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Somehow my number showed on a call log for someone I never called

M

Michele white

Lurker
I received a call from a staffing agency and the caller said he was returning my call. When I told him I never called him he stated that he missed a call and used his call log feature to call me back. He asked if I was Ronda W****? I then ended the call. Does anyone know how this may have happened?
1. I did not call this person on purpuse or by accident. I checked my call log and his incoming call was the only historical entry.
2.Ronda W**** is my sister in law and I have a phone on her plan.
3.I called the staffing agency and verified that this business is legitimate and the man who called me was an employee.
4.I am using a LG Premier Pro with oreo on the metro PCS family plan.
Thank you for any help you can give me.
P.S. My phone has been with me all day today and Ronda has not been with me.
 
Welcome to Android Forums, Michele white!

The first thing I want to say is take a nice, deep breath and relax. :) I'm 99.99% sure that you have nothing to worry about.

To start with, some scumbag scammer made that phone call, not you--but they spoofed your info. So the guy who called you, saying he missed your call, really did see your phone number as the calling number.
2.Ronda W**** is my sister in law and I have a phone on her plan.
Click to expand...
I have no experience with this, so someone will kindly correct me if I'm wrong, but here's what I think: Since your phone is on Ronda's plan, her name showed up in his call log, along with your phone's number [which was spoofed by the aforementioned scumbag].

Scammers spoof innocent people's numbers all the time, usually leading to an onslaught of complaints to the innocent person, who knows nothing about it.

Let's see what others think.
 
Thank you for welcoming me to this forum and Thank you so much for your time in helping me out with this. I do understand spoofing and it is reasonable that her name would show on the caller ID in conjunction with my number. What I don't understand is what anyone would gain from this type of fraudulent activity. Anyone have any ideas?
 
Michele white said:
Thank you for welcoming me to this forum and Thank you so much for your time in helping me out with this. I do understand spoofing and it is reasonable that her name would show on the caller ID in conjunction with my number. What I don't understand is what anyone would gain from this type of fraudulent activity. Anyone have any ideas?
Click to expand...
yeah spamming is all. it probably some insurance or student loan scam. i agree do not worry about it too much. i had the same thing happen to except i was the one receiving the spoofed number. i called and the person had no idea what's going on.

they gain numbers and a possibility that someone would listen and make money off of it. its the reason why spam (not the canned product) exists.
 
Michele white said:
Thank you for welcoming me to this forum and Thank you so much for your time in helping me out with this.
Click to expand...
You're welcome!
I do understand spoofing and it is reasonable that her name would show on the caller ID in conjunction with my number. What I don't understand is what anyone would gain from this type of fraudulent activity. Anyone have any ideas?
Click to expand...
As @ocnbrze suggested, they figure some of the people they call [spoofing your number] will fall for whatever their scheme is. Whether it's the '$299 Microsoft' scam or something else, they -do- make money doing this. I've seen elderly men and women on the news who gave their life savings to creeps like this. :angry:

I hope we've put to rest your immediate concerns. If anything else happens, just let us know. :)
 
Michele white said:
...What I don't understand is what anyone would gain from this type of fraudulent activity. Anyone have any ideas?
Click to expand...
Telemarketers, spammers, and other such deviants won't use their own phone numbers, their activities could be easily tracked back to themselves. By spoofing somebody's phone number this gives them the ability to do their robocalling or whatever (selling goods or services) with minimal risk or conflict on their part.
Most of us are now being conditioned to ignore phone call/voice mails from unknown sources but in any number of situations ignoring random phone calls isn't an option -- i.e. a business can't neglect interacting with its customers, a school can't ignore a call from a parent, etc.

It you haven't already it might be more prudent if you notify your sister-in-law about what happened to you. In the case of you or both of you having your phone numbers being spoofed, she might want to contact her carrier and see if there's anything they can do on their end.
https://turbofuture.com/cell-phones/Telemarketers-Are-Using-My-Number-How-I-Stopped-Them
You might also want to file a complaint with the FCC. This won't involve any action on their part, especially since Ajit Pai's FCC is notoriously anti-consumer/pro-business (phone number spoofing as a business practice is surprising legal, although though this has been that way long before Trump/Pai came along), but your situation at least gets documented as a pervasive problem:
https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us/articles/360001201223
 
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