A Weird Scam??

[Chris Parks]

Today I have had one missed call and one call from someone who thinks he missed a call from me. I rang back after I seemingly missed a call from an unknown number because my mobile is used as part of our business though admittedly not very often. If it had been a personal only phone I would not have worried.

The second one was a call back from someone who had a missed call from my phone number but that is impossible as I don't use my mobile to call out on, that might happen about twice a year unless I am away for an extended period.

I think there is some sort of scam going on or maybe they whoever they are is harvesting phone numbers, any got any ideas? If they think they are going to use my number for any length of time they will get a shock because it is pay as you go and has a very low balance on it.

[taz01]

Hi Chris,

Unfortunately there is the ability to override the number display on caller id using CLI overstamping.

This is legal unless being used for unlawful purposes ( no comment). They probably just spoofed your number at random.

Access Denied (https://www.acma.gov.au/calling-line-identification-and-spoofing)

[rrich]

Chris,
We get them with nobody there. These calls come from two different sources as one will hang up after 13 seconds and the other hangs up after 29 seconds. What they are doing is looking for working numbers. When working their scams they want to use a non working number in the caller I/D.

A new one. Caller says they are the electric company and our bill is over due. Must pay immediately. I say, "How do you shave in the morning?" He comes back, "How do I shave?" I say, "Yeah. Knowing what you are doing for a living, how do you look at yourself in the mirror?" Then click.

[elanjacobs]

Hi Chris,

Unfortunately there is the ability to override the number display on caller id using CLI overstamping.

This is legal unless being used for unlawful purposes ( no comment). They probably just spoofed your number at random.

Access Denied (https://www.acma.gov.au/calling-line-identification-and-spoofing)
:whs: I've had the same thing.

[Chris Parks]

I had a call today from a family member saying he had missed a call from me when I had definitely not called him. The phone has now been totally reset and let's see what happens now.

[rrich]

I had one, sort of went like this:
S: You know who this is?
M: Yeah
S: I got arrested
M: For what
S: I was texting while driving
Note: I thought that it might be my brother. Yeah, he is that dumb. But I realized that it is a scam.
M: Where are you?
S: San Diego police station
M: What do you need?
S: Bail money
M: I'll tell you the same thing that I told your father
M: If you get yourself into jail, just get yourself out. Don't waste your phone call on me.
S: A bunch of swearing and CLICK

[Chris Parks]

Rich, no thing like that, it was a genuine call back and we had a good chat and catch up at the same time.