It may be known as caller ID spoofing, but it is evidently no laughingmatter. 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 phonemessages 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 ... Mr. Jepson said yesterday that he did not yet have any paying customers for the service ...
"It generated a lot more interest than I ever thought it would," said
Mr. Jepson, ... an entrepreneur who lives in a gated community in Orange County,
...