Number being spoofed by scammers...

[GrapplingGuy]

So for the last 2 months I have been receiving between 0-5 calls a day from various people saying I have called them about something to do with immigration/called them and left a missed call.

I, obviously, have not called them.

My account is secure. My device is secure. This only started after getting an eSim earlier this year. I assume someone is manipulating caller ID and making it look like my number (or so says Google).

Questions:

1) How do I stop it? Customer service basically said they cannot stop it, so do I just tolerate this forever?

2) Because a lookalike of my number is being used to scam people, does that mean my actual number will get flagged and banned/blocked/locked/idk the word? This number is also comething I use for my business and changing it would mean losing a LOT of customers.

So tired of this now... Thanks for the help!

[MI5 · Accepted solution]

@GrapplingGuy 

It's very unusual for a number to be used in this way for that long, but it is a known issue that OFCOM are investigating.

Unfortunately, nothing can be done currently.

Number spoofing scams - Ofcom

[GrapplingGuy]

This brings sadness and mayhem to me 😞

[MI5]

It is an unfortunate situation @GrapplingGuy 

Sorry there's no more help available.

[SilverBear42]

I'm new to the forum tonight, but I'm here for exactly the same reason. A lady called me today who claimed I had called her, so she returned the call.  I texted her back later after checking my call record to say it wasn't me. She replied with a screenshot of my number calling her at 0914 today. I replied confirming my handset had not made the call. thus I must be either cloned or spoofed. From what MI5 has said, cloning is unlikely albeit I only moved to O2 within the last few months , (maybe an inside job ???!) thus it must be spoofing of soem kind. quite worrying as my number is now attached to scammers potentially and could affect my business dealings or those of my clients. Is there nothing you can do other than change your number ?.

[Enlli]

Usually, they pick numbers, use them for a while and move on.

I've had it happen twice to me in the last three years.

Changing numbers, or network is no guarantee. 

My calls have all been EE