Fake phone calls come from one source who masquerades their phone number as another, and you probably get these calls all the time. Maybe these are numbers from your local area code or numbers from well-known companies, but the callers are simply intercepting these numbers to make you pick up the phone. It turns out that anyone can make a fake call – even you.
Now caller ID spoofing isn’t as illegal as you might think, so there’s a good chance you can spoof a phone number when calling someone and not get in trouble. Some states, such as Arkansas, ban all spoof calls except when used for law enforcement or public safety. Other states do not have specific laws governing caller ID spoofing.
At the federal level, the FCC Caller ID Integrity Act “prohibits anyone from transmitting misleading or inaccurate caller ID information with the intent to defraud, harm, or wrongfully obtain anything of value.”So if you don’t succeed, you might want to think twice before trying to fake someone else’s numbers.
Why use caller id spoofing?
Now that we’ve removed that little warning, there are plenty of legitimate reasons why someone might want to spoof a number. Here are some examples:
Law enforcement can spoof numbers during investigations to keep them from giving themselves away. Fake numbers also help protect your real phone number and prevent people you call from calling you back, so they act as a kind of privacy tool protecting you from callbacks and harassment. Pranks are one of the funniest reasons to fake a phone number.
[S]poofing is not always illegal. There are legal, legitimate ways to spoof, such as when a doctor calls a patient from her personal cell phone and shows the office number instead of the personal phone number, or the company shows their toll-free callback number.
On the other hand, there are many illegal ways to spoof caller ID. Spammers and call bots use them religiously to scam you so they can scam you or try to hack into your accounts through social engineering. Neighbor spoofing, where the caller selects a number in your local area code, is increasingly used by these types of attackers.
Attackers can also take advantage of unsecured voicemail accounts. If a dial-in voicemail account is not PIN-protected, all that is required to open and listen to voicemail is a call from the account holder’s phone number, which can be spoofed so that others can listen to the recordings.
An even bigger threat is the use of caller ID spoofing to facilitate SIM spoofing scams, where they convince the phone operator that it is you and that you need to port your number to your SIM card. If successful, your number will be disabled and they will receive all your calls and text messages, which is useful when trying to hack into accounts that use two-factor authentication, such as SMS text codes.
Of course, we hope you stick to one of the more legal ways to use it.
Use a phone replacement service
There are services that help you pretend to be another caller, and most of them cost money. Some of them, like SpoofCard – the one we’ll be using in this guide – have trial credits, so you can test the service first. If you find that you like what it has to offer, credits per minute are quite affordable.
When registering with SpoofCard, you must provide your real phone number, agree to their terms and conditions, and create a PIN. You will then receive five free credits to test out all the tools it includes.
You can create an account and make calls from the SpoofCard website, but we’ll be using its mobile app, which is simpler. There is a mobile app for iOS and Android, and both are pretty much the same in terms of functionality.
Setting up a SpoofCard account
The first time you open the app, you’ll see a splash screen with all the tools it offers, including caller ID spoofing, adding background noise, changing voice, and recording calls. The latter is another legal issue that you should look into in relation to your state’s specific laws.
Federal law says that it is possible to record someone or a group of people without their knowledge, as long as you are participating in the conversation and have no criminal or tortious intent. If not, you only need one group member to give you permission. Similar laws exist in Washington DC and 38 states.
However, 12 states require the consent of all parties involved. These are California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Washington.
Click “Get Free Credits”or “Register”to begin the registration process. You will need to enter your real phone number, create a four or six digit PIN, and agree to its terms. You’ll also need to enter your email address or sign in with your Apple ID (iOS only) or Facebook account.
After that, you may get some prompts to activate notifications or connect your contacts, and you can allow or disallow them as you wish.
Fake phone number
Whichever fake phone number you choose, the process is the same. In our example, we are using the phone number of a fictitious travel planning company used by many large corporations, which is 1-888-555-0147.
Since many business people use this travel planning company, there is a good chance that the person you are calling already has the number in their contacts. It could also just be in their emails that your iPhone or Android might try to associate with them automatically. It may also be in a public directory that is trying to use the caller ID. So while it might look like 1-888-555-0147 to us, it might look like a company name to them.
In the Number to Display field, enter the number you want to disguise as, then click Done. (Don’t ask me why the Antigua and Barbuda national flag appears next to the toll-free number in the images below – I have no idea.)
Then enter the number you are calling into the “Number to call”field and click “Done”.
Now all you have to do is click on Call. The person you’re calling will see a fake phone number in their caller ID—perhaps even the name of the company or person associated with that number—and will likely answer, unless it looks suspicious.
In my travel planning company example, I could tell the person the details of an upcoming trip and I could really screw up their schedule. But you can also just use that number to walk in the door and talk about anything else you need to talk about.
Go straight to voicemail with fake number
If you don’t want to interact with the person you’re calling, you can do the same as above, but before hitting Call, hit the Direct to Voicemail button. Instead of being charged per minute, it only takes one credit.
In my travel planning example, I can add voicemail directly to a person’s phone, where they can listen to or read a transcript of everything I say. Their phone won’t ring and will act as a missed call, but the voicemail will get through.
If I wanted to prank them, I could enter a voice message that could suggest that something was wrong with their upcoming trip, such as a cancellation, a security issue, or a flight delay.
Other things you can do
As you can see from the screenshots, other things can be done with SpoofCard. You can record a call (one credit), add background noise such as screams, sirens, dogs, airports, traffic jams, and crowds (free), and use a voice changer to make your voice sound like a man or a woman (also free). This last one can only work when you select a verified number to display as it is disabled when using a dynamic number.
If your phone supports Wi-Fi calling, you can also enable this in the Settings tab. The “Call”button will change to “Call via LTE”.
Whenever you make a fake call, the person you are calling will not be able to call you back, but they will be able to contact the phone number you faked. So keep that in mind.
You can also use the Text tab to send text messages from a fake number. And the Credits tab will show you your credits and allow you to buy more. On both iPhone and Android, it’s $4.99 for 25 credits, $9.99 for 45, $19.99 for 100, $29.99 for 160, and $49.99 for 280.
Just remember: no matter what you’re using caller ID spoofing for, check your state and local laws to make sure you’re not doing anything illegal or anything that could get you into trouble.