Neighbor Spoofing

Overview of Neighbor Spoofing

Neighbor spoofing is one of the more recent attempts by telemarketers to encourage consumers to answer their calls and even trick people into believing they’re trustworthy.

Essentially, neighbor spoofing is when a caller changes the number they’re calling from to share the same or similar area code (and sometimes even more digits) to make it look like the incoming call is coming from someone in the neighborhood or a local company. Telemarketers hope that this will encourage blind trust, and can capitalize on this trust to scam consumers out of money or personal information.

So many calls in this day and age are from telemarketers that many people often don’t pick up the phone anymore if the call is from an unknown number, so telemarketers may also use neighbor spoofing to simply get people to answer the phone in the first place.

Why is Neighbor Spoofing a Legal Issue?

Neighbor spoofing scams deliberately hide the caller’s true identity by faking their caller ID information. This practice may violate the Truth in Caller ID Act of 2009, in which the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) prohibits anyone from using deceptive caller ID information “with the intent to defraud, cause harm or wrongly obtain anything of value.”

Spoofing caller ID is not always illegal—for example, a doctor might call a patient from their cell phone, and “spoof” the ID to display the office number. This is not harmful, nor does it intend to defraud the consumer.

Telemarketers can use neighbor spoofing and a number of other tactics—including robocalls, pre-recorded messages, artificial voices, unwanted texts, and more—in their efforts to contact consumers. Calls that use neighbor spoofing may very well use these other tactics, and may violate the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) along with the Truth in Caller ID Act.

According to the FCC, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) was created back in 1991 as a method of protection consumers from unwanted solicitation using technology. As the times and technology have changed, so too has the TCPA shifted to accommodate new technologies like robocalls, text messages, and more.

When violations of the TCPA are reported, consumers can receive an award of between $500 and $1,500 per violation, depending on whether or not the violation was made willfully.

In recent years, the number of telemarketing calls people receive on average has risen dramatically according to Forbes. Indeed, there were a reported 85 billion spam phone calls received last year alone.

TCPA Litigation

Recently, a number of major companies have been hit with class action lawsuits for allegedly violation the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. Companies that have faced such lawsuits include WalMart, Rite Aid, Chase Bank, Wells Fargo, American Eagle, and more.

Dozens of other companies are currently being investigated for potentially violating the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. A list of businesses being investigated can be found on our investigation page.

If you believe that you have been targeted with phone calls or text messages in violation of the TCPA, including those placed with the use of neighbor spoofing, you may be eligible for compensation.