Phony Numbers on Caller ID
 

How do they do that? We have caller ID - I go to Reverse Lookup to see who/what is calling us - and "Invalid Number" is what I get.

One time it even showed OUR name and number calling OUR phone!

Hate when this happens. The second part of your post hasn't happened to me yet. I let DH deal with it.

We got a call from a woman who was very angry and told me to quit calling her mother because she was on the do not call list. I told her I had never called her mother, that this was a residence and not a business. She read my phone number back to me and said it was on her mothers caller ID. I told her to contact the phone company, that I honestly didn't know what she was talking about. On our phone a recording comes on when someone calls that tells them if they are a telemarketer to hang up and remove our number. This poor woman was so angry and said " I see you don't like getting those calls, why are you calling my mother? I had a hard time trying to convince her that someone had hijacked our number and was using it to make those calls. I haven't heard back from her so hopefully the phone company helped her.

If you Google "caller id spoofing" you will find that there are websites that help you do this! Apparently it's been around about as long as caller ID has been around.

What next will telemarketers hijack next???

as far as I'm concerned, they are all fake numbers. some even repeat the number where their ID name belongs. Not that they give a correct name either. I just got done reporting more callers to the Do Not Call List. I take the phone off the hook at 6 or 7 O'clock and back on after 9 O'clock because my hubby goes to sleep early. But they call at lunch time too! (and on Sundays)

We were being harassed by a particular telemarketer at one point. I reported this company and all of the 20+ numbers they were using to Do Not Call. It got to the point, since I was getting nowhere with Do Not Call, that I called the FCC to report this company. Was told by the very nice little man there to not even bothering answering the phone. The company I called about (which I don't even remember now who it was) the FCC was in the process of prosecuting. They said that, unfortunately, because they change names; numbers; locations etc. so often it's next to impossible to prosecute these companies for any number of infractions. It's truly sad. Just recently for a 2 week period I got a robo call every morning between 8AM and 8:10AM - except on Sundays - then it was between 9-9:10AM. Thank heavens for 'nomorobo'. This is a free service. Look them up online and see if the service is available in your area. Granted, your phone still rings one time but then that's it.

The whole telemarketer thing really makes me want to get rid of our landline but DH is not inclined to do so and frankly, I want my 911 location ID readily available instead of hoping I'm pinging off of a local cell tower! Why should MY lifestyle be compromised because of these vultures???

Rant over. Thanks for listening.

I was thinking about getting caller id on my phone, dose that help?

Most irritating to me, is that I pay $50 plus for the land line that somehow is open to everyone in the world....I actually PAY for this "service". Sort of like when we all signed up for cable because "There were no commercials"...Now, we pay for the privilege of having 15 minutes of commercial television for every hour!

Most carriers offer caller ID free of charge now, so I would recommend getting it. I like having it so I can see who is calling before I pick up. If it's my daughter's phone number, for example, I will answer right away. If it's a name or number I don't recognize, I sometimes wait to see if they will leave a message (most telemarketers do not). Some telemarketers rig their calls so a false caller ID shows up; that is what we are talking about in this thread.