Last weekend I noticed the light blinking on my landline recorder at home. When I played back the message, the caller ID identified the number as belonging to a local businessman. However, the message was a female voice launching into a recorded sales pitch.

Later I saw the businessman at church and told him that someone was spoofing his number. We laughed at the nerve of these scam artists, and he mentioned an acquaintance who received a call supposedly from his own phone number.

Oddly, when I went home later and was loading the dishwasher, my phone rang. I have one of those phones that provi...