The Security Mentor

CNN reports that crooks can fake caller ID information.

I reported on this last October ("Do you trust caller ID?") and before that in July when I wrote about the privacy implications of caller ID spoofing.

Maybe I should have put this in the "How to read security news" section. The CNN article is a good example of scare tactics that don't really make sense. For example, they say that someone who steals your credit card can send cash via Western Union by pretending to call Westen Union from your home phone number. This doesn't make sense -- wouldn't you expect Western Union to call back, like the pizza delivery place does? I heard from a WU customer who says that they do call back. In other words CNN was reporting a non-issue.