How One Company Fakes out Caller ID

A week ago today I got a call on my mobile phone, which has a Called ID feature that lets me see the phone numbers of callers whose numbers aren't blocked from display. This time, the number was 11111111111 -- which needless to say doesn't go anywhere if you try to call it back.

The caller was a journalist from the New York Times. That's how I learned that the newspaper has rigged its phone system for outgoing calls to display 1111111111 to Caller ID systems.

Increasingly, people are refusing to accept calls from people who block the display of their numbers. I'm one of the people who blocks my outgoing number -- to avoid giving it to businesses that might put me on junk-call lists -- and I have to manually unblock the number or say my name out loud, and then have it relayed to the party I'm calling, when I encounter someone who won't take the blocked call. This seems like a reasonable tradeoff to me. People on both ends of the line have privacy concerns.

For whatever reason, the Times skirts the rule by displaying a phony number. The call goes through, even to people who don't accept calls from blocked numbers.

I can understand the Times' motive. But it strikes me as a little weird for such a big and important institution to hide behind a bogus number this way.

Comments

[Sherry]

Are you sure this is an intention to hide who is calling? I have a direct number to call my lawyer, but a different number shows up when I am getting a callback. It was explained to me that that was how their phone system was set up - with more possible input numbers than the actual number of lines out. Perhaps the NY Times just chose to use a memorable number to reflect that situation. And now you know who is calling when the number shows up as 11111111111...

[Glenn Fleishman]

The Times outed itself last April:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/02/technology/02caller.html

"(calls from the main office of The New York Times, for example, regularly appear on the called party's screen as 111-111-1111)"

It used to freak me out until I figured it out. Now I just know it's one of my editors calling.

[Howard Owens]

I got a call yesterday from 555-555-5555. The caller didn't leave a message. I assumed it was a telemarketer.

I have a problem with a news organization doing this, though. I think it violates some level of the transparency. In a caller ID era, somebody receiving a call should be able to recognize (if they know the number) that it's a news organization calling.

[Wendell Wittler]

If the N.Y. Times is going to put out a non-genuine number to Caller ID, why not just use their subscription order number? That'll give people a general idea of who's calling without exposing individual reporters.

Or they could just use Jayson Blair's home number.

[Yvonne Adams]

I've received several calls in the past couple of months that show as 111-111-1111.

Since the New York Times is unlikely to be calling me, I have to assume that it's a telemarketer.

End rusult is that I'll never know, as I've yet to pick up one of these calls. I see the 1s and assume it's a junk call.

[betapundit]

I think its a program that callers install to bypass the block. In other words, all 1s isn't exclusive to The Time.

I've received several telemarketing calls from this number. Most of which, not surprisingly, originate from Florida.

[Scott Kovatch]

Maybe it's another instance of explaining the problem with incomptence (or indifference) rather than conspiracy. There's probably a setting somewhere that lets the Times put in the main switchboard number and 'New York Times' but no one has taken the time to do it. Not giving out a direct line into individual employee's offices is a good thing, but there is a friendlier, much more useful way to handle the problem.

[Frank]

I agree with Sherry and Scott. Even providing a number (and identifying the caller as NYT) to a voicemail box with a recorded message is better than that fake number. I certainly would not be expecting this from such an esteemed organization.

Dan, perhaps for trusted people, you can program in the caller ID unblock into the phonebook. Now if we can just have products that allow us to push one key to enable or disable caller ID blocking on outgoing calls.

[Andrew]

Maybe it's not automated. Maybe the caller simply hits 111-111-1111 'cause it's easy. [shrug]

[Joi Ito]

The problem is that many phone services use caller ID for user authentication. I've had several (stupid) security people assert to me that caller ID is safe for caller identification and clearly it is not.

[Eric Smith]

Any PBX that communicates with the phone company via ISDN primary rate interfaces (which would generally be any big PBX installed in the last ten years or more) can in principle be configured to supply bogus caller ID information, because the phone company doesn't validate the calling party information element in the call setup.

I'm tempted to replace my regular phone number with a toll-free number. It would cost me a lot more, but then instead of caller ID I would be able to get ANI, which gives you a real billing number. When you're paying to receive the call, the caller can't block it.

[Anspar Jonte]

Ditto. It's plain dumb to use 111111 as a number. I would assume it's a telemarketer. I handle such calls by picking up the receiver half an inch and dropping it.

[michelle wilson]

I think that in light of the national do not call list, the bogus display appearing on the caller ID does not allow you to track those who violate your wishes not to be bothered with repeated efforts to offer you credit cards, sell you magazines that you dont have time to read, and offer you home improvements to the apartment which you rent. I think that sooner or later our congressional and legislative body will catch up with the technology and force the telemarketers to display accurate information on the caller ID display, otherwise how will you know who is in violation of the National Do Not Call list?

[hamid]

hi i have an samsung-t400 and i wnat to hide my id outgoing i mean i don't want the peaoples know my number anh how i can do that?how i can disable it oh my mobile has a has a seting for hide id but when i active it then i can call anywhere and the servis provider blocks my caling so is any program to download for hidening ig or any cammand to hide caler id plz help me. thanx

[need help]

can someone please tell me how to show my caller Id as a different number?

[sara]

iam just wondering how to ide ma number when caling some one from ohone not mobile.
can some1 tel me plz
tanx
email me the answer to cute_Sara90@yahoo.com

[help]

can some one tell me how to hide ma number from some one.
i want to call some one from home number and dont want then to see the number so how can i do that. i think there is a number to dial but dont know the number can some one tell me plz.

[Kate]

My sister has a mobile phone and keeps getting calls from the number, (111)111-1111 aslo. I typed in the number on the internet to see whose number this is and got this site. It helped alot. Can this number just be blocked or can it somehow just call you?

[Danny]

hey i have a question how do u do that block thing like have them show ur number is 111-111-1111 like wut do u dail to make it show like that n ur real number is blocked thanxs plz write back thannk you

[anwer]

KINDLY SEND ME DOWNLOAD LINK

[Dan]

hey i have a question how do u do that block thing like have them show ur number is 111-111-1111 like wut do u dail to make it show like that n ur real number is blocked cuz i want to call somebody but i dont' want them to noe my number n their caller id won't let me block my number thanxs plz write back thannk you

[eileen]

i'm on aol broadband and my computer kept trying to dial 11111111111 it only happened when i was reading the mirror on line