When it started, I was only getting calls from numbers very similar to mine. Like, if mine is (123) 456-7890, the calls were all coming from (123) 456-0987 or -9078. Then it started being any number from the 456- prefix. Today, I answered one that was (123) 987-6543, so they’re not even sticking to the prefix anymore. I still have friends and relatives in this area code (and my actual area code covers three counties so it’s quite a large area).
At least I’m not trying to do business from this number, but it’s getting annoying to have to not answer every call that comes from where I used to live. I did ask my carrier if I could keep my number and just change it to a local area code, but the prefix isn’t available in this area code.
Yes, absolutely. If you have ever received random calls from people asking why you called them, that’s a good indicator. There’s really no good way to tell otherwise.
I don’t answer the phone unless it’s a number I’ve already programmed into the phone. Why? The fake scammy phone calls started about a decade ago. Fakest number to ever call me? 000-000-0000. Um, yeah, not answering that.
Maybe change your outgoing voicemail message to warn all these angry randos who actually answer calls from numbers they don’t recognize? “Sorry I can’t come to the phone right now, oh, and my number has been hacked by scammers so I’m not answering it. If you know me, leave me a message or send me a text if it’s urgent. If you don’t know me, please just hang up and accept the fact that the phone system is inherently insecure and your number could be spoofed next.”
As I understand it, CID spoofing became trivial because phone companies’ feet were held to the fire.
It was a side effect of the implementation of phone number portability, which was mandated by the Telecommunications Act of 1996, and the breakup of the Bell System.
Oh, I get that one, also calls where the caller ID says “telephone company”. If you pick up a nice lady with a charming Pakistani accent will tell you she is calling you from Windows Corporation because your computer has a virus. And this is not a scam call no sir this is Windows Corporation, I’m sorry sir I do not know about this leenucks program but you have a virus in your windows.
Yeah, answering machines are the way to go. Personally I don’t pick up the phone unless I hear a voice I recognize on the answering machine.
Well, I had this number for 10-15 years and this has only just started. I figure if I change my number to one where I actually live, maybe they won’t get around to spoofing the new one for a while. I’m not getting calls from spoofed numbers (well, I get telemarketers, but not nearly as often as I’m getting calls from random people who think they’re getting calls from my number.)
What I want to know is do these scumbags blacklist lawmakers so they don’t get the same bullshit we do? What no one in power seems to realize is this nonsense is literally breaking the fabric of voice communications. I rent apartments to people mostly under 35, and no one answers their phones, ever. Someone can send me an email in response to a listing and I’ll try calling them back moments later and they don’t pick up. To them voice on their phone is primarily scams and grandma.
My standard response to telemarketers is “why would I do business with you when the only thing I know about your company for sure is you’re willing to break the law to contact me?”
When I lived in Pasadena and still had a landline, I kept getting calls for a different “M. Bellsdown” who owned a house across town. For 5 years at that number, contractors would call me about renovating the property. I’d ask them where they got this number, and they’d claim it was on the property title. Which was a lie, obviously. Not only was I not “Monica Bellsdown”, but we didn’t know her, weren’t related, AND I’d actually called a title company just to double-check. Or, sometimes, they’d claim I’d called them and left my number.
Made me really glad we were renting, because apparently there wasn’t a contractor within 50 miles that was honest.
I was subjected to some kind of weird info breach recently that resulted in me putting my cell phone on permanent Do Not Disturb mode:
About a month ago, I suddenly started receiving phone calls (some with and some without voicemail), text messages, and emails, most of which addressed me specifically by name, all pimping health care plans. These were coming from lots of different numbers and emails, and many of them took a “follow-up” tone, e.g. “Hi [name], this is Melissa calling you back about your Obamacare enrollment”. At its peak, I was getting roughly 30 of these unwanted, unsolicited, oddly specific contacts every day, sometimes multiple calls and texts in the span of a single minute. I never picked up any of the calls, and never reponded to any of the texts, gave them nothing to indicate that I was a live mark.
It wasn’t just call spoofing (though there were a lot of those too), since they had clearly correlated my real name with my email and phone number. And no, I had not been shopping for a new health care plan recently, not at all.
What do y’all suppose had occurred that made that deluge of multi-modal spam come down on me all at once? How does it work?
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