Why do I keep calling myself?

[GaryS]

The house phone rang this morning. As I always do, I looked at the caller ID to see if it was anyone I wanted to talk to.

Imagine my surprise when my name and phone number showed up. My wife looked up and asked me, "Are you calling yourself?"

I told her no and wondered if I should answer and see what I want?

Okay, I know that it's just someone obviously spoofing my phone number, but it did give me a chuckle.

Oh, the phone has rung two more times with my home number and "Anonymous" as the name.

It's a scam, and not a particularly good one, at that.

 

[cherrypointmarine]

Gary , that's happened to me a couple of times . It seems to me the phone companies would do something about this . I said this to my wife , a manager with AT&T with 35 years . She said no way they can , they use VOIP , more or less via computer . I tried it with my cell phone once . I hit the button that says I can't take your call , it texts to them . I got a message back saying it wasn't a real number . Not much we can do . What really gets me is if you do answer , they don't say anything . I think they are just checking to see if it's an active phone number .

 

[Golddollar]

The house phone rang this morning. As I always do, I looked at the caller ID to see if it was anyone I wanted to talk to.

Imagine my surprise when my name and phone number showed up. My wife looked up and asked me, "Are you calling yourself?"

I told her no and wondered if I should answer and see what I want?

Okay, I know that it's just someone obviously spoofing my phone number, but it did give me a chuckle.

Oh, the phone has rung two more times with my home number and "Anonymous" as the name. .

I had them call me one day six times and they actually put my name on the Caller ID. I always said anybody who knows me knows that I've been talking to myself for years and I don't need a telephone to do it.

 

[03hemi]

DON'T go upstairs!

 

[TTSH]

Imagine my surprise when my name and phone number showed up. My wife looked up and asked me, "Are you calling yourself?"

Oh yeah, it's the most recent trick to scam the elderly into picking up the phone. Folks like my very elderly mother get so many spam calls that they just sit and listen for the voice ID to tell them who is calling and whether or not it's a call they need to pick-up.

When they hear their own name, it confuses them and they pick-up to figure out who it can be. Of course, it only works once... usually. That is, unless you are half-senile like me and enjoy picking it up each time to say hello to yourself.

 

[Rustyt1953]

I am one of my favorite people to talk to.

 

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

You are getting a call from-The Twilight Zone !

 

[LVSteve]

I get spam text to my cell, too. One went on about the Facebook account I don't have and wanted me to click on an embedded link. As if.

 

[Kiwi cop]

A number of years ago I had two,cellphones with the same provider, one prepay and the other on an account. One month I noticed on the account a charge to a call to the US. It was to my prepay number and showed up with a +64 (NZ calling code) prefix.

The charge was just under $2 but checking old accounts I found this charge had been occurring monthly for over a year. My telco insisted it was a valid call and said I must have been in the US (it was to be almost 15 years before I would make that trip).

They suggested I had saved my prepaid number in the family phone with the +64 dialling code. Nope.

I worked it out that if they were billing each of about 1 million customers $2 a month for such a call they were making a huge annual profit. When the charges continued for another 2 months I changed providers.

That telco is now for sale and not attracting any buyers.

 

[Salty RI]

You should have answered sometimes talking to yourself is the best convetsation you had all day.[emoji1]

Sent from my LGL52VL using Tapatalk

 

[handejector]

Okay, I know that it's just someone obviously spoofing my phone number, but it did give me a chuckle.

Uhhhhh.....excuse me, but if you did not answer, how do you know it wasn't really you?

 

[fiasconva]

I get those calls two or three times a month from myself. I don't answer for two reasons:
No. 1. I just might be there and then what do I do?
No. 2. I know what a cranky old fart can be like at the other end sometimes. *s*

 

[GaryS]

I have my wife as a witness that I wasn't calling myself at home from my home phone.

She's far more trustworthy than am I.

Uhhhhh.....excuse me, but if you did not answer, how do you know it wasn't really you?

 

[cndrdk]

Imagine my surprise when my name and phone number showed up. My wife looked up and asked me, "Are you calling yourself?"

“House Bill 1992 aims to prevent telemarketers from using predatory and annoying tactics by prohibiting them from replicating numbers and misrepresenting the origin of the call,”

In Texas this "anti spoofing" bill went into effect 9-01. Must be working as I haven't had the 3-4 daily calls from a number off a few digits from mine. And no one calling me back asking "did you just call me?"

 

[peterdeb]

Spam and spoofing calls was all that was coming in on my landline home phone. Solution....I canceled the home phone and only use my mobile. It has been almost a year now and only now and then does my mobile ring with a "potential spam" call. The phone actually identifies them. Life is calm and quiet now. Drop the landline, try it, you will like not having it!