Caller ID Spoofing Used to Make a False Report About a Crash

Attorney Answer

Spoofing your number is a crime in Florida, but this is mostly a matter for law enforcement and the FCC — there is no federal spoofing lawsuit you get to file yourself. Knowing that up front tells you where to spend your effort.

Fla. Stat. § 817.487 is Florida's caller identification statute. A person may not enter, or cause to be entered, false information into a telephone caller identification system with intent to deceive, defraud, or mislead the recipient of a call, and may not place a call knowing that such false information was entered. "False information" means data that misrepresents the identity of the caller. A violation is a first-degree misdemeanor — real, chargeable, but not the felony people often assume.

On the federal side, 47 U.S.C. § 227(e), the Truth in Caller ID Act, prohibits causing any caller identification service to knowingly transmit misleading or inaccurate caller identification information with intent to defraud, cause harm, or wrongfully obtain anything of value. It is enforced by the FCC, and it does not create a private right of action for the person whose number was spoofed. An FCC complaint is the channel, not a lawsuit.

Two other statutes may matter depending on what else was said. Fla. Stat. § 837.05 criminalizes knowingly giving false information to a law enforcement officer concerning the alleged commission of a crime — relevant if anything false was told to the deputy, not merely to a family member. And Fla. Stat. § 784.048, the stalking statute, reaches a willful, malicious, and repeated course of conduct including cyberstalking. Note the word repeated: one spoofed call will not satisfy it, but a documented pattern can.

What you can do

1. Write down everything now — the deputy's name, agency, date, time, and any report or case number. 2. Request your carrier's call detail records for that window, in writing, showing you placed no such call. These records age out; ask immediately. 3. File a report with the sheriff's office, give them the carrier records, and ask that the spoofing be documented in the file so you are not treated as the caller. 4. File a complaint with the FCC. That is the working remedy under 47 U.S.C. § 227(e). 5. Tell your carrier and ask what number-protection or spoofing-mitigation options it offers. 6. Start a dated log of every incident. If this becomes a pattern, § 784.048 comes into play and a court can be asked for protective relief — but only a documented pattern gets you there. 7. If you have any family court or custody matter involving this person, give the log and records to that attorney; it is often more useful there than anywhere else.