People missing calls from me but I'm not ringing them? Scam?

[edballsfriendlyneighbour]

Twice recently I've received phone calls from people who seem to think they have missed calls from me. I had no record of ringing either of them.

Today I've had this text message from someone... again, I haven't called them.

In each case, the first five digits of their phone number is identical to mine.

Any idea WTF is going on here?! Is this a scam? Could someone else be calling from my number somehow?!

Yes I think it's a scam but not sure what exactly! My mum and sister have both had this in the last week - my mum had it 4 times so rang her phone company and they gave her a new number and new phone. Seemed a bit extreme but maybe they've had a few similar reports..?

Yes scam. Listen to Money Box Live on radio four last week as he explained it way better than I can.

But the scammers can now clone real numbers so really can appear to be from who they say they are.

The message was, if you are not expecting the call don’t believe it !

Yes , I got a call from someone saying I had been ringing her (but obviously not my voice on the other end)
I don't know what the scammers could get from using your number, but it is very unnerving.

Yes! I got this on my work phone last week. I have to answer even if I don’t recognise the number and a man in Devon (I am in Yorkshire) wanted to know why I’d called him, when I most definitely had not called. Baffled.

I remember someone posting about this before

It was a nightmare.

I think it must be terrifying. Any way to reduce the risk of it?

I've had this where I have had a few missed calls on my phone. Thinking it was the repair man I have been waiting for a call back from, I called the number and was surprised when the person on the line told me they never did ring me. I have their number showing on my missed call list.

This happened a few more times before it stopped.

Yes has happened to me, someone WhatsApp’d me saying I’d rung them a few times, I hadn’t. She even sent a screenshot of the calls. Her number was also very similar to mine - we were both on same network (ee). I’d imagine it’s a call centre scam pickybacking off the numbers.

Really annoying

Yes, it's a scam.

They also clone local numbers, or numbers similar to your own, to try and get you to answer. Once you answer, they know your number is "live" and spam it even more.

I signed up with the TPS and barely get any spam calls now. None in the last three weeks compared to 5-6 a week previously.

Do they have one or two digits different to your phone number?
This is happening in my local area - a man called me with my number except ending in a 2 not a 1. He said i’d called him but I hadn’t. I noticed how similar his number was to mine and thought it odd.

Then someone on my local fb group posted that they had the same thing, and others chimed in with similar stories. I think the scammers spoof a slightly different phone number to yours and call you. But if you miss their call and ring back, it connects you to the actual owner of that number rather than the scammers which causes confusion.

I’m not sure what the scammers say if they manage to get through, but I’m wondering if seeing a similar mobile no to yours might make you more likely to answer? Otherwise I’m not sure what the relevance is.

It's happened to me. But I got hundreds of people calling me back. It's called spoofing.

You can Google it.

I had a spate of this and just blocked each number as it came through and it hasn't happened for ages.

I once had a missed called from a number very similar to mine except for one number.
I thought it was just kids messing about or something.
I do get quite nervous about stuff like this, so the other side of me thought it might have been scammers or something. It just seems too obviously planned for it to have been a genuine mistake/coincidence.

This has happened to me recently too, I’ve had numbers the same as mine bar one digit ringing me, I’ve never answered though, I suspected it was something dodgy.

DH and I have phone numbers with only the last 3 digits different. Recently we’ve been getting so many calls with the same first 5 digits as we have. They call me, then him, then me. We just don’t answer.