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[cookiebaker]

thing is tho.. these scammers dont need the actual phone to spoof the phone number. It only needs to be an active number.
I dont know how they do it, and I dont want to know.. but they can, and do, spoof phone numbers all the time without actually having the physical phone.

Yes, it is important to keep track of your cell phone, but it wont stop the scammers... Changing her number will prevent them from using that number again - until it is re-issued to someone else - but they will just move on to another number that is active.

Do your cell phones have local numbers??

Yes, cell phone numbers here are "localized" and use the same area codes and exchanges as local land lines would. In fact, they look just like any other phone number would. many numbers, both cell and landline, can have names attached to them, regardless of whether they are in your directory or not.

And what is a Medicare spammer?? What do they try to do?

Medicare is a senior health care program run by the government. Medicare scammers try to get people to provide personal information so they can steal identities, get money, or some other nefarious activity. Sad thing is, a lot of the older folks fall for this stuff, not realizing that Medicare would never actually call them (they communicate primarily by mail) and ask for any of this information. They just dont.

As for the rest of your questions, @JayCS - see above... they dont need the physical phone to do these things. your cell phone can never leave your possession, but a determined scammer can still "steal" your number and make calls that look like they are coming from you. This is the sad reality. No one is safe from it.

 

[JayCS]

Ah, thanks @cookiebaker!
I'd never heard of local numbers and names being possible, definitely not here, I wonder why.
But a scammer pretending to be from a health insurance rather than a spammer trying to sell one, as well as the ability to spoof phone numbers are things I am very aware of, even tho it's very rare here.
Same is possible for anyone to easily spoof the e-mail address of someone else, so easy it's a wonder we don't hear it happening more often. That'd be something malware would use. Fairly easy to suss out if your boss seems to be trying to sell you something weird or talk in a strange way and want you to click on a link - which if you hover over it is a completely different one to the one it pretends to be. I think I've always detected any phishing etc., however I did once get a Trojan without ever finding out where from, as I never click on anything I'm not 200% sure of. Took a week to get that system running again...
As for phone numbers - they ain't got much chance with me as I dislike phoning anyway, and if anyone who I don't recognize the number of wants to speak to me they have to apply for that by talking with my answering machine and then I may call back if they're very lucky or I wait till they call me again. Come to think of it often even if the number is in my directory... 😷. Altho my wife likes phoning people (and hates mailing) she also seldom directly answers the phone and often asks me to find out who it was that phoned if the "system" doesn't reveal it.

 

[johnsalmon]

spammers down here usually call after dinner and my partner usually answers - as all but one of my friends have passed away if any one asked to speak to John Salmon then at that time of night its a spammer ands she usually tells them I'm dead. they just hang up. I 'am on VoIP and so my number is not shown in an y phone book so we get very little spam Spam Emails that's another thing fills up the mail box.

 

[cookiebaker]

yeah, i learned early on that detecting phishing emails is pretty easy, if you know what to look for.
I had one a few years ago come from what appeared to be a legitimate business, but one look at the link in the email told me otherwise. I reported it right away, too.

phone, well, that is a bit harder as I often get phone calls from the doctors office/clinic - I have, however, learned most of the incoming numbers, so I can usually tell it is from the clinic.. but not always.
Had one claim to be from Microsoft once, LOL, that one was hilarious.. they tried to tell me there was a problem with my PC... uh, no, there wasnt. The only problem was them trying to scam me. (it didnt work)

 

[Auriel]

I'm sorry nearly all of your friends have passed John salmon. It's nice of the scammers to let you have dinner first, eh, 🙄 I wish there was a way we could block them all, my phone gives me the choice to just allow the people in my phones contact to ring ne but I've got new contacts that call me (that I need right now) from unknown numbers, so 🤷🏻‍♀️

 

[sunkacola]

Do your cell phones have local numbers??

I could see the number with the area code so I know it was a local number meaning the area code assigned to the part of the state I live in. Of course, the phone itself and the person calling could be anywhere in the world.

Do your phone calls have a person's name added??

It's true that usually when the caller's name is in the address book then the phone will display the name of the caller along with the phone number. Of course this person was not in my contacts. But sometimes the person's name does appear even if i don't know them.

And what is a Medicare spammer??

Ah, typo on my part! I meant scam. As in, someone trying to get information from me in order to use my medicare information to run a scam.

or does it just mean a landline number??

The area code is the same no matter what kind of phone line it is.

If a local number where you live isn't that a really rural desert type place: that wouldn't be anywhere I'd expect a Medicare spammer running around pinching phones off of other people, I wouldn't even have expected a workplace near there? Or does a local number mean your state? (Here we can see from a local landline number which village or often which part of a town someone's living in.)

Ha-ha! I got this great image of someone with a briefcase running around in circles through the cactus, waving brochures for time shares. Yes, I live rural, desert. An area code can indicate a wide area of land, or a much smaller one depending on the population density.

What kind of workplace is that where someone would want to and is able to temporarily steal and misuse someone else's phone, left lying around unattended?

Isn't that a good question? I wanted to ask where she worked, but it didn't seem the right time for that!
But you know...........anyone can be anywhere, and you never know what people are like underneath what they show to the world openly or on the job

Why would it be an advantage to a spammer to take someone else's phone for a short time, and what would be the sense, how for instance would that person be able to tape the answers and use them to sneak in a contract (that would be the worst things they'd try to do here).

Another good question. The person who called me had a strong foreign accent, not sure from where. Possibly India, so it is also possible that the person calling was actually elsewhere and just ran the call through this woman's phone number? I have no idea. But it is odd that the timing was when she left it at work. Might be coincidence...? Puzzling, indeed.
.

 

[Auriel]

Well done, @cookiebaker, for being on it! 🤣 no scamming cookiebaker today 💛

 

[JayCS]

Strange how relieved I am 🧐, back in contact with "reality"....(?) 👐 Bit of a puzzle is OK....