Spoofing
Also called caller ID spoofing, spoofed number, spoofed
Faking who a call, text or email comes from, so it shows a trusted name or number such as your bank's.
Caller ID, the sender name on a text, and the "from" line on an email were never designed as proof of identity. They're labels, and with the right tools anyone can write whatever label they like. Internet calling made faking a number cheap, so scam calls now routinely show a bank's, a police station's or a government office's real number.
The FBI logged around 61,000 complaints in about 18 months from people targeted by fake police and officials using spoofed official numbers, with losses over 1.6 billion dollars.
AI has finished the disguise. A spoofed number used to be let down by the voice on the line; now that voice can be a calm, professional clone. So the number on the screen tells you nothing, and the only safe answer is to end the call and dial yourself.
For example
Your phone shows your bank's real number, and the caller is a scammer.
Put it to use
Where you'll meet spoofing in ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude, how to use it there, and the mix-up most people make.
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