That’s not your neighbor calling

What good would it do to warn them someone is spoofing their number? They can't do anything about it. The person spoofing their number is using VOIP, which can allow them to enter any phone number they wish to show up on caller id.

You've got that right!! Mh cell # has been spoofed and it's much more annoying than the scam calls. People return calls and swear I called them, bless me out and turn my # over to the police.

I am an owner of said spoofed number. I came to this discussion board to see what I can do to get my number freed from this! It has been a nightmare for me! I get calls every day from people saying I called them when I clearly have not. The worst part is that they will argue with me and say I did call them and I have been called some horrendous things from people due to this. I try not answering my phone but these people will continuously call my number until I pick up. My voicemail clearly says my name so it’s pretty clear that I’m not a business. I don’t know what to do at this point.

These scam calls are coming from digital sources outside of the U.S. As someone who works in telecommunications with access to the tools to do so, I can tell these numbers are impossible to track down, any attempts to do meet dead-ends. So they may be KNOWN attempted scams, but good trucking luck tracking down even which network on the INTERNET(Not phone line or cellular) that the calls came from, let alone which entities are leading the scams. YOU are responsible for protecting you from SCAMS. The FTC has done wonders in stopping and preventing some of the most elaborate scams to this day. Be appreciative that your government even cares to put together a task force to stop idiots from being scammed out of their money.

The scam comes in when they ask you a question and you answer yes. Then they use your "yes" answer to manipulate certain situations in business dealings (scams) wherein you said "yes" and then they claim you said yes to this or that arrangement on tape and it is hard to dispute when they have your "voice" on tape.

When I got too many of these calls, I called back and asked them not to call. They did have the same prefix as my number. I directly told them I was not the person they were looking for and never to call again. I was firm. I never received a call from them again. Don't let them intimidate you. Someone who engages in passive aggressive activity to harass people like this is usually paranoid.

Don't answer the calls unless you specifically know the number and let it go to voice mail, simple!

Get a recording device, call a fax number and record the sound it makes. When you answer an unknown number, play the fax sound. If it is a robot call it will hang up and automatically remove your number from the data base. These people exchange data bases and soon your number will be gone from all databases.

Now these scam/telemarketer companies are listing a name of the actual person along with a phone number that is similar to your own when they call on a cell phone. I have received 3 calls within the last 4 hours from the same telemarketer using three different numbers and three different names.

patk, Do Not Call Registry is designed to work with legitimate companies only. So, you and I will continue to receive calls from scammers.

The Do Not Call List is designed for you to report your number to be removed from calling lists. It is not designed for you to report numbers that you don’t want calls from. That doesn’t help anything.

If you new something about the technology you would understand how costly what you ask would be. Just what we need another gazillion dollar government program. When you can figure out how to do this without reaching into my wallet, have at it. In the mean time, deal with it. 5 calls a day is nothing, live with it like the rest of us or turn you phone off for pete's sake!!!!!!!

Yes and no. Scammers spoof active numbers, but probably not because they called you and you didn't answer. They simply type a number into their software, often using the same area code of the geographic area they are targeting. The number they put in their software is most likely random. They don't care if it might be a working number or not, so if yours got used, it most likely was not chosen intentionally. All the scammers really care about is that some number other than their own showa up on your caller ID. And they know that if it looks like a local number, you are more likely to answer the call.

Reporting the numbers used to call you does not get the true owner of the number in trouble; in the majority of cases they had nothing to do with any of it. The scammers are spoofing (using) the numbers randomly or by some other means, such as a list they acquired somehow. Any number can be used to make it look to your caller ID that it is the number being called from, even if they are calling from the other side of the planet. It is likely that your own number has been used at some point as the number “making” scam calls. Also, when your machine answers a call, the robocall systems do not consider your number as invalid, just unanswered at that time. It is usually then just moved to the bottom of the list to be re-called later, actually increasing the number of calls you get. The best way to handle them is to actually answering them, do not let the caller speak to you or start their canned speech (you will have to aggressively interrupt them), but immediately ask the name and contact information of the company they allege to represent, though you will rarely get it, and inform them you are registered on the Do Not Call List, request your number be immediately removed from their list, and inform them any subsequent calls will be reported to the FTC. Don’t be surprised if they ask you for your number. If they do, that means the person is probably actually removing it from their list. This is because the people “calling” you, especially if you hear the tale-tell sign of a few seconds delay before they start speaking, are working in a call center and don’t have access to the number that the computer dialed for them. In these cases, usually they DO have the ability to remove your number from the list that their company is using, but only if you give them your number to input the stop on. From experience, I have found if I get very upset at the person “calling”, they are much less likely to do the “stop calling” input on your behalf, and instead just hit the button for you to be retried again. Unfortunately, it is rarely the actual person you speak to that would handsomely profit from whatever they are trying to sell you or whatever. They are usually just some low paid, minimum wage worker in a foreign country. Whoever is employing them is the evil mastermind behind these annoying calls, so treating them badly will not make them want to “help” you. It’s a complete pain, but the only way to reduce these calls, one company at a time. Another thing to try is to contact your phone carrier, especially for cell phones, and explain the problem. There is sometimes a way for them to reduce these calls, at least for a while, with an input that they do. The only real and workable solution to this problem would be to outlaw the use of applications that allow users to “spoof” numbers on caller ID, making it REQUIRED that all calls show valid origin phone numbers and business names. There would still be those that got around this and used illegal software to circumvent such a law, but it would make it a lot harder and definitely reduce the incidence of it for the average phone customer.