compliance
Caller ID spoofing
Caller ID spoofing is sending a false or misleading number on outbound calls so the recipient cannot see who is really calling, which is broadly illegal.
Caller ID spoofing means transmitting a phone number on your outbound calls that is not really yours, or that is designed to mislead the person answering — for example faking a local area code to boost pickups, or hiding behind a number you do not control. Sending a false number with intent to defraud or cause harm is illegal in most countries, and even the supposedly harmless version, where you just want a better answer rate, breaks telemarketing identification rules. Regulators treat your displayed number as a promise of who you are.
The caller ID a recipient actually sees is your cid, and the network-level number carriers pass along behind the scenes is the ani. Spoofing is when one or both of those are dishonest. The cleaner approach is to dial only from numbers your business owns and can answer, so when someone calls back they reach a real person at your company. Regulators in Canada, the U.S., and Europe — the crtc among them — all treat accurate identification as non-negotiable, and they investigate complaints traced back to misrepresented numbers.
Why honesty also helps deliverability
Beyond the law, spoofing is now self-defeating. Carrier systems like stir shaken cryptographically sign calls that come from numbers you legitimately control, and unsigned or mismatched calls increasingly get a spam likely banner or get flagged as a robocall and blocked before they ever ring. So a spoofed local number that used to lift pickups now tends to lower them. In VICIdial, set each campaign's caller ID to a verified, owned number, and rotate among several real numbers you control rather than inventing fake ones, so your traffic earns full attestation and reaches more people. If a number you own starts collecting a spam label anyway, retire it for a while and let its reputation recover instead of trying to disguise it. This is practical guidance, not legal advice.
Related terms
ANI
ANI, short for Automatic Number Identification, is the phone number your call carries as its source, which the person you dialed usually sees as caller ID.
CID (caller ID)
CID (caller ID) is the phone number you show on the screen of the person you're calling, set per campaign or per list in VICIdial.
CRTC (Canada)
The CRTC is Canada's telecom regulator that enforces the national Do Not Call list, calling-hour limits, and caller identification rules for outbound campaigns.
Robocall
An automated phone call that plays a recorded message or dials by machine, often without a live agent on the line when the call connects.
Spam Likely label
A warning that phone carriers display on incoming calls they think might be unwanted, which sharply lowers how often people pick up your calls.
STIR/SHAKEN
A system carriers use to digitally sign caller ID, proving a call really comes from the number it claims, which helps cut down on spoofed and fraudulent calls.