Overview
Spoofed calls are phone calls where the caller has falsified the number displayed as their caller ID. Unfortunately, there is no reliable way to identify a spoofed call before answering it. Spoofed numbers travel along the same network paths and appear identical to legitimate calls, which makes detection at the carrier level effectively impossible.
What You Can Do
If you or your customer suspects a call came from a spoofed number, the most effective course of action is to report it to the FCC for further investigation. The FCC maintains resources for consumers and businesses dealing with spoofing, including a complaint filing system and a public dataset of reported calls.
The following resources are available for reporting and learning more about spoofing:
- FCC Consumer Guide on Spoofing: fcc.gov/consumers/guides/spoofing-and-caller-id
- FCC Complaint Filing: consumercomplaints.fcc.gov
- FCC Consumer Complaints Dataset: opendata.fcc.gov
Reporting these incidents helps the FCC build a clearer picture of spoofing activity and supports broader enforcement efforts against bad actors.