Phone Number Hijack

[skidderman]

Have you ever had your phone number hijacked & used by someone else. This am a lady called me swearing I had called her. No I called no one. Is there a way to stop this? Interested in others experiences.

[Cement Bench]

No a couple of businesses like home hardware phone numbers were used to call on the tax and other scheme in the last 2 weeks
Facebook exploded but people-le have to know the scammers can use other phone numbers on a local basis to get you to answer your phone
local number has under 400 phones in my area and it happens all the time to get you to think one of your neighbors is calling

unfortunately we put up with this bs

[57charlie]

Yeah, had the same thing happen to me 5 or 6 days ago.

Someone called me a few times...usually I'll just ignore any number I don't recognize it or it's not in my phone contacts. Third time I figured I'll just answer it & the guy on the other end says I called him twice today. Sorry, not me, haven't called anyone today. He insists I called him...sorry, not me & then in a pizzy tone of voice he starts asking who I am & why did I call him? Sorry, it wasn't me & I hung up. He called again & I just blocked it.

One off event, but I have to assume my phone number somehow showed up on someone's call display.

[C2C3PO]

This may be helpful;

https://crtc.gc.ca/eng/phone/telemarketing/identit.htm

[skidderman]

I wonder if shutting the phone off stops it? Even for a short period of time.

[CaberTosser]

My cell is my business phone so I answer everything, but I do notice that a lot of the time spoofed #’s will start with my same 3-digit prefix and area code. One time I knew for sure it was a fake when the incoming # was my own! I’ve had a few people call me asking the same questions of why I called them, I merely reply that it’s fraudsters that can fake their outgoing number. It does get a person upset when their phone number is being impersonated

[EZM]

Originally Posted by 57charlie

Yeah, had the same thing happen to me 5 or 6 days ago.

Someone called me a few times...usually I'll just ignore any number I don't recognize it or it's not in my phone contacts. Third time I figured I'll just answer it & the guy on the other end says I called him twice today. Sorry, not me, haven't called anyone today. He insists I called him...sorry, not me & then in a pizzy tone of voice he starts asking who I am & why did I call him? Sorry, it wasn't me & I hung up. He called again & I just blocked it.

One off event, but I have to assume my phone number somehow showed up on someone's call display.

Had a similar experience where the person on the other end of the line was belligerent - insisting I was calling him - I tried explaining how open numbers (like mine or anyone else's) can be used to disguise some sort of scam call - the guy sniffed at my explanation and still insisted I called him and demanded an explanation, my name, etc... - and wouldn't listen or take a pause to breathe.

If getting a phone call ticks you off so much it's time to loose the cell phone and move into the remote woods where you don't have to deal with people.

Lucky for him, I was on my work cell and had to conduct myself "appropriately" otherwise I would have loved to light his dumb arse up and educate the ignorant simpleton.

[badbrass]

If, I don't know the number! I just don't answer! They don't leave a message! I just block the number! Happens all the time! Will go for 2-3 days then nothing.

[HunterDave]

I returned a call from someone one day and the young lady that answered the phone explained that it was something that hackers do. It only took her a few seconds and I’ll do the same.

[daveyn]

on the same theme...I'll never understand the need to return a call that you didn't answer and the caller didn't leave a message. Why is it so important that you know who called you and why. If there is no message I never call back, gee-zuss wrong numbers happen all the time. The fact that people feel the need to know who called them and then get cranky about it is the same reason people will click on the link in an email to win the big prize and get themselves hacked.
Just assume its a telemarketer or a wrong number, if its important they'll call you back.

[HunterDave]

^^^^^Not a good plan if you do business on your phone^^^^^

[Savage Bacon]

Originally Posted by skidderman

I wonder if shutting the phone off stops it? Even for a short period of time.

That will only work until you turn your phone on again.

Sent from my SM-G970W using Tapatalk

[Savage Bacon]

I had a lady call me on Monday saying she just missed a call from my number. I hadn't made a call all day.

I was in the head shop a couple hours ago and someone called saying the same thing. The guy behind the counter said it's happened 5 or 6 times already today.

Sent from my SM-G970W using Tapatalk

[CaberTosser]

I think people that ‘call back’ get upset because they simply hit the prompt in their phone to redial, so when the person who answers says they didn’t call they take it as being accused of lying, when the simple fact is they don’t know the flaws/loopholes in the technology that hackers and fraudsters are exploiting. This is easy to diffuse by stating the same thing happens to you occasionally and that you also find it upsetting when someone spoofs your phone #. “Those awful hackers, what can we do though? Have a good day!”

[Sundancefisher]

Scam or sales calls to my home number means they will be kept busy as long as I can. It make it a game. How long till they hang up on me.

