Yep, there is a caller ID spoofing program and it works well. I was just going through my links so I could post a link to the program for everyone to check out but I can't seem to find it anywhere. But I've got a copy of it on my laptop.

The way it works though, you wouldn't be able to spoof your own caller ID if you were initially calling someone. The only way to do that would be if you're directly connection to their phone line. So like someone said previously, that would indicate it's an inside job.

But another nice feature of the program is that it will spoof call waiting caller ID. So assuming that this lady has that service with her phone company, someone could have been on the phone with her while blasting all these bogus names and numbers into her caller ID box. Thing is though, she would hear a beep and some silence as the data came through. And that would make it kind of obvious that it's happening. I've been on the phone with people before and I've blasted weird names and numbers through my phone to their caller ID boxes. Always freaks them out at first, it's kinda fun.

Another way that it may have happened (this is a guess) is that someone could have called her while she's not home, gotten her answering machine and while the OGM was playing they could blast the call waiting caller ID into her box. Only problem with that, though, is that it seems unlikely that her machine would be set up to release the line for a half-second while the caller ID data comes in.

And one final thing that I can think of, someone could have hooked up their own phone to the outside of her house or at a telco cross box, gotten on her line and blasted the information into her box. They wouldn't even need a computer to do it, they could just record the blast onto a portable tape player or mp3 player and blast it into the phone.

Just a few thoughts, I'll shut up now.

A customer service representative told her the names are either old or made up as part of a testing system. The phone company thinks that a power failure or old equipment could have caused the famous names to show up on Crocker's caller ID box.

You know, I just thought of something else...back around 1996 when caller ID was a relatively new thing I was in an electronics store looking at the caller ID boxes. And one of the ones on display let you scroll through names on the box. And the names were all a bunch of famous dead people. So I bet her box is either resetting or the batteries are going dead, causing the demo/test names to show up in there. What a stupid lady to call the newspaper for something like this.

I just called Nancy and grilled her about her problems. Couldn't help myself. The call is here if you want to hear it. Kinda interesting to hear her tell me how it's a human interest story, an escape from all the bad news. She'll feel kinda dumb if she ever realises that all those names are just the demo feature of her box.