Harassed entrepreneur behind "bogusify your caller-ID" shuts down

By Xeni Jardin at 8:51 am Sunday, Sep 5

Remember that caller-ID-spoofing service we blogged about here in August? Turns out the founder is pulling the plug on his venture after death threats, phone taps, and malicious hacks that involved strangers discovering how much money he'd just deposited into his checking account.

Three days after the start-up company Star38 began offering a service that fools caller ID systems, the founder, Jason Jepson, has decided to sell the business. Mr. Jepson said he had received harassing e-mail and phone messages and even a death threat taped to his front door - all he said from people opposed to his publicizing a commercial version of technology that until now has been mainly used by software programmers and the computer hackers' underground.

For a fee, customers using the Star38.com Web site would be able to alter the number that would appear on the caller ID screen of the recipient's phone. The technique could mask the identity of a bill collector, for example, or enable a private investigator to fool someone into answering the phone on the false belief that a friend or relative was ringing

Registration-required Link to NYT story