Quatloos!

Louisville lawyer Scott Zoppoth started getting some strange phone calls last week. People from the area of Olympia, Wash., and the state of Maine were calling with a question: What’s the problem with my credit or debit card?

The callers told Zoppoth, the managing partner and owner of The Zoppoth Law Firm, that they were receiving automated calls telling them of a problem and asking for credit or debit card information. When they looked at their caller ID, the phone number from Zoppoth’s firm showed up.

Zoppoth called AT&T and learned that his phone number was apparently being used as part of a "spoofing" scam, he tells the ABA Journal. Zoppoth then turned to his information technology consultant, who reported he had other clients in Louisville with the same problem. It turned out that hackers with an Internet address in Germany had broken into the database of Zoppoth’s Internet and cable company to obtain phone numbers, and then pirated them to make free calls in the apparent scam.