FROM:
HOLLEY CARNRIGHT
DATE:
NOVEMBER 7, 2016
RE:
PRESS RELEASE – CALLER ID AND SPOOFING
Caller
Identification (“Caller ID”) allows you to identify a caller before you answer
your telephone. However, Caller ID service is susceptible to fraud, according
to the Ulster County District Attorney’s Division of Consumer Affairs. Using a
practice known as “spoofing”, callers can deliberately falsify the telephone
number and/or name relayed as the Caller ID information to disguise the
identity of the calling party. Consumer
Affairs suggests the following:
· Don’t give out personal
information in response to an incoming call. Identity thieves often pose as
representatives of banks, credit card companies, utilities, creditors or
government agencies (such as the IRS) to get people to reveal their personal
financial information.
· If you get an inquiry from a
company or government agency seeking such information, don’t provide it.
Instead, hang up and call the number on your account statement or the company’s
or government agency’s website to find out if the entity that supposedly called
you actually needs the requested information.
· Please let the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) know about ID spoofers by calling
1-888-CALL-FCC or filing a complaint at www.fcc.gov/complaints.
Consumer
Affairs can be reached at 340-3260.
