Caller ID spoofing

Example of caller ID spoofed via orange boxing; both the name and number are faked to reference leetspeak

Caller ID spoofing is a spoofing attack which causes the telephone network's Caller ID to indicate to the receiver of a call that the originator of the call is a station other than the true originating station. This can lead to a display showing a phone number different from that of the telephone from which the call was placed.[1]

The term is commonly used to describe situations in which the motivation is considered malicious by the originator.

One effect of the widespread availability of Caller ID spoofing is that, as AARP published in 2019, "you can no longer trust call ID."[2][3]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Doug Shadel. "Who's Calling". AARP Bulletin. p. 36.
  3. ^ Herb Weisbaum. "Here are the best ways to block robocalls right now". You can't trust caller ID ... so how to do you stop the incessant ringing?