Mississippi Bans Caller ID Spoofing

[Godot]

PSC sought change

Associated Press - March 17, 2010 5:34 AM ET

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - Public Service Commission Chairman Brandon Presley has praised the signing of a new law the prevents telemarketers from disguising their numbers, called "spoofing."

Gov. Haley Barbour signed the bill Monday.

Presley says the bill, which takes effect July 1, outlaws a technique used to show a different number and/or name on caller ID than that of the actual caller.

For example, Presley says a person's caller ID may show a call from "662-555-1234" when actually it is a call from "952-555-5678."

Presley says as many as 200 complaints of No-Call violations to the PSC are believed to be linked to spoofing.

Violators can be charged with misdemeanors.

The bill is House Bill 872.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

http://www.wdam.com/Global/story.asp?S=12154048

[nyphonejacks]

that article lacks a lot of information...

as for the first line of the article - it implies that TELEMARKETERS can not spoof there telephone number.... no where in the article does it state that they have made it illegal to spoof CID - they may have, but this article does not say anything about it...

IF they are banning all use of CID spoofing then that is pretty stupid, so a company can no longer call you with the toll free number appearing on your CID, or there main number appearing on your CID - because to get the toll free number, or main line to appear on your CID they would need to spoof the number.....

there are many other legitimate reasons for spoofing caller ID, such as stalking and harassing people... umm... i mean for example i call my customers contact number when no one is home - the customers were constantly calling me back on my cell phone instead of calling the office to reschedule there appointment, so now i spoof the office phone number when calling customers from my cell...

[Godot]

I looked up the bill mentioned in the article:

AN ACT TO CREATE THE "CALLER ID ANTI-SPOOFING ACT"; TO PROHIBIT ENTERING OR CAUSING TO BE ENTERED FALSE INFORMATION INTO A TELEPHONE CALLER IDENTIFICATION SYSTEM WITH THE INTENT TO DECEIVE, DEFRAUD OR MISLEAD; TO PROHIBIT PLACING A CALL KNOWING THAT FALSE INFORMATION WAS ENTERED INTO THE TELEPHONE CALLER IDENTIFICATION SYSTEM; TO PROVIDE THAT ANY VIOLATION OF THIS ACT CONSTITUTES AN UNLAWFUL TRADE PRACTICE UNDER THE STATE CONSUMER PROTECTION LAWS; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.

I don't think this makes it illegal for a company to spoof their toll-free number, as it says "... with the intent to deceive, defraud or mislead the recipient of a call." It also specifically states that it does not apply to caller ID blocking, or to spoofing done by law enforcement, intelligence, and security agencies.

This law is a misdemeanor punishable by $1000 or 1 year in jail.

You can find the full text of the law at: http://billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/2010/pdf/history/HB/HB0872.xml

[kwantamphlux]

Wow. I JUST logged on to post about this.

I'm sure if someone were to scan the fine text enough they would find many-a-loophole, besides- who the FUCK lives in Mississippi?

[linear]

i bet they'll find an easy way to enforce this