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OT Telemarketer's fake caller IDs

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Diamond
Joined
Nov 1, 2004
Location
Webster Groves, MO
Recently telemarketers have learned to send fake phone numbers to your caller ID. I can block them but it isn't likely to matter because they keep changing. I have had three such calls before 11 this morning. As you all well know, answering a call in the middle of a cut is a non-trivial annoyance. Additionally, many of the fake IDs have my area code, making them seem like local callers. If I block them, there is a chance that I will be blocking a call from someone legitimate.

The first question is- can these fakes be numbers in use or are they only unassigned ones?

Second- is there any defense against it?

Bill
 
telephone over internet service its common to pick any area code you want.
.
thus somebody in China can have a new York city area code to call their family in new york city and for family to call China without paying long distance charge
.
been around for decades
 
This has been going on for years

when the telco computerized, there was no internet and no need for securing caller id

you cannot dial them back, sometimes they call from your own number

verizon landline started saying "spam?" [on caller id]frequently


mid cut don't answer the phone

when answering, say hello, only once

if no answer immediately, hang up

cell phone has far fewer fake calls than landline
 
I started getting lots of these a few years back. Some were from local numbers some not. I solved it by answering and saying nothing. Still could be a real call that i wanted to answer but i figured id take the chance. Had plenty going on at the time and couldnt really take on more anyways. Anybody i really wanted to talk to was already in my contacts. Went from about 5 a day to 0 in about three days. Never came back.
If you dont answer i guess they think there is still a chance to get someone and if you do and say anything they KNOW there is someone there. When it goes to nothing but answered i supose they just thought it was a dead end.
 
................

The first question is- can these fakes be numbers in use or are they only unassigned ones?

Second- is there any defense against it?

Bill

Based on my thoroughly scientific example of one: A few years ago when they first started doing this with local numbers (at least around here) I fell for the "it has the same first six digits so it must be someone local trying to contact me". So after I was done with what I was doing I called back and got to talk to a young teenager who was wondering why several strangers were calling him. So, in this case, the number was in use. I guess they can just get any number to display. No defense I know of which is why I don't answer calls from numbers I don't recognize, and when putting things on Craigslist say to either text me or leave a message because I don't answer the phone.

BTW - I just got one this morning which I ignored. In SteveLand telemarketers using spoofing will be a capital offense. Bet that stops it.

Steve
 
The telephone was a great invention, but now with all the BS calls, not so much anymore.
In my fairly new Panasonic cordless phone, there's a 200 number block list. Blocked calls ring once then it hangs up on them
Took about a couple months to populate the list, then calls tapered off.
Important numbers of customers and friends are in the caller ID list on the phone.
I'm thankful for caller ID.......could not defend against the insanity with out it.
 
I am getting 12-15 a day now. They even figured out how to give prerecorded message to the answering message if I ignore it. So now if nothing else to do I press one and talk to them. Give them all the info (fake) that they want. SS#, sure! I just make one up add an extra number and a letter. "Oh thats not right, wait a minute, what country are you calling from?"

If they are talking to me they are not scamming a senior citizen.
 
Unless I know the number on the display, I let all calls go to voicemail. Then it's a few seconds time to go through them and delete the junk calls.

Much less stressful than answering the phone each time.
 
I have had some luck getting them to call less. I try to answer it even when ID shows them as spam. Ask to be added to their do not call list. If I cant not answer it I will call back and do the same, about half the time it is just a few prompts to be removed from their call list. The annoying ones are when you immediatly call back to a "you have reached a line no longer in service" message, WTF, it just called me 5 seconds ago:nutter:
 
So after I was done with what I was doing I called back and got to talk to a young teenager who was wondering why several strangers were calling him. So, in this case, the number was in use.

I've been that guy. I answered a call on my shop landline and heard "You called ABC Construction?" I answered No. Caller got pissed and said I was pestering him on his phone and I was obviously a telemarketer and continued to vent. I happened to be a slow phone day here, I could see everyone within a few feet that might have used the phone in the last few minutes, all said they hadn't made a call. The caller continued to rant while I tried to convince him I hadn't called him and my number was probably spoofed by a telemarketer. Took a while but he finally hung up, turned out that he was a S/E handyman and someone was robocalling his cellphone while he was working and making my landline number show up on his phone. I feel sympathy for folks that have that happen.
I seem to get as many robocalls as legit calls some weeks, I'd love to have an autoattendant on my business phone somehow so they'd have to "push1" before my phone rang but haven't been able to with Comcast.
 
I called Verizon to see if anything could be done because my 98 year old mother was getting pestered to get up and answer the phone. They told me to use nomorobo. It works. In fact it works so good I am using it on my phone now. It has a huge database of bogus numbers which is constantly getting updated. The phone rings once and then stops. I know it works great on Fios. You do need to have a carrier that has "dual ring" capabilities. This means it rings at your house and at the nomorobo server.
 
Not only does the spoof number not need to be unassigned...the other day I got a spam telemarketer call on my cell phone from my own home landline number. I answered, assuming it was the wife or kids. I was peeved, to say it mildly...
 
The Caller ID for a Voip line is nnot related to anything except the perons imagination who set up the account.
My wife had a contract to do cold-calling for a company. In the morning I would set our Caller ID to the company's, in the evening I would revert it back to our number. Trivial to do.

Look at a VoIP provider such as Voip.ms, you will see how much control the caller has over what you see on your display.

I know of no defence except not to have a phone, cell or landline.

Gerrit
 
There is nothing illegal about the practice, often companies with assign the main phone to an employee's phone, or doctors and lawyers use their professional numbers not personal. Currently illegal to unmask the number without a court order and can only be done by the phone company. Currently, talk in government to stop the telemarketers.

Tom
 
All of the 'don't answer the phone' and 'answer but don't say anything' replies underlie the heart of this issue - the owner of the phone is being 'abused'. Even if you don't answer, the ring is a distraction (especially at nap time). And isn't a phone you can't answer not so great?

I hope the FCC gets their act together and does something about it all.
 
I wonder about the telemarketing/robocall business plan... are the telemarketers paid per call dialed or per answered call or per actual sale?

Since everyone despises telemarketing and robocalls, it would seem that the opportunity to sell or scam an individual would be in decline to the point of "why bother."

Mike
 
I wonder about the telemarketing/robocall business plan... are the telemarketers paid per call dialed or per answered call or per actual sale?

Since everyone despises telemarketing and robocalls, it would seem that the opportunity to sell or scam an individual would be in decline to the point of "why bother."

Mike

Like cold call selling vacuum cleaners or brushes door to door, if it didn't pay it would stop. Apparently enough people buy.

Paul
 
Based on my thoroughly scientific example of one: A few years ago when they first started doing this with local numbers (at least around here) I fell for the "it has the same first six digits so it must be someone local trying to contact me". So after I was done with what I was doing I called back and got to talk to a young teenager who was wondering why several strangers were calling him. So, in this case, the number was in use. I guess they can just get any number to display. No defense I know of which is why I don't answer calls from numbers I don't recognize, and when putting things on Craigslist say to either text me or leave a message because I don't answer the phone.

BTW - I just got one this morning which I ignored. In SteveLand telemarketers using spoofing will be a capital offense. Bet that stops it.

Steve

Talked to my oldest daughter the other day about this. Someone was using her number and a angry wife called her back. Read the small print on most free "apps" and you give them access to your phone.
 








 
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