Gotta be a spam call, right?

Joined
Oct 5, 2005
Messages
5,552
Location
Kansas
Okay, I'm going to describe the situation and I'd like some opinions on this.
First, we (wife and I) have a land line telephone number, but no answering machine or answering service on the land line phone. We only answer numbers that we know. However, both the wife and I each have a cell phone set up so that the caller can leave a recorded message. I get home today and the wife says that there is a telephone number that has called several times today on the land line that has a New York area code. (We live in Kansas) She was wondering about the importance of this call because this number had called us several times today on the land line AND called my wife's cell number just a few minutes before. When I came home, the same number again called the land line. This time, I answered it, but didn't say a word. Some very angry lady (with an accent that sounded New Yorkish :cool:) says that if we don't stop calling her, she is going to call the cops on us. OKAY, I write that off as some telemarketer spoofed out our land line number and is using it to spam call people. No problem here. But here is where it gets interesting. Right after I hang up on her, my wife's plays a message left on her cell and gets an angry voice message that again says they are going to call the cops on us for harassing her. Not only that, but this caller says my wife's name, the address of our residence and tells us my wife's age and birthday. It's the same voice that I had just listened to calling our land line number. I'm guessing some site where my wife had to give a bunch of her personal information to has been hacked and we are getting the brunt of it. The lady calling the cops on us? I'd say let her do it and have the cops laugh in her face. :LOL:
Now my wife wanted to text this lady and say that somebody spoofed our number and is using it as caller ID, but I said there is NO WAY that we are going to reply to her, because if we text her, a spammer knows that there is a "live one" on the other end of the number they called.
What's really weird is that they managed to get our land line AND cell number, called both numbers several times today and rattled off a bunch of personal information back at my wife.
Comments or opinions? If some people would try half as much work at a real job as they try to when they are stealing personal info......
 
Ignore it. It's just a nut job that looked up your number. Once you look up someone's number, you can actually pay some site to get their personal information. You know how those spam calls keep going on because there are clueless people that fall for the scams right? This is just another clueless person who thinks you really are calling her and is trying to get some revenge by looking you up and harassing you back.
 
I had an old guy call me twice one night saying I emailed him about his social security or something and that the email said to call me on my number. He seemed annoyed and mad.

I interrupted him explaining how social security would never email you and some scammer was just trying to get him to email back and give personal information and that they just so happened to use my number. He went on and on and interrupted him again saying I didn’t know what to tell him and that I was an ordinarily guy just trying to relax for the night. I hung up and blocked the number. Some people, generally older folks, really have no idea and can be taken quite easily.

OP’s situation is almost worth getting the police involved at this point. Odd they threaten to call the police, then start rattling off your wife’s info like Hans Gruber to Mr. Nakatomi in Die Hard. Either way, I’d let the call the police and make asses of themselves.
 
When the spammers/scammers spoof a phone number, there is a high likelihood that the number belongs to someone.
 
I respond only to callers on my contact list. If I get an “unknown caller” when it stops ringing I delete and block it immediately. I know the pros say scammers will just switch to another number but I have had great success with this system. The number of unknowns I get is down to almost zero. My contact list is next.
 
My spam calls have dropped significantly. It looks like the new "shaken / stirred" phone call verification protocol is working in addition to stricter regulation of 3rd part fly by night international phone companies which were responsible for this mess. I still get one or 2 a week but not so bad, used to get up 5 or more a day. These mongrels will find another way to keep those call centers busy though.
 
I've been getting 10-20 calls everyday on our land line. All from 1-800 numbers. I think the callers buy 100 or more 1-800 numbers, and program their machines to go down the list several times, in order to wear you down and buy whatever they're trying to sell. I also hit the block key, and that has slowed them down. It goes in cycles. Sometimes we won't get any calls for a month, then other times it's 20 a day.,,
 
I've been getting 10-20 calls everyday on our land line. All from 1-800 numbers. I think the callers buy 100 or more 1-800 numbers, and program their machines to go down the list several times, in order to wear you down and buy whatever they're trying to sell. I also hit the block key, and that has slowed them down. It goes in cycles. Sometimes we won't get any calls for a month, then other times it's 20 a day.,,
Try nomorobo.com, it's a free service that prescreens calls against a list of numbers and possibly spoofed ones. Significantly reduced amount of spam calls for my family members using phone service with comcast and at&t. Sometimes the phone will ring once then not again, that was nomorobo catching the call a little late but it works great. You just have to sync the service with your phone company, just a few clicks of the mouse.
 
My spam calls have dropped significantly. It looks like the new "shaken / stirred" phone call verification protocol is working in addition to stricter regulation of 3rd part fly by night international phone companies which were responsible for this mess. I still get one or 2 a week but not so bad, used to get up 5 or more a day. These mongrels will find another way to keep those call centers busy though.
The computer program will spoof the first 6 digits of your number.
 
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