Telemarketers increasingly are disguising their real identities and phone numbers to provoke people to pick up the phone. "Humane Soc." may not be the Humane Society….

Regulators in Wisconsin and many other states are hearing a significant jump in complaints about what is often called "caller ID spoofing" or "call laundering."

The plans also target how calls are routed because phantom traffic often avoids detection by being sent to a tandem that isn't intended to handle the call under industry routing practices, a process that USTelecom Gen. Counsel James Olson said can be an innocent error or intentional "call laundering."

The "mystery number" Hillary Clinton called on the day of Vince Foster's death was clearly identified during the Senate Whitewater hearings on Nov. 2. Calling this number allows you to then place a call that can't be traced by the phone company. If the folks at NYNEX offered such a service they might name it "call laundering."