If you ever had any doubts about the legality of cell phone pinging and caller ID spoofing, the matter has been settled.
Recently the FCC has re-asserted that both practices, once common in skip tracing and investigations, are something they not only frown on but will most likely take action on. In an July 2015 declaration the agency hardened its position on these non-compliant practices.
From Page 111 of the declaration: “Finally, I want to note that we have more work to do. Just last week, the Senate Special Committee on Aging held a hearing about robocalls and scams in which bad actors prey on consumers by faking or “spoofing” caller ID information. Call spoofing can be a pernicious tactic, confusing consumers who believe they are getting calls from a legitimate government agency or company when in fact it is a scammer on the other end of the line. We need to crack down on this predatory behavior—and if we lack the tools to do so, we need to revise our policies or seek help from Congress to better protect consumers”.
Pinging and Spoofing Don’t Get Good Results, Anyway
In a recent customer webinar BellesLink’s Paul Kulas highlighted the ways spoofing fails to get good results versus TCPA and CFPB compliant methods of finding people.
According to Paul Kulas, beside being non-compliant, cell phone pinging and caller ID spoofing have a lot of weaknesses that make them a poor choice for the business of finding people.
- When spoofing, you have to keep calling until somebody answers the phone. It wastes your time.
- If you’re on the phone call and the call is dropped, the person can’t call you back.
- If the call is dropped, you can’t call them back. At least not without explaining, one more time, why you’re calling from their Mom’s phone number. So, the lead is burned.
- You can’t leave messages to get a call-back. The caller ID they see on the call-back won’t match the original call, making it suspicious and burning your lead.
- You can’t easily keep track your calls and the work you’ve done. You have to manually track your calls.
BellesLink apps offer more effective tools for finding people, contacting targets, and tracking your work. Find out how BellesLinks can help you find people faster. Request a demo today.
