Has my number been spoofed?

Grumpy_chap

OK, so this is a bit odd, but today I received two calls from people unknown to me saying they were returning my call.
I assumed the first was just an error, but the second makes me think that maybe my number has been spoofed by some ne'er-do-wells.
I can still phone to my number and dial out as usual.

It may be possible that my number has been spoofed.  If that is the case - do I have any need to be concerned?
My understanding is that the scam callers would spoof the number so it displays as such when the incoming caller id is seen, but that would be a purely randomly generated spoof number and they'll use it for a bit and then move along to the next randomly generated spoof number.
So far as I am aware, if the number has been spoofed, it would not mean that any security / phone has been compromised in any way.

I have checked "who called me?" website and my number does not show as being reported.  It may by tomorrow if the number has been spoofed.

If the number has been spoofed, do I have any need to be concerned?
Do I need to take any action to protect myself?
Can I take any action to prevent the number continuing to display as "spoofed" caller id?


EDIT TO ADD:
I called my service provider who were rather indifferent.  The only thing they can do is to offer me to change my number (which I hope to avoid needing to do) and they advised to log via Action Fraud, which I have done.

Brie

My understanding of how some scammers work is to have their computer access a random number and bounce off that and a few others before the call is actually made.  Net result is that no one can successfully go back and say "Amazon (or whomever they are pretending to be) called me and stole my money" as you are obviously not Amazon.  

The_Unready

This happened to me several years ago. A random woman phoned my mobile and asked why I'd called her twice (she'd originally missed the calls). I said I hadn't called her, and I had nothing in my call logs to suggest I had.

I could tell from her tone of voice that she didn't believe me, but I never heard from her again.

  

Grumpy_chap

Thanks for the comments.
I think, as Brie suggested, the fake call centre will have simply used an automatic random number generator to create the number to display as the spoof id in caller display and, after a short while, the number will be moved along to the next random number.

If only it was ERNIE that had selected my number!

DullGreyGuy

Brie said:

My understanding of how some scammers work is to have their computer access a random number and bounce off that and a few others before the call is actually made.  Net result is that no one can successfully go back and say "Amazon (or whomever they are pretending to be) called me and stole my money" as you are obviously not Amazon.  

There's no need to "bounce numbers", telephone systems are in reality are fairly simple in certain things so even with my VOIP phone at home and on the app on my phone I can choose it to show one of a couple of different numbers when I make a call. I legitimately own all the numbers and the provider made proper checks to ensure I did before setting them up for me. Some of those numbers aren't controlled by them so incoming calls don't ring on the VOIP if the person calls back.

Different parts of the world have different regulations and different levels of governance over ensuring that regulations are followed so I could easily sign up to another VOIP provider that would allow me to enter any telephone number I fancied or simply a random one. 

Its highly likely that its just someone randomly spoofing a telephone number, if they have randomly generated it or found it on some list somewhere and are working through it or randomly selecting you'll never get to know. Your only risks are getting into spam caller dbs and so being unable to call anyone using auto-filtering apps and receiving unhappy inbound calls say they had a missed call from you.