Call from your VoIP line, show your PSTN or mobile number

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 23 June 2009 09:32

Business IT - Technology

VoIP service provider MyNetFone has introduced a feature that enables customers to have their mobile or PSTN line number show up on the called party's phone when they make outgoing calls from their VoIP service

The feature, dubbed CLI Overstamping, enables callers to present a recognisable number to their contacts and businesses to display their standard business contact number. Also, it enables MyNetFone customers who do not have a PSTN number associated with their service to present their contacts with a number on which they can be reached.

MyNetFone requires that anyone implementing the feature be the legal owner of the landline or mobile service whose number they use, but its verification appears to be limited to requiring the customer to make a call to MyNetFone customer service from the nominated number.  The 'overstamping' is valid for only three months: customers must repeat the initial validation process to keep it active. MyNetFone does not charge for the feature.

In the US, CLI spoofing - having any number, not necessarily one you own, presented to callers is big business. Back in 2007 iTWire reported the founder of one such provider of spoofing services, spoofem.com saying: "When we launched spoofem.com our staff did not realise two things; one, that spoofem.com would be the largest telephone spoofing service in the world in less than nine months; two, that 72 percent of our customers would be curious lovers wondering if their soul mate or partner is cheating. We get phone calls from men and women who say, 'I think my husband is still talking to his ex-wife, I want to be able to find out; can you help?"

Spoofem.com also works for SMS and if the findings of a recent Telstra survey are to be believed, such a service might find a ready market in Australia, were it allowed. According to Telstra's survey there's a lot of infidelity out there: 27 percent of people surveyed  discovered their partner's infidelity through finding text messages.