We can no longer believe the phone number we see on our caller IDs (CID) belongs to the person who called!  The bad guys are now using easily accessed technology to "spoof" the CID numbers, so their real number does not appear.

The problem has gotten so bad, the US government actually passed an Act, called "The Truth in Caller ID Act of 2009", making such spoofing illegal.  See http://www.fcc.gov/guides/caller-id-and-spoofing
for more information.

The FCC adopted that Act in June, 2010, stating that violators could be fined up to $10,000 for each violation.

However, the bad guys are ignoring this law ... after all, they are criminals, and that is what criminals do.  Although we now have a "law" against spoofing, it is very difficult to enforce it.

So, if you see a CID number on your phone when you are called by some scammer or telemarketer, it might not belong to the scammer!  It might be the number of some unsuspecting third party ... or, it might be one of those numbers that charge $25 (plus about $9 per minute) if you call it back.

This number is my number, except for the area code!!