Spam callers are spoofing actual numbers
Last edited Sun Sep 23, 2018, 08:19 AM - Edit history (1)
Editing to clarify: the familiar prefixes were just what made me suspicious. The real problem is that they are calling me using actual phone numbers of people I know and talk to. The caller ID shows a friend's number, but when I answer, there is a recorded spam call or sustained silence. If I block the call without checking the caller ID, I then can't get calls from people I want to hear from. And I don't always check the ID before I answer. Furthermore, how is the blocker doing any good if I can't block spam calls that are using a spoofed ID?
Others besides me have noted that spam phone callers have been using numbers that show up in caller ID as being similar to local dialing codes. My phone number, for example, begins with 893 (not really), and I get very few if any legitimate calls with an 893 prefix. My spam phone calls had reached maybe ten/day, so I bought one of the stand-alone call blockers from Amazon. It came preprogrammed with known spam caller numbers and had room for 5000 more numbers.
Last week I answered a call from an old friend, who said he'd been trying to get hold of me but kept getting a strange message that we were too busy to talk to him and to stop calling us. I was dumbfounded and couldn't figure out what could have happened. Then I remembered that I hadn't received an important call I was expecting, and when I checked back was told that they'd tried to reach me several times.
I checked the log of numbers on my blocker, and there both those numbers were. I went through the 75 numbers I have blocked and found a couple more that were legitimate numbers. I deleted those.
Here is how my blocker works: when the phone rings, I answer and if I hear either a recorded message about my credit card or sustained silence, I push a button on my blocker--while I'm on the phone; it doesn't work unless you're actually on the line--and the calling number is blocked. So these spam callers are now using *real* phone numbers which they are somehow harvesting from my legitimate phone calls--ingoing or outgoing--and spoofing those numbers to get me to answer the phone.
I'm posting this for two reasons: One, to warn others that this might be happening, and two, to find out if anyone has any idea of what the hell is going on.
= new reply since forum marked as read
It was early on in this spoofing genre, and I looked at it like 
.
...https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caller_ID_spoofing
There are 10,000 number permutations for each area code and exchange from 0000 to 9999. A single spammer, scammer or collection agency using a service of bit of hardware can make a dozen or more calls every minute. Using robotic dialing, all 10,000 possible numbers can be dialed in space of 13 hours if about 13 numbers are dialed per minute. IIRC 8AM to 9PM local time are the hours when businesses can call you.
The whole thing seems shady to me. 
Only thing is, I'm allowed a maximum of 30 call blocks and I believe that the IRS spoofers take up nearly all of them. 
I was at the vet with my cat this afternoon, forgot my phone, and when I got back I found a voice message. It said "the IRS have a strong evidence that you have failed to file your actual income tax for the same" and "a non bailable arrest warrant has been filed under your name" and "to resolve this case you should immediately call this number." The voice sounded robotic and the number said it was from Florida (I'm in New York).
I have a financial advisor who handles my tax stuff so I would have called him if I believed it, but fortunately I had read about this on DU. 
