# My phone # may be spoofed, anythging I can do? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 17, 2022, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-phone-may-be-spoofed-anythging-i-can-do/959636 "2022-02-17T00:21:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2022, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-phone-may-be-spoofed-anythging-i-can-do/959636/1 "2022-02-17T00:21:32Z")
Someone just called me and read the riot act – claiming his phone has been ringing constantly from my (land line) number. Assuming he is telling the truth, is there anything I can do? I have made no calls from that phone in weeks, and I wasn’t even home most of today. I assume the phone company can confirm I haven’t made the calls, but it is even worth me doing so? Brian (go ahead angry dude, call the District Attorney) ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2022, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-phone-may-be-spoofed-anythging-i-can-do/959636/2 "2022-02-17T00:28:52Z")
For the heck of it, I contacted my phone company (online form). Not expecting anything but it was easy to do. Brian ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2022, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-phone-may-be-spoofed-anythging-i-can-do/959636/3 "2022-02-17T14:18:13Z")
Reply from phone company: Honestly there is really nothing we can do about that. They are just randomly grabbing numbers and spoofing them which is out of our control. Changing your number will cost you $18.00 and there is no guarantee that it will not happen again. I am so sorry. Oh well, I tried. Brian ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2022, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-phone-may-be-spoofed-anythging-i-can-do/959636/4 "2022-02-17T14:37:36Z")
I had someone call me (with the same first six digits of my phone number) saying, “I think I just missed a call from you?” I told them it was some spammer who spoofed my phone number, not me. That’s why blocking numbers is a waste of time – they will never run out of numbers to spoof. I thought the phone companies were supposed to do something about these spoofed numbers, though. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2022, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-phone-may-be-spoofed-anythging-i-can-do/959636/5 "2022-02-17T18:58:13Z")
You can add me to the list of people who had someone “return” a call (in my case, at work) after receiving a spoofed phone call. I think it was an older guy who was unfamiliar with the idea of spoofing a caller ID. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2022, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-phone-may-be-spoofed-anythging-i-can-do/959636/6 "2022-02-18T02:42:25Z")
Been there. Done that. Explained that someone had spoofed my number and that was that. It’s probably going to happen again. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2022, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-phone-may-be-spoofed-anythging-i-can-do/959636/7 "2022-02-21T03:30:51Z")
> [@RitterSport](#): > > I thought the phone companies were supposed to do something about these spoofed numbers, though. The **[FCC is working on it](https://www.fcc.gov/call-authentication)** but getting hundreds (thousands?) of phone companies on board takes time. (Remember when there used to be just one?) ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2022, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-phone-may-be-spoofed-anythging-i-can-do/959636/8 "2022-02-21T20:59:42Z")
Somone did this to me about a year ago, I noticed when three called asking why I’d called them (I hadn’t). I changed my voice mail greeting to indicate that I may have been spoofed, and that if they didn’t know me don’t bother leaving a message. After a few weeks I stopped getting as many calls from strange numbers and so changed my voicemail back. Apparently the spoofers had decided to move on to a different number. So long story short, you can probably just wait it out.