Re: Odd Phone Calls - Fairfax County
Date: January 19, 2018 09:27PM
Jim Rockford Wrote:
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> That is a telemarketing tactic that is widely used
> now. They want you to think the call is coming
> from a neighbor. Of course your neighbor's name
> would appear on the ID if the call was legit. I
> don't answer any calls unless I can identify the
> caller.
>
> Telemarketing would be wiped out if everyone
> stopped answering calls from strange numbers. Of
> course many Americans are too stupid to do this.
Your neighbor's name *may* even appear. Here's my understanding from long-ago alt.dcom.telecom: The CLID transmitted from the originating switch is just the number: at some point in the process, some other switch does a lookup. That's why sometimes a known number may just show "VIRGINIA" or whatever state: if that lookup fails (times out, for example), the local switch may just substitute what it knows--the state. Or the town.
Anyway, this all means that a forged number may wind up doing a database dip and showing the real owner's name for that number.
But yes, these are (almost?) all spam/scam calls, for the reason Rockfish stated. And sometimes people see those calls on callerid, or as a missed call on their cellphone, and call them back--I've had that happen: a very confused person saying "You called my cell?" and me going "Um, no..."
The real problem is the design of callerid. Both SS7 and DMS-100 allow the originating switch to fake it, so your company switch shows your outgoing call as the main number, not some random line that your phone used for the call. Which made sense at the time, and also enabled VoIP features like Skype-to-landline, which can be taught to show your cellphone number.
ANI is the callerid-like thing that toll-free (800, 888, 877 etc.) numbers use. That cannot be spoofed (supposedly). Certainly Skype doesn't manage it: when I call a friend using Skype-to-landline, it shows as my cell; when I call a toll-free number, the ones that say "Your show as calling from..." do NOT have my cell.