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Have you ever had your phone number spoofed?
This is currently going on with me. Someone has spoofed my home phone number, and has been using it to call other people. Whenever the other person misses the spoofer's call they end up calling me. I have answered quite the handful of calls from this. It has been happening since Wednesday, and it has gotten often enough that I have been carrying around a wireless phone in my pocket. I did end up reporting it to the fcc, but that hasn't done anything yet.
Anyway this gets me wondering, have you ever had your phone number spoofed? If so, how did you deal with it?
I’ve had spam where the spammers spoof the number they’re calling- so I’d occasionally get phone calls with my own number listed as the caller. Figured it was just a novel way for them to get people to pick up.
Never had the experience you’re having, thankfully. It sounds terrible!
It's not that fun sometimes. Some of callers end up using some colorful language, most don't gladly.
I had a very similar experience when my number was spoofed, receiving calls from many people that said I had called them first. It eventually escalated to the point that one man called me and cursed me out, even after I tried to explain the situation to him. He then proceeded to leave several threatening voicemails using my actual name and address. He apparently had reached his breaking point and looked up my number online, which is how he found my name and then my address.
I called my cell provider and they said there was little they could do about the spoofers, but they could at least block the number of the person leaving me death threats every week… so that was nice. I eventually stopped getting these calls after a few weeks. I guess the scammers moved on to another section of the phone number alphabet.
While some of the callers have used some rather colorful language, luckily I have not received any death threats. It was good that you got that number blocked.
Yeah, my Google Voice number gets spoofed from time to time. I know when it happens because I get a bunch of calls from unknown numbers pretty close together. I used to pick them up and try to explain, but enough people were pissy about it that I just stopped even trying. Between that, and the amount of spam/robo calls, I don't bother picking up the phone for any numbers that I don't know.
Yes, I had a week a few years ago (~2020) where I got a few return calls from folks saying I called them about their car warranty. I told them it was a scam and that someone spoofed my number. I haven't had an experience like that since. Best I can tell, Google hasn't blacklisted my number or anything.
Well over a decade ago those number spoofing apps were on the Play Store, had a couple friends prank me with it.
I've also had a spammer call me from my own number. Odd one, but I think it still counts.
Yeah my friends and I loved doing the spoofing in high school lol. You could call someone from their own number and get to their voice mail.
The FCC has a decent guide for non technical uncles, grandmothers, etc. in case it happens to them. In all cases, it's worth reporting if only to lay on the pressure to fix the broken caller ID system.
If you want to know how and the history behind it all of this malarkey, Wikipedia's got you covered.
As a side note, the Google Pixel line has an option to screen unknown numbers, has a known spam database, and this stops just about all inbound spam. I seem to remember this is currently a US-only thing.
iirc automatically screening unknown numbers is US-only but you can manually do it outside the US. I have heard reports of people having issues getting it to use the right language for call screening, but it's at least theoretically multilingual there.
Never mine, but recently had a call from "UPS" that needed someone to pay customs fees and help finding my address. They gave me a tracking number that wasn't in the database. And the callback number was to UPS, but they knew nothing about the package. I hadn't hadn't ordered anything so I wasn't expecting anything. I've had legal servers get a hold of me in similar ways for depositions and I had not been involved in anything nefarious in forever, so it made no sense. Just scam all over.
I haven't had my number spoofed but I did have a similar issue. When I first got a mobile phone I was getting calls from strangers who were very angry with me for some reason. It got to the point where they called me 3–4 times a day and just yelled at me and even threatened me. I told them they had the wrong guy but that didn't help at all.
After a month or two of this happening I eventually contacted my mobile provider and asked them what was happening. Turns out I got a phone number that was previously used by a shady guy (scammer/drug dealer) and the only real solution was to give me a new phone number (as in a completely new one, never used before).
Getting a new phone number might be the only solution for you too. It might take months or years before you stop getting these calls.
I’ve had the distinct displeasure of receiving spam calls from myself. Thankfully, I rarely pick up on random phone numbers, so it keeps some of the spam down. I’m sorry to hear you’re being used as a target for displaced aggression because of the FCC’s inability to confirm anyone, let alone force telephone carriers to implement stronger call id authenticity.
That is an extremely well way of putting it.
Thank you. I've had a lot of therapy and have more to go.
A few years ago I had my number spoofed and I was getting the most irate calls for about 2 straight weeks. Relentlessly.
People telling me to burn in hell, threatening to come beat my ass, kill me, all sorts of crazy things. I thought I woke up to being placed on some kind of weird list. I guess I did kind of.
Yeah, that happened to me once - some lady called me claiming I had called her. I walked her through the whole international spoofed phone call situation and she understood. Thankfully that's it.
I don't think so, but maybe 10 years ago there was a huge glitch with Verizon where people would receive dead calls from rando Verizon numbers. I got a bunch of those dead calls, and even a couple numbers called me back directly asking why I called them and was silent.
just last week someone called my cell and said sorry i missed your call. i didnt call him. turns out my number was spoofed and called him i guess
I don’t answer the phone unless I recognize the number. A couple years ago I was in the middle of a few weeks of getting a lot of spam calls from my states three area codes. One day got a call from my own number. Pretty sure I wasn’t calling myself. Never answered it. Never had it happen again.