ANI Spoofing Services: Think again !

A number of services aimed at private investigators, collections agencies, or law
enforcement have sprung up since 2000 to provide pay-per-call ANI spoofing.
The service works like this: After setting up payment, you choose the 10-digit ANI
you want Caller ID to show (the LEC will typically add the business or individual
associated with the ANI number), plus the target number you want to call, then
the service calls you and initiates the spoofed ANI call to the target number
you’ve selected. Your target thinks you’re Pizza Hut calling back, or their mother,
or whoever you’re spoofing and you’ve just fooled them into picking up.
What you may not know is that this can be done from any PBX with ISDN
trunks that can support ANI. Most LECs have no way of validating the ANI you
present to them and happily pass that information along via CallerID, whether it’s
accurate or not. Note that this is different from the “Caller ID spoofing” that can
be done after a caller picks up on some CallerID equipment (fun with friends, but
not very useful if the caller decides not to answer). Effectively, ANI spoofing “poisons
the well” from which Caller ID gets its data.
Some carriers have suggested that they will crack down on this practice, but
since no comprehensive DID ownership database is kept across all LECs and CLECs
there is no current method to verify an ANI in real-time when it’s been presented.
Signaling Connection Control Part (SCCP)
The SCCP is used mainly for translating 800, calling card, and mobile telephone
numbers into a set single point destination code.
Transaction Capabilities Applications Part (TCAP)
TCAP supports the passing and exchange of data within noncircuit-related communications.
An example of noncircuit-related data is authentication of a user to a
calling card plan.
Communication within an SS7 network and its equipment are called signaling
points, of which there are three; Service Switching Points (SSP), Service Transfer
Points (STP), and Service Control Points (SCP).