Thieves do not just collect Social Security Numbers. They are also after your telephone records, date of birth and your bank and credit card account numbers. This information is a personal asset as well and people who illegally solicit this information are also known as pretexters. One of the main targets of this type of con is Medicare recipients.



The Medicare “spoofing” scam works by con artists calling seniors claiming to be Medicare representatives and informing seniors that there have been changes in the new Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act health care reform legislation. The person on the phone will claim that the new law requires personal and private information such as bank accounts and/or PIN numbers, and that the information will be necessary in order to ensure that their Medicare benefits remain in an “active” state.



As far as pretexting goes, a pretexter may call, claim he or she is conducting a poll, and ask you a few questions.When the pretexter (let’s just call it a thief) has the information they want, it is used to call your financial institution. The thief pretends to be you or someone with authorized access to your account. They might claim that they have forgotten their checkbook and need information about their account. Their overall goal is to empty an unsuspecting victim’s bank account and drain them of all available assets.



There have been opponents of laws allowing spoofing providers to exist since the advent of the service. Over the years, numerous organizations and individuals alike have exhausted all available means in order to attack the providers of caller ID spoofing . Certain individuals and organizations put forth claims of how threatening caller ID spoofing is. Opponents claim that scammers use it to gain personal information from people in order to commit fraud and other offences.



There is legislation in Congress to make caller ID spoofing a Federal offense. Here is the name of the legislation (the House version has already passed the House): S. 704: Truth in Caller ID Act of 2007. The law was introduced in the Senate on January 12, 2010. The bill passed the Senate and went to the House. The House changed the wording so that it would be illegal to fake caller ID with the intent to defraud or deceive.



The bill now sits in the Senate awaiting Senate approval of the House changes. Several companies have expressed concerns that the House version of the bill is too vague and leaves room for a multitude of lawsuits going forward. Those companies argue that some users of caller ID spoofing have legitimate purposes, employed by some VoIP services—like Google Voice—and by some organizations to replace the actual caller ID information with an alternate number could be considered “illegal” if the bill passes in its current form.