back to article 'Untraceable' VoIP caller ID-spoofing website accepts Bitcoin

A new VoIP service allows you to hide who you are by being web-based, having no registration checks, allowing you to spoof caller identity, and pay by Bitcoin. Bitphone calls itself the Bitcoin Payphone. As well as taking Bitcoin, the service accepts more than forty other altcoins. Users can pay with a Bitcoin transfer from a …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Yay!

    Telephone spammers and fraudsters rejoice.

    1. Martin Summers Silver badge

      Re: Yay!

      Erm... They're already doing this!

    2. Ian Michael Gumby

      Re: Yay!

      This service will end up getting shut down eventually.

      They will be charged with the fraud that they are helping to assist and their boilerplate doesn't provide them any protection.

      The FTC should have a field day with them.

    3. Mark 85

      Re: Yay!

      Let's all add the SWATters to the list....

  2. cantankerous swineherd

    i only answer the phone to known callers, soon won't need a phone at all.

    1. Captain Scarlet Silver badge
      Mushroom

      I find they keep calling until you slam the phone down on them or you get in first and sell them something.

      Most call centres have a click the moment you say Hello, the moment I hear this *SLAM*.

      On the odd occasion where this is missed I and I don't recognise the caller, I like reverting to trying to sell them something (Before they get the chance).

      I very rarely get cold calls now, another tactic for work is forwarding the call to a fax machine.

  3. K
    Devil

    1.3p a minute to UK landlines...

    Thats actually fairly expensive. We pay 0.05ppm for landlines, then about 1.2ppm to mobiles..

    But who cares, if your using this service then its probably somebody else's money anyway ..

    1. CAPS LOCK

      "We pay 0.05ppm for landlines, "

      Details please...

      1. K

        Re: "We pay 0.05ppm for landlines, "

        Contact a GAMMA reseller - SIP channels at £15-20pm, depending on reseller, it includes 5000 mins to mobile and 5000 to landline. Best of all they stack, we've got 75 at present. We've ported our SIP in April, cut our bills from £6k per month to about £1500!

  4. Simon Rockman

    I know someone who had a revenue-shared 0705 number. He'd court the spammers and keep them on the line as long as possible raking in the cash. He built quite an elegant solution which even had a social good element sending the revenue to South African townships.

    You can't revenue share 0705 any more.

  5. g e

    Just register a premium number

    And call it for 1.3p/min for 99p+ payout per min

  6. Richy Freeway

    They're obviously not running on Daisy's service.

    Seeing as how they've been unable to provide VoIP service for 24 hours now.

  7. Ian Michael Gumby
    FAIL

    No legal use...

    "You can build some cases for wanting to do this – such as working from home and wanting work to pay for the calls and to show the work number – but these are edge cases."

    Nonsense.

    You could route VOIP through your VPN/Firewall so that your calls from home are coming from work.

    So there goes your theory...

    1. Justin Pasher

      Re: No legal use...

      "You could route VOIP through your VPN/Firewall so that your calls from home are coming from work."

      And if your work uses a traditional PBX without VoIP support? Maybe the UK is different, but VoIP is far from universal in the US for businesses.

    2. Vic

      Re: No legal use...

      You could route VOIP through your VPN/Firewall so that your calls from home are coming from work.

      That adds latency; it tends to be unacceptable in voice calls.

      Vic.

      1. K

        Re: No legal use...

        Depends on circumstances - SIP over VPN is perfectly usable in most circumstances, I frequently visit France and US then use a VPN to make use of the companies PBX. Also many of our staff also a Citrix virtual desktop which runs a Softphone to work remotely.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    how to start a war

    Fraud isn't the only use of this technique. Caller ID spoofing over VOIP has apparently been used in an attempt to provoke a (possibly nuclear) war.

    https://yorksranter.wordpress.com/2008/12/11/howto-spoof-the-pakistan-foreign-ministry/

  9. JeffyPoooh
    Pint

    This is why the 911/999 Emergency Call Centers need to be more careful...

    This is why the 911/999 Emergency Call Centers need to be more careful before dispatching the SWAT team.

  10. JCF2009

    Commonplace

    My home phone is the target of spam calls with spoofing ID's every day, including the case where the caller ID is my own phone number. I speculate the purpose of that particular spoof is to get you to answer the call out of curiosity.

    Aggressive use of my VoIP service's Caller ID filtering feature now keeps the actual unwanted ring-throughs down to a typical of a few per week. Before I dumped my old land line in favor of this VoIP service, spam calls per day had reached an intolerable point.

    The FCC will never catch up to these scammers / spoofers - they move much too quickly. It took the FCC years to shut down the infamous "Rachael from cardholder services" scam but within months imitators were back on the phone lines, even re-using the "Rachael" part.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I think it's pretty cool

    I think its a cool service. How is this much different than Skype? There are also many Caller Id Spoofing services, just Google CallerId Spoofing. It's great it takes Bitcoin, makes payment easy and flexible. I don't see anywhere it says it's untracable? It is VoIP.

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