Well Heather certainly loves to call me and its a combination of either using my area code and prefix or other companies randomly choosing long distance numbers.

I have noticed spoofing of 8 numbers as well. how do these get through the phone system, can't they detect ANI being bad at the source? I used to work for a company where we logged our workers on and off shift; rent a cop; based on the ANI data from the phone call. So I am really curious how this isn't blocked by entry into the system.

Some providers send an ANI that has nothing to do with the actual caller, and some allow it to send nothing at all. See http://www.oldskoolphreak.com/tfiles/voip/voipani.txt

What's worse is false positives. It conditions you to ignore any calls you don't immediately recognize, which can have consequences if someone is trying to get ahold of you for some timely legitimate reason. Some people don't leave voicemails, either.

Which makes the local ID spoofing especially annoying. I'm pretty sure no one in Florida has a reason to contact me. Someone ostensibly in my town? Not so sure.

Cell phone is actually easier because it's not a very local number anymore. But it also means I have to set it to Do Not Disturb while traveling across time zones. So no one can get me in the middle of the night in a legitimate emergency.

This is the one time in my life that I've been glad to have a number from a place I don't live. All the hassle of trying to explain to people that yes, my area code is actually an area code, no it isn't from around here, etc. All absolved when I know I can ignore any number from my area code, 'cus who the hell wants to call me from there? Nobody.

Mine is from close enough that people recognize it, but far enough that the only people from there that would ever contact me are family members, and of course I already have their numbers programmed in. It is very convenient!

If people don't leave a voicemail (or send text), they don't have a "timely legitimate reason" then.