Phone Number Hijacking

Ahso! · Post by **Ahso!** » Wed Nov 15, 2017 5:58 am

My phone number has been hijacked and is being used for spoofing. Apparently, all the numbers being spoofed with my phone are in the (717)314 number range which is the same as mine.

Any ideas or suggestions?

Post by **LarsMac** » Wed Nov 15, 2017 8:55 am

Ahso!;1514531 wrote: My phone number has been hijacked and is being used for spoofing. Apparently, all the numbers being spoofed with my phone are in the (717)314 number range which is the same as mine.

Any ideas or suggestions?

Those phone spammers don't have to hi-jack your phone. They have software that just mimics a particular phone # in the caller-id.

You can do the same thing with Skype. when you set skype up, you can tell it whatever caller id you want.

They then robo-call every other number on the the same exchange.

They were using my old cell phone # a while back, and I was getting quite a few call backs from people who had a missed call from my phone#

I ended up changing phone#s because of it.

You can report the abuse to your phone carrier, but, but not sure how successful that effort will be. Results may vary

Mark Aspam · Post by **Mark Aspam** » Wed Nov 15, 2017 9:02 am

Ahso!;1514531 wrote: My phone number has been hijacked and is being used for spoofing. Apparently, all the numbers being spoofed with my phone are in the (717)314 number range which is the same as mine.

Any ideas or suggestions?Interesting. I received a similar call (I assume it's the income tax scam) and the calling number was (818). Of course, the calls, at least most of them, seem to be coming from India.

I have no doubt that the phone company is aware of this and trying to stop it. As to exactly how it's done, you'll probably have to find a telephone expert to explain it, it's possible there's one on this forum.

Ahso! · Post by **Ahso!** » Wed Nov 15, 2017 9:11 am

Unfortunately, this is my business phone too. Having to change it would cause a nightmare. I called Project Fi (carrier) and they are looking into it. Thanks for the info.

Post by **LarsMac** » Wed Nov 15, 2017 9:33 am

Mark Aspam;1514535 wrote: Interesting. I received a similar call (I assume it's the income tax scam) and the calling number was (818). Of course, the calls, at least most of them, seem to be coming from India.

I have no doubt that the phone company is aware of this and trying to stop it. As to exactly how it's done, you'll probably have to find a telephone expert to explain it, it's possible there's one on this forum.

Unfortunately, the phone company (more specifically, your phone company - since there is not one phone company since the long ago break-up of the Bell systems) can do little about all this.

The only real defense is to not answer the phone.

My wife simply never answers the phone unless she recognizes the number. If it was a friend, or a business, they can leave a message, and she will call back.

Many of us cannot refuse to answer the phone. I get calls from all over for my work, and AHSO! as he pointed out has a business.

So, the next defense is to simply hang up once you realize it is a scam.

Most telephone accounts have the option of blocking numbers, but with the new technology, that is not terribly effective, since they can change the caller ID at will.

Ahso! · Post by **Ahso!** » Wed Nov 15, 2017 9:37 am

I would think that there should be a way of ensuring the phone calls are being routed by the carrier they are assigned to and through their system network. They own them. If that were the case, then although mimicking the number would be unavoidable, it would at least be traceable.

Post by **LarsMac** » Wed Nov 15, 2017 10:22 am

Ahso!;1514546 wrote: I would think that there should be a way of ensuring the phone calls are being routed by the carrier they are assigned to and through their system network. They own them. If that were the case, then although mimicking the number would be unavoidable, it would at least be traceable.

Since there are so many different "Systems" now (AT&T, Verizon, Google, Skype, Sprint, Tmobile, CenturyLink, etc) and most of the "lines" are all now virtual connections on the Internet, and anyone on any of those systems can call anyone on any other system - and we haven't even begun to talk about all of the non-US systems - "The Phone Company" is unable to stop them.

They can stop "known robocallers" and block caller IDs that are obviously fake, but to try and verify every possible caller ID that may not be valid would take a rather long time for each call.

As for tracing the call back to it origination, that would require warrants and

A couple of quick reads on the subject:

https://www.wired.com/2017/03/phone-com ... robocalls/

https://moneyish.com/ish/heres-why-your ... one-calls/