A Victim of Phone Spoofing

The below situation happened to us three times this week, so we wanted to bring this to the attention of our customers. It goes something like this:

The phone at D&W rings.

Caller: Someone from this number just called me. (They sound somewhat confused.)

D&W Staff: Let me check and see if one of the office staff was trying to reach out. Can you please hold for me?

D&W Staff member asks everyone in the office and NO ONE called anyone/is expecting a call from anyone.

D&W Staff: Unfortunately it looks like no one here has given you a call, I'm really sorry. I'm not sure what's happened or how our number showed up on your caller ID.

At this point, the caller is either really irritated and angry that we 'called' them -OR- they just use it as an opportunity to tell a joke, chat, or ask for the latest scrap prices.

So what exactly is going on? Has D&W's phone system been hacked?

Nope. After reporting the situation to our phone company this morning, it's been determined that our phone system is NOT hacked--our outbound call records do not show that we have ever called these individuals that reach out to us. Instead, D&W is just another victim of phone spoofing.

What the heck is phone spoofing?

What this means is that scammers are changing what shows up on the caller ID when they call someone. They do this because they're getting smart; they've noticed that individuals are more likely to answer a call from a local number, as opposed to a call from out of state. So for example: Let's say a scammer's number were really 687-xxx-xxxx but they are trying to scam the 989 area code. They would somehow change the settings on their phone so that 989-xxx-xxxx shows up when they call someone.

But why are they using D&W's number?

We aren't really sure. There are only so many number combinations out there, so it just makes sense that D&W's number would get used eventually. Or maybe they purposely are using local business numbers because it's just the easy thing to do. Whatever the reason, it's definitely frustrating.

So what now? Is there anything that can be done/needs to be done?

Because there are no issues with our phone system, there's really nothing that can be done to fix the situation. Unfortunately, at the advice of our phone company, we just have to let it 'run its course' and hope that the scammers move onto using another number soon. In meantime, please continue to call us when this happens. This way we can keep reporting these types of calls to our phone company; with enough data they can file a formal complaint with the FCC.

Please know that we at D&W aren't trying to harass you, your neighbor, your grandma, or anyone else. Typically we don't call many of our customers--most of our calls are to other companies and businesses. And in the off-chance that we do need to call one of our customers, we always try to leave a message that details exactly why we are calling (provided the person's voicemail box isn't full).

We apologize that this is happening, but unfortunately this is something beyond our control. So please bear with us as we work through this situation.