was HOT but acted like such a pansy
when I asserted myself with him (“yes sir,” “no sir”)! On
our next poker night, that’s all he could rant about- how he
was letting someone have it at the “White House’s Department
of Public Affairs and Communication,” which of course was a
lie. I plunged the knife in deep and gave it a twist when I
played the conversation on my computer for the guys… he had
been “punked.” I can record my conversations with the
service provider I use and have it sent to me via email as a
.wav file. The ability to easily record your conversations
is an extremely important function; I have used recording of
conversations with defendants, indemnitors, witnesses,
conspirators, friends, police officers, etc. in order to
“influence” how my assignments are handled- just make sure
that you know and follow the laws concerning recording
telephone calls in your own situations.
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- I honestly could write a hundred pages on the topic of
using this type of service and case studies where it was a
case breaker, but I am sure that you are already running
scenarios through your own head. Caller ID spoofing works
in all skip tracing efforts- debtors, heirs, bail bond
forfeitures, service of process, etc. I urge you to put
this tool in your bag immediately.
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- My investigators and I have tried different service
providers but have found none better or with more service
features than the provider I am currently using. It has
worked flawlessly and is extremely inexpensive compared to
other services that specialize in providing this service to
professionals. I very rarely make service recommendations
because I have burned in the past- but I have no problem
making this recommendation. Best of all you can get started
for as little as $10 rather than the $20 minimum others are
charging.
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- If a service like this interests you,
click on the SpoofCard banner below to go to their
site right now and learn more.
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- If you sign up via this special link above, send me an
email and I’ll send you an article I wrote about using
pretexts to help you better understand using them for
investigative purposes.
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- I hope this helps in your own pursuit of success!
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