[averagejoe]

It is called spoofing. They fake the phone number on the caller ID and do not actually hijack your phone, account, number etc.

I once actually received a call on my phone claiming the number was my own phone number. They usually pick a local number at random to try and fool people into answering.

[Texican]

Yes, one time I got a call from --- myself!

I didn't pick up

[dennis wood]

Originally Posted by skidderman

Have you ever had your phone number hijacked & used by someone else. This am a lady called me swearing I had called her. No I called no one. Is there a way to stop this? Interested in others experiences.

Had my own ph # call me that the heck

[waldedw]

Yup had it both ways, my number was used and I had a guy say he missed a call from me....... spooffed.......I had 2 calls from another local 522 number here in Lloydminster called it back and both times the guy said nope sorry never called anyone ........ spoofed again .......

[New2Elk]

I know a guy who has a group of friends that sometimes mess with the callers if they’re bored at the time. He told me he once had a call from the “CRA” and told the scammer they need to talk to his “accountant” and passed on his buddies number as his accounting firm with a made up name - say Mr. Jones. He the texted his buddy to let him know he may get a call and just to play along. His buddy never got a call but the guy I know got a call back from his buddies number (spoofed) and the guy in the other end said he’s from the accounting firm but Mr. Jones isn’t available so he took a look at the account and that he in fact owes the CRA money. They’ll go to pretty great lengths if they think they may get something.

[Mr Flyguy]

If I get a call from an unknown caller I pick up one of the cordless phones from another room and bring it in to the on line phone...the feed back whine must get really annoying 'cause never get call backs!

[wildalberta]

i had this numerous times roughly 3-5 years ago. nothing recently but i also signed up for the call control feature with telus and it has 100% eliminated all the bull****.

[daveyn]

Originally Posted by HunterDave

^^^^^Not a good plan if you do business on your phone^^^^^

Thats very commendable that you actually call clients back even when they don't leave a message. To frequently nowadays you can't get a business to call you back even when you do leave a message or you've been given a committment that they'll " call you back by the end of the week" kinda thing.
Good on you sir...

[midgetwaiter]

Originally Posted by Savage Bacon

That will only work until you turn your phone on again.

No actually it won’t do anything at all.

They aren’t hijacking your phone number, they are faking the call display. This is totally separate, call display doesn’t show you what phone is calling you, it shows you what that phone is configured to say. It’s a 30 year old system designed to trust what it’s been told.

I could call you and have your display say Savage Bacon 111-111-1111 in about 30 seconds.

[badbrass]

So last week I deleted all my Recent calls on my cell phone. Because I was getting so many fake calls! I have got not one fake call on my phone since!!!!
Told my wife, and she did the same. And not one fake call yet! Just wanted to pass this along. I know some cannot do this because of business, but it worth a try!
Thanks!

[does it ALL outdoors]

Originally Posted by wildalberta

i had this numerous times roughly 3-5 years ago. nothing recently but i also signed up for the call control feature with telus and it has 100% eliminated all the bull****.

What a fantastic feature that is, a few members here have that, its really slick.

To bad the big telcos had to be government mandated into doing that and couldn't do it as a good service to their customers Incase you cant tell I'm a little jaded and bitter towards the big telcos for being greedy, arrogant (Bell) and providing substandard service at a premium price.

I have a buddy that got calls from his own number all the time and had to deal with people calling him back asking why he's calling them all the time. It got so bad he had to change his number and everyone knows what a pain that is. I've been very fortunate and been able to hang on to the same number for about 25 years now with 3 different telcos. Thanks to the gov stepping in and forcing number portability.

I'm the LAST guy that advocates for gov interference but there's 3 times they took the telcos to task for the better. 1) forcing them to stop locking phones to their network and again forcing them to unlock them for free, no more charging to do it even though Bell kept trying to charge for it even after being told to stop it. 2) forcing them to find a way to stop spam calls (call control) and 3) forcing them to introduce number portability so you can take your number with you regardless of which provider you choose.

Those are just three that I know of and have benefited from, I'm sure there are more. Have I mentioned how much I HATE the big telcos?

Canadians pay the highest cellphone rates out of all industrialized nations. Some small European countries pay $10 a month for their phones. I realize there are a few contributing factors but they aren't as big of issues as they want you to believe.

We desperately need more competition in Canada.

[Ackleyman]

I'm getting it about 3 times daily now. Phone rings , guy or gal say hi just missed your call. have to explain i never called. Most have being very pleasant except for one guy who said "You friggin JUST called me, whadda yuh want man"
Said sorry and goodbye. PITA

[kerthump]

I turned on the “Do Not Disturb” function on my iPhone, set it to accept only a select shortlist from my contacts. So I don’t take calls from strangers on my personal phone. Don’t call me, I’ll call you. Peace and quiet.