Just Had A Strange Thing Happen.....

[boykinlp]

My phone rang and when I looked at the caller ID, it listed MY name and telephone number!! I know, I know.........."you traced the call and it is coming from inside the house".

Since my curosity got the better of me, I had to answer the phone. Ends up being sombody besides myself!!

A lousy credit card company wanted to "reduce my rates". How do they cause my name and number to come up on the caller ID?

 

[diamonback68]

I have the same thing happen often. Same message. It's a phone number from my area, my home town, but the number is 2 off of my home phone number. I don't know how they do it, but they make it look like it is coming from your local bank or something very close by.

 

[Aticus]

I don't know exactly how it's done but these call centers use a computer to spoof the caller ID signal to the calling central office so they can't be traced. All telephone numbers are a numerical sequence starting with the exchange followed by 0001 thru 9999. These companies can pick out any number and use it when they call. I've gotten one using my number and so has a friend. Don't know how to stop it except complain to the state AG.

 

[vt_shooter]

It's gotten to the point that I do not answer my phone unless I know the caller. I have no clue how many calls that are important that I would have liked to answer but I can't answer them all. The phone scammers have effectively broken our telephone system, and our government, i.e., that huge entity that takes so much of our money to "protect us", is a deer in the headlights and does nothing.

 

[Old TexMex]

My phone rang and when I looked at the caller ID, it listed MY name and telephone number!! I know, I know.........."you traced the call and it is coming from inside the house".

Since my curosity got the better of me, I had to answer the phone. Ends up being sombody besides myself!!

A lousy credit card company wanted to "reduce my rates". How do they cause my name and number to come up on the caller ID?

Hardwired phone? I disconnected mine for that reason.

 

[pownal55]

The younger crowd with cell phones only may not be as dumb as we think. It takes far longer to infect cell phones than land lines and they can be changed more easily.

 

[boykinlp]

Hardwired phone? I disconnected mine for that reason.

It is a landline. Believe it or not I still have to use a fax machine for work. Therefore the landline.

The younger crowd with cell phones only may not be as dumb as we think. It takes far longer to infect cell phones than land lines and they can be changed more easily.

You may be right.

 

[italiansport]

It's gotten to the point that I do not answer my phone unless I know the caller. I have no clue how many calls that are important that I would have liked to answer but I can't answer them all. The phone scammers have effectively broken our telephone system, and our government, i.e., that huge entity that takes so much of our money to "protect us", is a deer in the headlights and does nothing.

Same here: I only answer calls from number I recognize and I'd dump the whole damn thing but my wife still needs the land line for Faxing.
Jim

 

[L Pete]

Instead of being "butt-dialed", you got "a__-dialed"......

 

[billwill]

Really didn't want to do it but I dumped my land line last year. No calls on it except junk stuff, so now I have $36 a month for ammo!

Unless the land line is the only choice, I'd tell ATT or who ever to go take a leap.

 

[therevjay]

The younger crowd with cell phones only may not be as dumb as we think. It takes far longer to infect cell phones than land lines and they can be changed more easily.

That is true. But, cells have their problems too. I've gotten probably two dozen text messages, but NEVER one intended for me. Also the signal NEVER fades, and the battery will NEVER die. Unless your actually having a important conversation.

 

[Brian41]

I recently answered the phone as it was a local number on caller ID. I got an automated call wanting to sell me an extended service contract on my truck. Seems they've got pretty sneaky these days.
We've kept our land line as our monitored alarm calls out on it and we find it handy to give to business's and doctor offices to leave a message should we not be home. My wife is a nurse and can't have her cell on at work so would miss those calls although voice mail would work.
At $25/month we're not ready to give it up yet and guess we're just old fashioned anyway.

 

[H Richard]

This is done by some call centers, one in particular is Linkedin, for the 2nd time i was "invited" supposedly by a friend, but he didn't do it. I won't have anything to do with them, the first time I did go in and sign up but within a couple days was inundated with junk mail and advertisements. I went in and deleted any information to myself and it all stopped.

 

[JSW]

Does anyone else remember life before caller ID? When the phone rang you just answered it. You didn't know who was calling and you just took your chances. How did we ever survive?

 

[Krell1]

I still have a "land line" though technically it's not your standard land line through a phone company. Since I have internet broadband service, I use Ooma VOIP ($4.00 a month) which is basically free and works well. It's easier for me to have 4 phones in locations around the house that I can easily answer. My cell phone may have been left anywhere in the house or car and I usually have to hunt for it to answer a call. And, yes I do get the credit card calls on the land line quite often. I tried pushing number 1 and when asked if I wanted more information I just said "no, what I'd really like is for you to stop calling me", they rudely hung up on me. And, I still get the calls.