How to stop someone from Spoofing my phone number?

[wade moore]

Ok...

I've had a weird thing happening recently that I finally have the motivation to deal with. I haven't googled on this, my bad, I know. Here's the situation:

Several times (for the nitpicky folks, 4 or 5) over the last month or so I have had someone call me on my cell phone saying some variation of "I had a missed call from you?". I never called these people. I brushed it off for the most part until yesterday.

I got two VMs from the same woman. Basically, she was pissed at me calling her about "a car she sold 2 years ago" and being rude, harrassing, etc. She finally got to the point in her message where she said that next time she's "calling the authorities". She also said she would keep calling me until I answered. She also mentioned something about "I don't know what kind of business you're running" or something. So, I suspect this is a scam artist of some kind.

I tried to call her last night, got her husband (or someone), and tried to explain. He seemed pretty disinterested.

Anyway, I called Verizon for advice. They said all they can do is give me a new number. This is probably true, unfortunately. They said if I wanted something done I could try calling the police. Blah, not something I really want to go whining to the police about if I can help it.

So. Does anyone have any ideas of what I could do? Anyone know how this is even technologically possible?

[stevew]

I dunno about how to prevent any of this.

If you want to keep your old number around for awhile, you can port it over to google voice so that it will stay in your control. I think it's like 20 bucks, and there's an app that works with iPhone. I'm assuming you can then go and get another number from Verizon for the account, but I would probably double check on that.

[JediKooter]

Could it be something like the last two numbers of the person that called her, somehow got switched, so now it matches your number? Or did she say your number is the one coming up on Caller ID when that person calls?

EDIT: Say your last two numbers are 12 and his are 21 and that is causing the confusion on her part.

[wade moore]

Originally Posted by JediKooter

Could it be something like the last two numbers of the person that called her, somehow got switched, so now it matches your number? Or did she say your number is the one coming up on Caller ID when that person calls?

EDIT: Say your last two numbers are 12 and his are 21 and that is causing the confusion on her part.

That was my assumption the first time this happened.

But this is now 4-5 times in the last month that someone said it was my number that came up on caller id.

I'm really not thinking coincidence at this point.

[dubb93]

There is an app on smart phones that allows the user to "call" from any number they choose. I'm not sure what the app is exactly but I know it is beyond annoying at the dispatch center when they receive prank calls each night from the "phone number" of police departments, ambulance services, and hospitals. I'm not sure if it is possible to track the number the app is really calling from or not. I would guess it is a real PITA or the dispatch center wouldn't be dealing with it on a nightly basis.

[JediKooter]

Originally Posted by wade moore

That was my assumption the first time this happened.

But this is now 4-5 times in the last month that someone said it was my number that came up on caller id.

I'm really not thinking coincidence at this point.

Ah ok. Yikes. Unfortunately, it doesn't sound like the woman that is getting called is bright enough to understand what is going on.

[wade moore]

Originally Posted by JediKooter

Ah ok. Yikes. Unfortunately, it doesn't sound like the woman that is getting called is bright enough to understand what is going on.

And to be clear.

When I say 4-5 times - I mean a different person each time. I have had this happen with 4-5 different people.

[Alan T]

There are ways to spoof your number on Caller ID. You can do a web search on caller ID spoofing and find services that will do it for you as well.

Since you say it sounds like completely different groups spoofing your number, that sounds a little weirder to me though. It could simply be something as simple as some company has their PBX misconfigured to show the wrong caller ID, but once again that would imply some kind of tie between the calls.

I don't have a good answer for you though on how to keep your number from being spoofed. As far as I know, its not technically illegal unless some crime is being performed while doing it.. Last I heard, the FCC was looking into it, but other than asking for advice from the phone company, I'm not sure what else can be done here.

[Alan T]

Dola, I actually went to look at the fcc website to see if they have anything new on it (been a while since I looked into this), and nothing really new there that I see. Some other numbers you can perhaps call for advise though on the page.
Caller ID and Spoofing | FCC.gov

[wade moore]

Originally Posted by Alan T

There are ways to spoof your number on Caller ID. You can do a web search on caller ID spoofing and find services that will do it for you as well.

Since you say it sounds like completely different groups spoofing your number, that sounds a little weirder to me though. It could simply be something as simple as some company has their PBX misconfigured to show the wrong caller ID, but once again that would imply some kind of tie between the calls.

I don't have a good answer for you though on how to keep your number from being spoofed. As far as I know, its not technically illegal unless some crime is being performed while doing it.. Last I heard, the FCC was looking into it, but other than asking for advice from the phone company, I'm not sure what else can be done here.

Maybe I'm not being clear (it happens a lot).

I'm saying that someone has spoofed my number to multiple recipients. I suspect it must be the same person doing it, but no way to know.

[JediKooter]

Originally Posted by wade moore

And to be clear.

When I say 4-5 times - I mean a different person each time. I have had this happen with 4-5 different people.

Oh ok. So it's one person/entity spoofing your number, calling 4-5 different people. Is your phone number listed on FB or anything like that? Could it be someone that you may have had a disagreement with about a month or so ago?

I don't know of anything that can prevent someone from spoofing your number unfortunately. Since it's being done from a device that is outside of your control, the only thing I can think of is if one of those people were to get called again, and if they were willing to, see if their carrier is able to locate where the call actually came from?