The latest NY1 For You report warns consumers about scammers faking caller identification. Susan Jhun filed the following report.

A scam that hijacks phone numbers is causing a huge headache for one Brooklyn business owner.

"Hundreds, possibly thousands of calls," said Neil Caracciolo, the owner of Satellite Auto Glass.

All a product of a scam that seized Neil Caracciolo's phone number.

"We were getting hundreds of calls a day from people that we did not contact, and they're telling us we're calling them, and we're saying no," he said.

The small business owner says the callers say they receive a call from his number from people claiming to be from the IRS asking for personal information, a scam known as spoofing.

"Spoofing is when scam artists take some legitimate number and pretend that they’re calling from that number. It’s a fake number," said Deborah Marrone, assistant regional director with the FTC. "And it’s much more common now because of voiceover Internet protocol. So callers aren’t calling just from landline phones. They’re using the Internet to make calls. It’s much cheaper, but it's also a process that's much harder to detect."

Accordingly, the FTC warns consumers to be vigilant when receiving cold calls.

"You can’t just look at your caller ID and assume that that information is accurate," Marrone said. "So if it says that a call is coming from the IRS, it’s likely a scam. Or another government agency. Government agencies do not call consumers out of the blue."

And if the caller asks for your personal financial information, hang up.

In Caracciolo's case, the constant calls are ruining his business.

"We use a lot of advertising, and the phone numbers come through the advertising and we can't use the phones. We have to actually unplug the phones throughout the course of the day because it's just too annoying," he said. 

NY1 for You contacted Caracciolo's carrier, Verizon, and a spokesman told us they are looking into his case to see what they can do.

To help the FTC track these scammers, file complaints by calling 877-382-4357 or log on to ftc.gov/complaint.