Thursday, June 23, 2016

Rant

Looks like somebody got hold of my landline telephone number and is using it in a spoofing scam. We've received literally hundreds of calls from people all over the country - just today - wanting to know why the hell we keep calling them. Apparently, whoever is using our number to falsify their caller ID is simply calling and hanging up.

Our telephone company has referred the matter to the FCC (maybe that agency's military wing can locate the malefactor and swoop down on him - or her, as the case may be).

15 comments:

rinardman said...

When something like this happens, don't you wish you were the tech version of Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson, in Taken), and could call them, and tell them "What I do have are a very particular set of skills, skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you."

And then make their life a living hell for the next six months!

Paco said...

Yeah, that would be...gratifying.

bruce said...

We experience something similar although I've not heard of them actually masquerading as an innocent number (maybe because we have a single national landline telco and are one tenth the size of the US). We had a 'do not call' listing, still harassed. Apparently the offenders use Skype to get into the network and can't be stopped. So I got rid of the landline, also because lightening strikes kept knocking it out anyway, I live on a ridge of ironstone, lightening alley. Only get less than 20 Gb internet per month now. Which is enough if I avoid youtube.

JeffS said...

Yeah, I receive calls from those spoofers on my work cell phone all the time. I don't call the numbers to complain, the spoofers won't answer. I just hang up when the recording starts.

Death would be too easy for those clowns.

Deborah said...

Thankfully, we haven't experienced this. What is the recording?

JeffS said...

Telemarketing, Deborah. Telemarketing. Trying to sell you the Brooklyn Bridge via robot.

RebeccaH said...

We have Caller ID that pops up on our TV and the landline screens, and if we don't recognize the number (they usually show a town in another state anyway, where we know nobody), we don't answer it. The answering machine picks up, and nine times out of ten the caller just hangs up. I'd like to get rid of the landline altogether, but lately we've been getting telemarketing calls on our cells as well (again, we don't answer, and a cell phone at least gives you the option of blocking that number).

RebeccaH said...

Oh, and some moron hacker did spoof my husband's name, so that a few times we got calls purporting to be from him, even as he was sitting in his easy chair right in front of me.

Veeshir said...

What if it is the FCC?

Minicapt said...

"Hillary for President! ... just checking ..."

Cheers

Mike_W said...

Maybe it's one of Obama's cronies giving you some payback for criticizing the anointed one.
Yeah, those commie statists make me paranoid.

Jonah said...

Are you sure it's not Little Miss Paco calling people and hanging up? Hundreds of them a day?

bruce said...

She did say she has a plan, Jonah.

Paco said...

Jonah: Don't think I didn't consider it. But she has an airtight alibi.

Isophorone said...

We also got Nomorobo for our landline. The only thing I would caution you is that someone might report your number to that service, and then you may wonder why people hang up on you after one ring when you are really trying to make a phone call. Just a caution.