Strange Call from Stranger

[MermaidofRye]

I've just had a call from a woman who I don't know with a Birmingham accent.

I said hello and she asked me who I was. I replied she called me and she said I had called her first and left a voice message.

I most certainly hadn't.

I asked her what the voice message was and she she just said, "How would I have this number if you hadn't called me."

I didn't like the sound of it and just repeated that I had called her, said bye and hung up,

I've blocked her but AIBU to think this is the prelude to some sort of scam?

It will be a spam call. You did right in blocking. I don’t answer numbers I don’t know. If it’s important they’ll leave a message.

Possibly the scam is that your number has been cloned / spoofed/ whatever its called and is being used by scammers.

I always get random numbers ring me and deny all knowledge when I call back or message

I’ve had the same a couple of times and so has my husband. It’s a scam but I don’t really understand how it’s supposed to work.

The last one I had got quite abusive and said he’d report me for trying to scam him.

I wouldn't have answered it if I hadn't been awaiting some test results all day!

What do you mean @YerMotherWasAHamster ? Is this going tobe a whole lot of trouble for me?

If a stranger calls you and asks who you are, do not answer that question. Just ask who's calling please.

If they won't answer that and they don't even know your name then it's obviously spam or possibly just some weird misunderstanding/wrong number.

@YerMotherWasAHamster is right. Someone called her pretending to be from your number. As you'll have seen, you're far more likely to answer from a real number instead of an unknown one. You're not being scammed and noone is trying to scam you. Somebody was trying to scam her though, she's the victim. Depending on how many people they called using your number, you might get a lot of calls back. Probably not though. They tend to change numbers frequently so that one number doesn't become associated with the scam.

Scammers use automated computer programmes to randomly generate number to use as caller id. Unfortunately they're bound to use a real one every now and then. It's happened to me too. Don't worry about it OP, it's annoying but nothing to worry about.

Had it a few times. Don't worry, nothing happened.

For sure a spam call.

Your number has been spoofed by a scammer. So the people calling you have had scam calls
from your number.

Thank you everyone for explaining! I hope I don't get lots of calls from people as I have to answer them in case it's my results!

Lol I had this only a fortnight ago. I had a missed call whilst my phone was on do not disturb (was about 3am). I rang it back in the morning. I ended up ringing a lovely old gentleman in Australia. He'd rung me as apparently I'd tried to ring him the previous day. We had a chat exchanged pleasantaries but realised we'd been cloned somehow.

Screen your calls. You won’t miss important calls.

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/iphone/iphe4b3f7823/ios

It's very common, not sure what the purpose is but it's been around for years

someone would of cloned your number and rang, the same thing happened me. Had a missed call from some random number, rang it back and someone was getting so angry at me wondering who I was etc. I was like “sorry but I had a missed call from your number, just ringing to see who it was?” Between us when she finally let me get a word in, we discovered that’s what must of happened 🫠

The advice not to give your name is a good one - sometimes the scammers are recording you saying your name to break through voice recognition software.

Someone has probably listened to an answerphone message where the caller has left their phone number and they've written it down wrong. If it is anything medical or financial, when they ring back they can't say who they are or ask to speak to someone by name, they have to ask the name of the person answering the call first.

I wouldn't think any more of it.