Marketting Company Spoofing My Number

I have a very unique phone number (yes, I know they're all unique!) from my days working the mobile phone industry.

The last couple of weeks I've been getting an increasing amount of messages from people asking "Who is this?" "What do you want?" etc - all from people numbers I've never text or dialled in my life.

It seems there is some marketing company spoofing my number so that when they call people with their auto dialler it appears the call is from me. This is starting to be a massive pain in the balls, as I'm getting up to 50 messages a day now asking me who I am, or telling me to go procreate alone.

I've phoned the network, and their suggestion was to change my number. Given I've had the number for around 8 years and it would probably sell for a decent sum of money if I decided to sell it, I'm not pleased with that as a suggestion. Some Google browsing has revealed that it is indeed against the law for a company to spoof numbers, and there is a whole heap of information out there for what to do if you think you have been called from a number that has been spoofed. Unfortunately, there is absolutely nothing to tell what you can do if your number is the one that is being spoofed.

Its a long shot... but has anybody run into this before or have advice for what I can do?

Sounds like a win-win if you sell it for 'a decent sum of money'. I can't see any better outcome tbh.

Have you tried messaging one of the numbers to explain the situation and they might be able to tell you the name of the company that is trying to contact them.

If you find it out then contact them direct, perhaps you can even threaten legal action? (not sure about this)

The company is probably based in some far flung country that couldn't care less that it's illegal to spoof numbers so I'd say you're stuffed.

The only thing you can do would be to try and find out who the company actually is and report them to ofcom but that is probably going to be a challenge in itself as I doubt that information would be very forthcoming if they're already spoofing your number.

Unfortunately with voip systems its extremely easy to spoof numbers, regardless of how illegal it is and there isn't a huge amount you can do about it unless they call a voip system that you have access to, at which point you could possibly track it back to the actual source.

Deal with it or get a new number are pretty much the only 2 options you have.

Next time you get a call explain the situation to the person and ask the person to help you out with any name/contact details the company left them.

Something similar happened to me ... I bought a phone ~7 years ago and pleased to find the SIM came with an "interesting" number (number contained a double digit folowed by a triple digit so easy to remember etc) however I soon discovered the number had been recycled and the previous owner appeared to have "done a runner" leaving copious debts and friends in their wake as I got continual call from frends asking where she was, a landlord asking about rent followed by a series of utility companies asking about bills. Next came the debt collection services asking to speak to her (... and I also got lots of texts from pay-day loan companies asking if I needed a loan!( Most of these (well apart from the friends) were pretty good about it, accepted me telling them that the number was no longer associated with her and they said they'd delete the number from their records (was one catch-22 situation where Swalec started send automated "PAY YOUR BILL" texts and when I rang to explain and ask them to stop the call centre person initially told be that unless I could give the account number there was nothing she could do ... but a couple of hours later she called back to say she had worked out how to find the account from the phone number). Even after having the number of 7 years I still get occasional calls from debt collectors etc asking to speak to this woman!

Suppose this was not as bad as a work colleague years ago who had a new phone line from BT that he discovered by various "interesting" late night callls had a number that had previously been used by a prostitute! He did change his number.

I'm surprised people actually call back unknown missed call.

Gold mine waiting to happen, £2 a min charges

Sp00n said:

Unfortunately with voip systems its extremely easy to spoof numbers, regardless of how illegal it is and there isn't a huge amount you can do about it unless they call a voip system that you have access to, at which point you could possibly track it back to the actual source.
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It's nothing to do with VoIP, they are using SMS not voice.

Unfortunately it is simple to change the originator of an SMS message, similar to changing the 'FROM' field in an SMTP email address. It's how companies are able to send SMS messages from a text name rather than a number, just in this case they are using the OP's number. Your mobile network should be able to trace where the messages are coming from, but I doubt they will want to spend the resources doing so.

(Source: I used to look after the SMS platform for one of the major networks up until about 10 years ago)

Em3bbs said:

It's nothing to do with VoIP, they are using SMS not voice.

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No, read the post again, the SMS he is receiving are from people who being called by the dodgy marketers, not the marketers themselves.

Same "rules" apply, it is very easy to change the originating number and there is sod all you can do about it unless those receiving the dodgy calls report them and then BT can trace it back.

Managed to get the companies details, Indian PPI telemarketers, I guess I'm completely out of luck. Have dropped Ofcom an email to see if there is anything that they can do but I'm guessing that's going to be a massive no.

With regards to selling my number, I have just over a year to run on my contract so that's not an option for a year... and I'm kinda attached to it, although if this keeps on for much longer I can see that changing.

Network have simply offered to change the number to a bog standard one, but then I'd lose this number all together. I am willing to bet they would also resell this themselves for a tidy profit once its gone through the standard recycling process.

In short, I'm just going to have to put up with it for now. If anybody is doing to Nagpur at any point please let me know, as I'd love for you to pop in and see some "friends" for me!

Block messages/calls from everyone not in your Contacts?

Move the number to a pay as you go SIM and wait for the situation to die down whilst you use a new number. I'm curious about this number now.

You might be able to get the networks to block the origin, Voda UK are having a massive clamp down on spam SMS right now and they should be able to isolate the sender in their system with the details you provide pretty easily.

NeedAUsername said:

Move the number to a pay as you go SIM and wait for the situation to die down whilst you use a new number. I'm curious about this number now.

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Not a bad idea.

Myshra said:

You might be able to get the networks to block the origin, Voda UK are having a massive clamp down on spam SMS right now and they should be able to isolate the sender in their system with the details you provide pretty easily.

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The problem is all the 'customers', not the spoofer.

I agree but it would mean 20% less people recieving the initial payload though.