Number Spoofing

[Psl55]

I’m getting calls from people saying they’ve had a missed call from me, but I haven’t called them.

internet search shows that someone has copied my number and is using it to make nuisance calls 

Vodafone aren’t interested or don’t understand what I’m talking about 

Anyone got any advice please

[auxinelectro]

i got about 3/4 calls all from seemingly genuine people all claiming I had called them.. even had an answering machine message..  Vodafone claimed someone had been using a dialer app and had "acquired" my number ... however seeing your message it does seem like a potential network issue but who knows.. 

[chistery]

If someone is spoofing numbers I would imagine they will change them fairly regularly so they are harder to track down.

Communications providers have a duty to ensure that CLI is valid, so it's possible they are failing their obligations here, but it'll be hard to get them to act when the person doing it has probably moved onto a new spoofed number.

I wouldn't change your number if it happened as that is such a hassle, but wait a few days and see if it stops.

[auxinelectro]

when your provider (vodafone) is advising you to change your number and you are being called by randoms its hard to be confident that keeping your number is not going to cause additional issues.. for example someone could use this number to validate banking etc.. in this case I thought it was safer to change "just in case" however now suspect it was a system error and not in fact "spoofing" especially as the OP had the same issue.. 

[hrym]

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@chistery wrote:

Communications providers have a duty to ensure that CLI is valid.

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Do they?   Can they?

[chistery]

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@hrym wrote:

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@chistery wrote:

Communications providers have a duty to ensure that CLI is valid.

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Do they?   Can they?

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Ofcom  say they should be doing so.

E.g. "We are proposing that CPs must only present CLIs to their end users where they judge the CLI data and associated markings as reliable."

If Vodafone believe CLI from certain sources is unreliable, Ofcom say they shouldn't present it. 

Yes it's only a proposal., but Vodafone appear to be doing nothing, except give out useless recommendations like sign up to the TPS.

[Wd139]

I’m experiencing the same thing: dodgy as! 

I got the person who received a spoof call to screenshot the ‘missed call’ (which had not placed ) and is being investigated by the fraud team apparently.... let’s see - will be annoying if I need to change numbers because of this...

[Mark]

I'm sorry to see you've had this experience @Wd139, I don't think it won't come to changing your number! I'm sure our Fraud team are doing everything then can to get this sorted. Once it's been fully investigated and sorted, they'll be in touch with their findings and resolution.

[malkuth]

This happened to me last week, and again today.  I don't even have a smart phone so I'm worried someone has hijacked my number itself...

Very disconcerting to see that Vodafone are not understanding the problem - they haven't understood other problems I've had in the past either, but I'll give them a try!

Good luck with this to everyone else : )

[Mark]

Oh no @malkuth, that's not good to see, pop our Social Media team am private message, we'll be able to look into this and if needed raise it to our Fraud team on your behalf. I'm sure we'll be able to get this sorted for you 😊

[hrym]

It's possible to make a call appear from a number other than the one that's actually making it.   This is done for legitimate purposes, such as a business showing its switchboard number.   It is, however, also done for nefarious purposes too - those weird calls you get from an apparently UK number that clearly originate from overseas, for instance.   Those people will choose a random collection of digits which more than likely match one that's been allocated.   If someone receiving one of those has the number in their contacts, it'll show up as coming from that person.   Fortunately, if they call the number, it'll go through to the genuine owner, not the scammer.

I'm afraid there's not much you can do.   Scammers move on quite quickly once the number becomes more widely recognised and blocked, though.