More and more often, people are contacting our cooperation partner Watchlist Internet whose number is being spoofed and misused for spam calls because they constantly receive callbacks from angry people who see a missed call on their smartphone. The only thing that helps is a bit of patience or switching to a different telephone number!

Fraudulent calls

Who doesn't know this: You get a call from an unknown number, pick up the phone, and criminals answer at the other end, pretending to be from Microsoft Service or Apple or even pretending to be the police. If you haven't picked up the phone, you'll only find a notification of a missed call from an unknown number on your smartphone.

Since criminals disguise their phone numbers through spoofing, a callback usually only results in the information that “no subscriber is known at the dialed number”. In some cases, however, it also happens that an existing number is faked by chance during spoofing. – The result: The real owner of the number receives numerous calls from angry people who claim to have been called from this exact number!

Spoofing is a method of concealing the actual phone number of a call made by criminals. Instead of the real number from which the call originates, any number or letter combination is shown on the receiving device's display. The aim of the fraudsters is to get as many potential victims as possible to withdraw and at the same time protect their own number.

Criminals misusing your number?

If your phone number has been used by criminals to make fraudulent calls, you will usually receive numerous callbacks from angry people who saw your number on their smartphone.

Can you incur costs?

No. Since your phone number is only simulated, you will not incur any costs. In this case, the display of your phone number is only a simulation, but not actually in use.

What can you do if your phone number has been compromised as part of a spoofing attack?

Unfortunately, your options for taking action against this scam are relatively limited. In most cases, however, the problem resolves itself with a little patience, because the same number is usually not faked over a longer period of time, but new numbers are soon simulated. If the problem persists for a longer period of time, we recommend contacting your mobile phone provider. You may want to change your phone number.

Source:

Watchlist Internet

This might also be of interest:
Audio deepfakes and AI: The next generation of the grandchild trick
WhatsApp NEW: Mute calls from unknown people and data protection check
“Common sense” in the digital age: helper or hindrance?


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