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Pranksters Target People With Phony Caller ID

WOBURN (CBS) -- Some local businesses are concerned about new technology that allows people to make phone calls showing a fake caller ID number.

Woburn mother Cathy Murphy says she got three food deliveries in one night, and didn't order any of it. Someone else did, plugging her number into a fake caller ID phone app. "I feel violated," she says.

First it was $30 worth of Dominoes pizza, then $60 worth of Chinese food.

"The man was quite upset with me, but I told him I didn't order it, and he told me he had our number on caller ID," says Murphy.

Shortly after that, she got a third bogus delivery of cheese steaks and chicken fingers.

WBZ-TV's Christina Hager reports.

"It's costing me money. It's costing me labor," says the owner of My Brothers Place in Woburn.

"Something should be done. It's dangerous out there. Someone could definitely get hurt by this," says Murphy.

Consumer analysts have been warning about the dangers of phone spoofing apps for months. "The thing that's wrong with caller ID spoofing is that you can create real havoc when you start impersonating other people," said Carl Howe, of Yankee Group, when we asked him about the issue last May.

President Obama recently signed a law making it illegal to use fake caller ID apps, but only when they're used to harm someone. There's a similar proposal in the Massachusetts state legislature, but that version has not been passed.

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