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The Wall Street Journal has a piece today about how robocall scammers make money from Caller ID. I had to read it a couple of times before I got it, but apparently it works like this:
- Scammer calls me.
- My carrier automatically makes a Caller ID request, for which it pays a hundredth of a cent or so.
- The caller gets a share of that hundredth of a cent.
- Multiply by a gazillion.
Why does the calling number get a piece of the Caller ID action? That part is unclear. “Regulators monitor such revenue-sharing deals,” the article says, but that’s all. I’m trying to think of what legitimate purpose this could have, but I’m coming up blank.
