There are now a billion robocalls going to cellphones and landlines every month. Many of them look like they're from your neighbor. It's not really your neighbor, of course. It's neighbor spoofing—which means using the internet to make it look like a scammer (who could be anywhere in the world) is calling from your area.

In this podcast: Dan Hendrickson, of the Better Business Bureau, joins IT2 with Jack Carlson & Amy Iler to talk about those pesky scam phone calls and, "neighbor spoofing"!

Apparently, the scammer used a technique called "neighbor spoofing." The caller ID of such calls matches the area code and the first three digits of the recipient's phone number, which is more likely to be answered than calls that simply match the area code.

Have you ever gotten a call in which the phone number looks pretty familiar? The area code matches yours, and the first three “prefix” numbers match yours, but you can’t quite tell who it is? If so, you’re not alone. This often results from a tactic known as “neighbor spoofing,” and inveterate robocallers are using it to bombard the American people with illegal robocalls without getting caught.

The Caller ID may be altered to match the first 6-digits of your telephone number so that it looks like a local call, perhaps from a neighbour in your area, also known as 'neighbouring.'