All of us have experienced the frustrating ordeal of receiving call after call every day from phone numbers that are either junk sales calls or outright scammers trying to get our information. Some calls are just recordings that start the minute that your voice is detected. Some are just dead silence and the "caller" hangs up after you answer. Sometimes I will pick up the phone and just wait without saying a word. No background noise or anything, just dead silence. Then after several seconds, they hang up.
Most likely, the number calling you is spoofed - that is that the number that pops up on your caller ID is not the actual number calling you. Ever notice that many of these calls are from your same area code? There are several types of software and calling systems that can be used to do this. In fact, many political organizations who set up phone banks to make calls for their candidates and issues set these up so that their callers can sit at home and make these calls without their home pr personal cell phone numbers being revealed. Some uses are indeed legitimate. But the ones that are legitimate at least spoof a number that belongs to a legitimate office number or designated extension for the organization from which they are calling.
Easy enough to deal with this situation: Just don't answer if the number that pops up on caller ID is not in your contact list or looks funny. If it is a legitimate call, they will leave a message and you can call them back.
But what if the number they are using IS in use? What if the number they are using to robocall thousands of people is YOUR phone number? Now all of a sudden, you are receiving huge numbers of angry calls and angry text messages telling you to stop calling them. Now people are threatening YOU because they think you are trying to scam them or harass them.
How They Do It:
Often, they will have found your number simply by using a random number generator combined with an autodialer. They just plug in the area code and start calling. They then record which numbers result in someone answering the call. If the call is answered, that person’s number can be used to spoof the scammer’s ID.
What you can do:
Unfortunately, not much. There is no way to block this, and there is no way to stop them from using your number in their scam campaign. About all, you can do is notify your contacts, and then hope that the scammers will get tired of using your stolen number after enough people block your number on their phones.- You can try to prevent this from happening in the first place by simply not answering calls that are not in your contact list or that don't look familiar. If you are able, set it so that your voicemail will not answer until several rings - like 10. You'll have to tell your contacts you did this and that they will have to be patient in order to leave a message. This will hopefully result in your number not being flagged as answered and therefore they will not use your number as a spoof candidate.
- Report this to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Even though they can't do anything about it, at least they will have a record of you making the complaint.
- If your number did get selected as a spoof candidate, change your voice message so that your incoming callers know that it is not YOU that called them.
“Hello, you have reached <your name>. If you are calling with regards to <your desired info here>, please leave a message. However, if you have received a suspicious call and my number showed up on the caller ID, please note: this number is being used in a spoof/phone scam campaign whereby suspicious callers are calling you, and my number is showing up in the caller ID. I am not the one who called you. If you have received such a call, or get any calls like this in the future, do not follow their instructions and immediately hang up. Please block this number from receiving further calls”
- If it doesn't stop, you might have to change your number as a last resort and let all of your contacts know about the change - this can be a real headache.
Telephone scammers should all be strung up and made to endure medieval tortures as far as I'm concerned. This is not a legitimate income source, in my opinion, and all they are doing is annoying people and making thousands of victims by their one simple act.
Be aware, be vigilant, and don't fall for the scams.
Be aware, be vigilant, and don't fall for the scams.
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