"Spoofing" Has Advantages, But There's Also A Dark Side To Growing Trend

PITTSBURGH (CBS) -- "Spoofing," also known as "digital deceit," has been growing rapidly in recent years thanks to easily downloaded apps.

Those apps allow you to send spoof texts, change your caller ID, and even change your voice.

SpoofCard is one of the apps. It's made by Tel Tech Systems.

Company Vice President Ethan Garr says it's mainly used to protect callers' privacy.

"Tools like this allow you to really maintain your identity, the way you want to identify yourself," said Garr.

It has other features to disguise who you are and even where you are.

Oversleep? Use the feature that makes it sound like you're stuck in traffic.

Medical clinic director Daniel Adar uses it a different way. He utilizes it to collect unpaid bills from patients who ignore his calls.

He puts their own office number in the caller ID, so when the patient picks up, it's not their employer, it's actually the doctor himself.

"Most of the time, I get a good response from them, and it works well," said Adar.

But security expert Paul Viollis says there's a dark side to spoofing.

"What is the purpose? And the purpose is very plain and simple; it's to intentionally deceive others," says Viollis. "End of story."

Garr admits that SpoofCard has been used for malicious purposes, but says those instances are rare.

"It provides a valuable service that helps people, and it does far more good than it does harm," said Garr.

Some people have been arrested for improperly using SpoofCard.

The company says it always cooperates with law enforcement and has its own fraud unit to help cut down on any abuse.