
Ask HN: Verizon Wireless can't stop spoofing. Really? - lighthawk
I called Verizon Wireless to report that my phone number was being spoofed.<p>They told me there is nothing I can do about it except change my number, which may incur additional costs, or I could try just waiting it out and it would probably stop.<p>Really? They can&#x27;t do anything to stop it?
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Someone1234
No. They really cannot do anything to stop it.

Caller ID is broken. It is trivial to spoof your own phone number because the
receiving network assumes your honesty. You can tell them pretty much anything
as far as your caller ID number, and they will relay it onto their customers.

Things can be done, but they are expensive and require everything to work
together. The networks need to start a catalogue of who owns number blocks and
then check inter-network calls to check that caller ID numbers are within the
blocks provided (and bounce the call if they're not).

Additionally smaller interconnection networks (i.e. those that provided VoIP
to telephone network interconnects) need to start putting caller ID
information into their outgoing calls rather than allowing clients to do it,
they can then verify that the client owns the number before allowing it.

The TL;DR: In the US only an act of congress can fix the current situation,
but such an act would be expensive for phone companies and they have enough
lobbying power to kill it dead.

So in answer to your concern: No. Verizon cannot stop someone spoofing your
phone number, and in order to fix it for you they and other phone companies
need a massive retrofit.

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seiji
Depends on what you mean by "spoof."

Anybody can generate custom outgoing caller ID numbers. That's not really a
"spoof," that's just lying about who you are when you make a call.

Most phone "spoofing" would be if someone cloned your phone number and the
phone was registered multiple times on the same network, so when you got a
call, one or more of the phones would ring at the same time.

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MalcolmDiggs
Phones calls, in a sense, are like email was before SPF records and DKIM: The
honor system. If you say you're XYZ, the receiving unit is inclined to believe
you.

So no, it's not the carrier's fault, and it's not something they can control.

Designing an authentication/verification system is non-trivial but not
impossible. There's just little political-will to actually do it.

As a side note, this is why you should always set a passcode on your voicemail
box. Many folks have their voicemail set to skip passcode-authentication when
they're calling in from their own cell phone number. The problem is: if
someone spoofs your number and calls into your voicemail box, they've got
unfettered access.

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bediger4000
Verizon wireless are hopeless at customer service. I called about the 4 or 5
"Rachel from Cardholder Services" calls per day I was getting last summer. The
Customer "Service" Rep claimed never to have heard of such a thing, and
clutched his pearls, as if spoofing your Caller ID information was unheard of!
He suggested blocking the telephone number, which is no help, as they usually
call at most twice with the same spoofed number.

If I had a choice, I'd dump VZW in a hearbeat.

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jordsmi
You can spoof any phone number, it has nothing to do with verizon.

