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Someone using my Name and Phone number to call my cell phone - What to do?

se2020
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

Your input is much appreciated.

16 REPLIES 16

I registered on the Canada Do Not Call List. And the American Do Not Call Registry (because many telemarketers operate within USA or internationally for USA-compliant companies).

 

I received calls from a local "call centre" company (with a local region/radius of operation) which is located on First Nations land and therefore seems to be immune to the rest of Canada's federal laws. I politely asked them to remove my name and number from their lists and to never call again - and so far they've politely complied.

 

Other than that, I haven't received calls from any telemarketers, any spoofs, any spams, any scams. Maybe the DNCL/DNCR registrations were a waste of time, maybe they weren't. They certainly won't obstruct any noncompliant (shady, unethical, criminal) elements from dialing your number. But it takes all of about thirty seconds to fill out their forms, and they don't seem to cause any harm.

 

https://lnnte-dncl.gc.ca/en

https://www.donotcall.gov/

 

Public Mobile (Telus network) does not implement any sort of UNCB. It's not a bulletproof thing but it would have easily stopped this particular kind of dialing spoof from getting through.

 

If your phone number is endlessly targeted by numerous marketers/spammers/scammers then it's likely because a previous "owner" of the number ended up on their lists. The best exit strategy from that problem is to simply change your number. Otherwise you've gotta keep blocking and keep waiting them out, they'll run out of incoming phone numbers before your phone runs out of memory.


@pkara01 wrote:

Also, get your number registered at National Do Not Call List.

 

Not very effective for spoofing but definitely decrease number of spams.


DNC is a waste of time. There are lots of callers from Canada and other countries that don't abide and when you give your number it is only good...I believe for 2 years...then you need to do again.  Also when you do give your number you also "give" your number to any one that does not have to abide by the DNC like...political parties and some surveys. You need to read up on the latter.  

 

Just learn to block, block and block some more. I hardly have any issues on mobile phone or the land line. Also when you need to give your number out but don't really trust the caller take a Fongo number and have it call forward to your PM number. And give out your Fongo number. 

SparkleHeart82
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

Sometimes people can use certain prank call sites to spoof your name and number. There's a few of them out there.

pkara01
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

Also, get your number registered at National Do Not Call List.

 

Not very effective for spoofing but definitely decrease number of spams.

@se2020 Caller ID spoofing is trivial to accomplish, traditionally with many business phone systems, and more commonly nowadays with various VoIP providers. As others have already mentioned, spammers often spoof the area code and prefix to be similar to your own number, usually with just the last 4 digits randomized.

 

If, as you mentioned, they are spoofing your own number exactly, please ensure that you set your Public Mobile voicemail service to REQUIRE a password when "calling from your own phone". If the PM voicemail service sees the caller ID as your number, it will automatically log that call into your voicemail account with ability to listen to your messages and change settings.

 

You might want to consider using an alternate free voicemail service like youmail.com which will just email any voicemails as an email to you with a sound file attachment, and a text transcription if there was any intelligible speech - making it quick and easy to check and delete messages without a need to call in.

 

If this is a persistent problem, you can reprogram the conditional call forward for blocked and manually declined calls so they reach a dead end instead of your voicemail... ie by dialing:

 

*67*3063370005# - plays "the number you are calling has been configured for outgoing calls only"

*67*0000000000# - ends the call with an error that varies depending on the callers system, something like "the call could not be completed"

Or various others, like the Lenny bot designed to waste telemarketers time... https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Using-Your-Service/Lenny-the-Telemarketers-worst-nigh...

To undo any changes and revert back to Public Mobile voicemail service dial ##67# or ##004#

 

Good luck!


@se2020 wrote:

 How can I reply to all in one reply?


This is not like mail system (Outlook) where everybody gets your note individually. If you like to mention (thank or else) everybody, just mention their usernames staring with @.

se2020
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

Thanks all for your times to reply my concerns. Have a wonderful day.


@se2020 wrote:

 How can I reply to all in one reply?


Hi @se2020 well you kinda of just did.

 

But, if you want to mention certain members in your reply, use the "@" symbol then choose their community name to tag someone.

se2020
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

 How can I reply to all in one reply?


@og2 wrote:

@se2020 I would speak with Moderators. Either your number has been assigned to another customer or someone is trying to hack you


That is a possiblity, but more likely, it's just a telemarketer trying to get the person to answer.  These companies very often have the call display show a phone number that is very close to your own.

og2
Great Citizen / Super Citoyen

@se2020 I would speak with Moderators. Either your number has been assigned to another customer or someone is trying to hack you

You could block 'your' number but then... will you Ever call yourself?

or... you can pick up the call and play VERY LOUD some punk music. That will teach them. Even better - answer the phone and start talking gibberish 🙂 I did that few times (ajubura buruka, hula huka, bljuc, numba, tumba haluka bljack...) - and did not get called for a while...

Never swear - they would know you speak English and will call you again 😉

Modern technology becomes PITA...

no worry..... its call Call Spoofing.  Other than ignore the calls, there is nothing you can do

 

other phone calls you want to ignore are those calls showing from. numbers similar to yours with the last 4 digits different, this is telemarketers usual tricks

 

CRTC said they did something already..

 

 

https://crtc.gc.ca/eng/phone/telemarketing/identit.htm


@se2020 wrote:

Your input is much appreciated.


You're receiving phone calls but your own number is shown on the call display. Not much can be done babout this other than to ignore the calls. Call display information is easily faked.

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