Someone is ‘spoofing’ the phone of Congressman Michael Capuano to make lewd calls
An unknown person has disguised their phone’s caller ID to display the number of Rep. Michael Capuano’s Washington, D.C., office line, the Massachusetts congressman announced Monday.
Making matters worse, according to The Boston Globe, the person has used the “spoofed” number to make “graphic sexual comments” and attempt to sell drugs.
According to the Federal Communications Commission, which is investigating the matter, Capuano said, spoofing is a federal crime in which “a caller deliberately falsifies the information transmitted to your Caller ID display to disguise their identity.” Capuano said they also reported the spoofing to Capitol Police.
Per the Globe, one telecommunications carrier told Capuano’s office they had handled more than 20,000 spoofed calls from the number.
As a result, the 7th congressional district representative’s D.C. office has been swamped with people calling back.
“Many of the folks who received these calls are then contacting the DC office to report the matter to us,” spokeswoman Alison Mills told the Globe. “Some people report speaking to a male caller, others simply saw the number on caller ID and thought someone was trying to reach them.”
Mills said it all began in late April and has interrupted office communications.
In the announcement Monday, Capuano apologized to constituents attempting to reach their office amid the confusion.
“We hoped that the calls would subside but since they have continued at a high volume, we wanted to let you know,” he said.
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