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Pandora's avatar

Has anyone on Fluther received a call from your own phone number recently?

Asked by Pandora (32436points) October 29th, 2018

I recieved a call from my own number and answered it. They said my account had been suspended because of some activities related to my account. They even got my phone company correct. They wanted the last 4 numbers of my social security number to verify it was me. I did not give it to them and hanged up and called my phone company. They told me it was a scam. I looked it up on the internet and they warned people “NOT TO PICK” up the call.

So apparently I did pick up. What dangers does this pose? Is there a way to keep my number from being spoofed? They also called my husband number and my daughters number and my mom today. All our numbers is close. Fortunately they did not pick up.
Is there something I can do to protect my phone?

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10 Answers

Patty_Melt's avatar

Report it to authorities. Don’t leave it up to your phone company to do that.
I have not had that happen, but I’m glad for the heads up. Thankyou.
I have had lots of spam callers, but not presenting my own phone number.

canidmajor's avatar

I have had that happen fairly regularly for a number of years, now. I don’t answer, I report it, nothing happens. Ugh.

augustlan's avatar

Did the caller say they were from Fluther, or are you just asking the people of Fluther if something like this has ever happened to them?

elbanditoroso's avatar

It is super easy for spammers to put in any old number they want and make it look like it’s your number (or that of someone close by), on the theory that you’re more likely to pick up a call from a ‘local’ number.

It would have either been a recording, or someone with an accent wanting your SSN and things like that.

You probably did no harm and didn’t suffer today; the right thing to do was to ignore it entirely. If someone really wanted you, they would leave a message or send an email.

No harm done.

LadyMarissa's avatar

It hasn’t happened to me..yet; however, it has happened to several of my friends. I make it a practice that IF I don’t recognize the number, I just DON’T answer. All my friends know to leave me a VM if I don’t answer. IF it is my own number calling, I definitely would NOT answer!!! I find it a bit unnerving that they also had your family’s numbers also. Maybe they were just dialing all the numbders in the sequence after yours & got lucky. None of my friends had any bad repercussions after receiving their calls!!!

JLeslie's avatar

I haven’t.

seawulf575's avatar

There is a scam going on out there. The scammers use a tool to make all sorts of phone calls from someone else’s phone number without that person knowing. If you respond by text, the text goes to the number you are seeing and the person receiving it has no idea who you are or why you are writing them. I have received several calls from myself that I ignore. I found out about this because I responded with a text and when the owner of the number was a baffled as I, I looked it up. I think it is called shadow calling.

LuckyGuy's avatar

I am getting calls like that from spoofed numbers that appear to me from my neighborhood. The area code and extension are the same but the last 3 or 4 digits are not.
I don’t answer them. The lowest form of slime is on the other end.

Pandora's avatar

@augustlan I’m asking if anyone on Fluther has had the experience. As far as I know fluther does not have anything to do with it.

AshlynM's avatar

I’ve gotten calls from odd looking numbers before, some not even ten digits.I simply don’t answer calls from numbers I don’t recognize. If it’s truly important, they’ll leave a voice mail.

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