Mobiles calls from my number but not made by me.

Cloth_of_Gold

A couple of weeks ago my mobille rang and when I answered the person asked who I was. I asked them who they were and they said that I had rung them as my number had come up as a missed call. I hadn't rung them and said so and they accepted it. I checked in my call log in case I'd rung their number by mistake (although I didnt see how) but I had not. 

Today I received a call on my mobile and the number appered to be a German one. I answered as I have a couple of friends in Germany but it was no one I knew. He said the same as the previous caller, that my number had come up as a missed call. He had a German accent and confirmed he was in Germany. I find it odd that two people have both claimed that I rang them, when I didn't. Neither asked for any any info and quickly ended the call when they were satisfied I hadn't rung them so I don't see that it was a scam. 

Do you think that I should be concerned about this as perhaps someone has been able to clone my number, if that's the correct term? I could change my number but I've had it for many years and it would be a nuisance to have to notify a lot of individuals and businesses. 

Ayr_Rage

If the calls are not appearing on your logs or bill then it's likely your number is being spoofed and has not been cloned.

It happens.

Jumblebumble

Cloth_of_Gold said:

A couple of weeks ago my mobille rang and when I answered the person asked who I was. I asked them who they were and they said that I had rung them as my number had come up as a missed call. I hadn't rung them and said so and they accepted it. I checked in my call log in case I'd rung their number by mistake (although I didnt see how) but I had not. 

Today I received a call on my mobile and the number appered to be a German one. I answered as I have a couple of friends in Germany but it was no one I knew. He said the same as the previous caller, that my number had come up as a missed call. He had a German accent and confirmed he was in Germany. I find it odd that two people have both claimed that I rang them, when I didn't. Neither asked for any any info and quickly ended the call when they were satisfied I hadn't rung them so I don't see that it was a scam. 

Do you think that I should be concerned about this as perhaps someone has been able to clone my number, if that's the correct term? I could change my number but I've had it for many years and it would be a nuisance to have to notify a lot of individuals and businesses. 

If you are with EE then their systems have a habit of doing this.
However EE refuse to do anything about it

ballyblack

your number is being spoofed. just ignore

Myci85

I think scam companies can somehow make their calls appear to come from any number. A while ago I had some appear as local area code so I answered assuming it was someone I knew. Then one day I knew I recognised the number on caller ID, and it took me a while to realise it was my own number!

Frozen_up_north

I have also had a couple of calls where a stranger called to say they missed a call from me… unfortunately the telephone systems are not immune to number spoofing, and until the regulator (OFCOM) mandates the phone companies fix this, it is still going to happen.

jshm2

Yeah Orange Box phreaking (a NSFW search) is something that a lot of scam call centres use on top of their Asterisk VOIP solutions. 

But there are also new breed apps that let you spoof numbers, and caller ID's too. 

There isn't really much individual providers can do as it's something inherent in how VOIP services work. 

DullGreyGuy

Cloth_of_Gold said:

A couple of weeks ago my mobille rang and when I answered the person asked who I was. I asked them who they were and they said that I had rung them as my number had come up as a missed call. I hadn't rung them and said so and they accepted it. I checked in my call log in case I'd rung their number by mistake (although I didnt see how) but I had not. 

Today I received a call on my mobile and the number appered to be a German one. I answered as I have a couple of friends in Germany but it was no one I knew. He said the same as the previous caller, that my number had come up as a missed call. He had a German accent and confirmed he was in Germany. I find it odd that two people have both claimed that I rang them, when I didn't. Neither asked for any any info and quickly ended the call when they were satisfied I hadn't rung them so I don't see that it was a scam. 

Do you think that I should be concerned about this as perhaps someone has been able to clone my number, if that's the correct term? I could change my number but I've had it for many years and it would be a nuisance to have to notify a lot of individuals and businesses. 

Spoofing is the correct term. 

As a call centre agent dealing with complaints across our 10 or so brands I need to be able to call customers from a number from each of the brands we operated otherwise if you are awaiting a call back from BMW Insurance and instead Post Office Insurance calls you then you are going to wonder what its about, assume its a spam call etc. Not only that but if I miss you and you look up who called you I would want it to be the complaints department's number not my personal number.

They arent going to put 10 different phones on my desk and even if they did that doesnt solve the second problem so even before the days of VOIP it was possible for businesses to set the callerID that shows up rather than the number of that particular phone. So there is a legitimate use case for a call appearing to be coming from a number other than directly for that line. 

Since VOIP has proliferated its much more accessible to have the capability to set the callerID and whilst in the UK there are rules about callerIDs its easy for overseas VOIP providers to sell into the UK or elsewhere and not all have the same restrictions hence with certain apps/websites you can make your call appear to be from whatever number you want. 

Personally I spoof my own number all the time, if I'm overseas and need to call a job agency or such I can call from my VOIP line so not having to pay expensive overseas call charges but it appears as though it my mobile so a) they know its me and b) they dont get my home telephone number as its bad enough them calling on my mobile than them also having my home phone. 

Cloth_of_Gold

Ok, thanks for the reassurance. I suppose my concern is that someone uses my number to do something malign and it's incorrectly assumed it was me. I suppose there's nothing I can do about it though.