Has Your Telephone Number Been Spoofed?
To the Editor:
If you are seeing your own telephone number and your name showing up on your caller i.d., your telephone number has been spoofed. Someone is now able to make various calls to anyone with your name and phone number appearing on their caller i.d.
I am writing this letter to alert you to what my husband I have learned about spoofing.
It all began in June of 2014. We had received a call from a lady in Renovo who is known to us. (We live in North Bend). She said something strange is happening and I don’t think you know about it. She told us that they have received calls from tele-marketers who have our name and phone number displayed on her caller i.d.
I got as much information about this and immediately called the Verizon business office. I was referred to Fraudulent Services Research and Compliance. I talked to a man who promptly stated “You have been spoofed” someone is now able to make calls under your name and number.
He then said don’t be surprised when you answer your phone and see your own name and number on your caller i.d. (which did happen approximately one week later). We were instructed to send an E-mail to Verizon to the attention of Research and Compliance listing all details about the spoofing. We did this immediately and never received any further information from them.
Since that time until now there have been a number of persons calling to question our name and number on their caller i.d. which we reported to Verizon. Lately it seems that at least once a month we have our name and number show up on our caller i.d. Things have been just a nuisance until now.
On Sunday, January 24th a man from Renovo called us after 10:00 p.m. and wanted to know why we called him three times from 9:30 p.m. until 10:00 p.m. that evening. The calls were ten minutes apart. The caller just hung up. WE could clearly see that our number is now used for harassment. I immediately called Verizon’s fraudulent services. I was told that you must call Verizon’s unlawful call center (1-800-518-5507) hours 8:30 – 5:00 p.m. I called the number on Monday, January 25th. It is an automated system with option 4 listed for spoofing.
The message indicates that if you have calls showing up on your caller i.d. with your name and number, your number has been spoofed. Just ignore the calls as we are unable to do anything about this.
We then filed a complaint under FCC.gov. We could not get a confirmation due to the snowstorm in Washington D.C.
On Tuesday evening, January 26th we received another call from the man in Renovo who called us on Sunday complaining that three more calls were made to him again with our I.D.
On Wednesday, January 27th I made a call to the FCC in Washington D.C. since we’re not sure they had received our complaint. I was able to talk to a man and explained everything to him. His response was that we are not able to trace these calls. I then reminded him that people now have the ability to commit criminal activity with our name and number. I asked what are we supposed to do about this. He advised calling local law officials to make them aware of the situation and add a message to your answering maching explaining that you are victim and someone is illegally using your name and phone numbers for calls. I told him I had plans to write a letter to local newspapers. He said that was an excellent idea.
I have talked to many people in our area who have been spoofed. At first I thought it was only Verizon customers but I have recently talked to Comcast customers who were also spoofed.
What is happening to our world? This is unreal.
One thing that will never be taken away from me is my strong faith in God. If there is anyone reading this who believes in the power of prayer, please join me in this battle as our God will prevail.
Karen & Galen Stone
