Every month BellesLink does a customer webinar to share product news, tips and techniques. During a recent webinar two big questions came up: Why would I pay for BellesLink when I can get Google Voice for free? What’s the difference? Why not use caller ID spoofing? Paul Kulas took the chance to highlight the reasons caller ID spoofing and free phone services, like Google Voice, won't get you good results. We thought we’d share his answer with you. According to Paul, beside being … [Read more...]
Cell Phone Pinging and Caller ID Spoofing are Dead. Really Dead.
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, … [Read more...]
Cell Phone Pinging – Cell Phone Privacy and Applicable laws
As you’ve seen in previous blog posts, cell phone location information, a.k.a. cell phone pinging, has a protected status under the law. Let's talk about privacy, look at the laws we referenced, and why. Privacy is Important so Cell Phone Pinging is Regulated Most of us wouldn’t make our whereabouts known to anyone, including strangers, unwillingly. Why would we? In the crudest example, this would allow anyone to track our children’s whereabouts. Cases about intrusions on privacy are in the … [Read more...]
Locating a Cell Phone with a Cell Phone Ping: Does it Fall Under Compliance?
In our previous post, we took a look at an overview of cell phone pinging and why locating a cell phone, by a cell phone ping, without consent isn’t compliant. There are ways that you can obtain location information that are fully compliant. We’re not referring to the exceptions for emergencies and law enforcement—but rather to service providers who do have permission to access carrier information. The legislation surrounding the consumer’s cell phone location information all hinges on … [Read more...]
Cell Phone Pinging for Locating a Cell Phone: What is Non-Compliance?
Our earlier blog post provided an overview of what a cell phone ping is and why the practice of cell phone pinging is illegal in all but some very specific circumstances. This post discusses some of the compliance issues related to cell phone pinging. There are some dry legal citations throughout, but they are important to understanding what the law defines as compliance, and non-compliance. To get a cell phone location you need customer permission. Locating a cell phone without the the … [Read more...]
A Cell Phone Ping: What’s The Law and What’s The Lie?
Some folks out there on the ‘net, and in some of the forums that you read, offer to provide a cell phone pinging service. There’s several discussions on cell phone pinging services. Belles Camp is an approved location information developer by all the carriers. We have clear distinctions about cell phone location information, a.k.a. cell phone ping. So we thought we’d write about this topic to give you the facts. What is a Cell Phone Ping A cell phone ping is when a signal is sent to a cell … [Read more...]
Spoofing: How it Violates the Law. Are you in Compliance?
In this post I’ll go over examples that would violate the Truth In Caller ID Act of 2009. To start, let’s look at the law. Truth In Caller ID Act Of 2009: 1. “IN GENERAL- It shall be unlawful for any person within the United States, in connection with any telecommunications service or IP-enabled voice service, to cause any caller identification service to knowingly transmit misleading or inaccurate caller identification information with the intent to defraud, cause harm, or wrongfully … [Read more...]
An Overview of Caller ID Spoofing and the Truth in Caller ID Act of 2009
In this post you’ll see how to be effective and compliant with the Truth In Caller ID Of 2009. The Law: Truth In Caller ID Act Of 2009. Wikipedia: “Caller ID spoofing is the practice of causing the telephone network to display a number on the recipient's Caller ID which is not that of the actual originating station.” The law doesn’t use the word spoofing, right? Right. Clearly, the the Act is intended to make caller id spoofing illegal (unless it's done by law enforcement agencies, which … [Read more...]
Spoofing and the Truth in Caller ID Act of 2009. What you need to know.
We get a lot of questions from investigators and skip tracers about spoofing and the Truth in Caller ID Act of 2009, which was signed into law on 12-22-2010. Even though the law went into effect 2+ years ago, I think there’s still a lot of confusion. So I’ve put together 3 posts in an effort to help people in skip tracing understand the law: An Overview of Spoofing and the Truth in Caller ID Act of 2009 Spoofing. How it Violates the Law. What is NOT Spoofing. What the Truth in Caller … [Read more...]
