My mom's getting harassing phone calls

[RoxMonster]

Is there anything else I should have her do?

My mom said out of nowhere tonight, a local number called and told my mom she had a missed call from her. My mom had not called anyone, much less this person. A couple minutes later, she calls back and says the same thing: "Why would I make up a number that called me? I'm looking at it right here" and my mom is like "I have no idea who you are and never called you."

In the process of me talking to my mom, her phone kept beeping and the lady left her like five voicemails all saying the same thing: "I was going through missed calls from last month and you keep calling me. Stop calling me." My  mom has never called this person!

My mom has a really old non-smart phone and doesn't know how to do a ton with it (I live 2 hours away). I told her she needs to block the number but she didn't know how, so I told her to call Verizon and see if they could block it on their end. I was also considering having her call non-emergency police to file a report about the harassing calls, but am not sure if that would really do anything.

It's freaked my mom out and this lady has her first name now from my mom's outgoing voicemail message. She's worried she will somehow find out her name and where she lives. I guess I don't get the purpose of continuously calling someone. It could be the woman is unwell; I have no idea what kind of scam this would be if it's a scam. Any ideas? Anything else I should have her do?

[sarahsays]

You can block numbers on Verizon online. I would just block the number. The lady will probably move on once she can't get through.

[hisno1girl]

May 1, 2017 20:17:13 GMT -5 @angelicapickles said:

I would probably call the woman myself & tell her that if she calls my mom again, that we will be calling the police

Same except instead of "calling the police" use "making her regret being born."

Nobody messes with my mom.

[RoxMonster]

Thanks; my DH did say he wonders if it's the scam where they spoof their number, trying to egg you to call them and then it's some other country and you rack up huge fees. My mom has answered twice but never called the number herself. She asked the woman twice for her name but she wouldn't give it. I am going to tell my mom to just get the number blocked and it is most likely a scam.

[mala]

What probably happened is that the scammers duped your mom's phone number to call crazy-harrassing-chick. Now CHC is harassing your mom about her "missed call", which was made by scammers, not mom. Block, possibly file a police report for harassment. If you can get the call logs from Verizon, I'd include a copy in the police report and keep a copy for your records.

[Deleted]

This happened to a guy at work. Some lady kept calling him claiming he kept calling her and harassing her when he hadn't. When she threatened to call the police on him, he obtained a list of his call history to prove he never called her. I don't remember him saying it was a scam, but she stopped calling him.

[RoxMonster]

May 1, 2017 21:33:46 GMT -5 downtonali said:

This happened to a guy at work. Some lady kept calling him claiming he kept calling her and harassing her when he hadn't. When she threatened to call the police on him, he obtained a list of his call history to prove he never called her. I don't remember him saying it was a scam, but she stopped calling him.

That is interesting. This may be what happened. I'll have her print her call logs too.

[sparkythelawyer]

May 1, 2017 20:23:34 GMT -5 hisno1girl said:

May 1, 2017 20:17:13 GMT -5 @angelicapickles said:

I would probably call the woman myself & tell her that if she calls my mom again, that we will be calling the police

Same except instead of "calling the police" use "making her regret being born."

Nobody messes with my mom.

When It was my cousin getting creepy calls from a one night encounter, I believe the phrase I used was "I will make your life hurt."

[WOUNDTIGHT]

This happened to me last week! Some guy with an Australian accent told me that he had 3 missed calls from me. I told him he didn't, and he said why would I make that up and was super aggravated/defensive. I said "I can't help you with that" and hung up on him. He called back once more and I didn't pick up. It was super weird, especially because the phone number that registered on my phone, the incoming number, was only 2 digits off from my own number.

[atlas]

What a lot of 1-800 numbers are doing is duplicating the first 6 digits of your phone number and then randomly generating the last 4. I regularly get calls from my area code and the next 3. So my phone says they are from my city and I am more likely to pick it up (not really, I don't pick up calls on my cell, but in the scammers' minds). So I agree with what mala said. There is a scam that called this lady from your mom's number and now she is calling back.

[nikki25]

I know exactly what it is: people are able to duplicate phone numbers making them appear to be local when they are not. The numbers are usually similar to the numbers of the person answering so when they call back it goes to the number causing a lot of confusion.

I would tell her not to call thr police. Honestly, if the lady was receiving tons of phone calls from your mom's phone she could be the harasser so it won't be a good idea.

And the lady won't show up and if the scammers were using your mom's number i can see why she is upset. People always forget that there are these things call phone books with full names, phone numbers and addresses available to the public! Imagine that Kidding aside I wouldn't worry about it. Block her number and hope they don't call someone else. Good luck!

[nikki25]

May 1, 2017 23:02:50 GMT -5 atlas said:

What a lot of 1-800 numbers are doing is duplicating the first 6 digits of your phone number and then randomly generating the last 4. I regularly get calls from my area code and the next 3. So my phone says they are from my city and I am more likely to pick it up (not really, I don't pick up calls on my cell, but in the scammers' minds). So I agree with what mala said. There is a scam that called this lady from your mom's number and now she is calling back.

Yes, I just wrote this and agree this is probably what happened. The numbers appear local and falsely come up on the caller ID and when you call it back it goes to th actual number who have no clue what is going on.

[chimera]

Vote for a spoofing scam. Our Fire Chief's number was spoofed to call about student loan reductions.

[RoxMonster]

Yeah I guess the woman said in her voice messages "I was going through my missed calls from last month" and my mom thought that was super weird. I mean, my mom never did actually call her, so her phone logs should prove that, right? In case this lady does go to the cops.

My mom just didn't understand why it would be a scam and I'm like "I don't know why they do it Mom. But pretty positive this is not legit." It sounds like this scam is really common from what you all have posted; I'll pass on the additional info.

[patches31709]

May 1, 2017 23:02:50 GMT -5 atlas said:

What a lot of 1-800 numbers are doing is duplicating the first 6 digits of your phone number and then randomly generating the last 4. I regularly get calls from my area code and the next 3. So my phone says they are from my city and I am more likely to pick it up (not really, I don't pick up calls on my cell, but in the scammers' minds). So I agree with what mala said. There is a scam that called this lady from your mom's number and now she is calling back.

Well this explains all of the missed calls I've been getting on my cell lately. What's the end game here? Because it's a local number, I'm more likely to answer it, but it's not a neighbor, it's someone selling me something or scamming me?

[gibbinator]

So it sounds like basically the woman who's calling your mom is being scammed by scammers who spoofed your mom's number? Or the woman doing the calling is the scammer. Either way, a scam is involved.

[dochas]

I've gotten spoofed calls from 911 and my own phone number. I wish we could track these people down and light them on fire.

[thatgirl2478]

Yep. I've gotten spoofed calls from my own number while I was on that phone line! It's ridiculous.

[flex]

So this all sounds like it has to do with scamming scammers who scam. I haven't received any scam calls, but I'll be the scammers think Alaska is a foreign country. lol

[jenny1223]

May 2, 2017 7:34:39 GMT -5 patches31709 said:

May 1, 2017 23:02:50 GMT -5 atlas said:

What a lot of 1-800 numbers are doing is duplicating the first 6 digits of your phone number and then randomly generating the last 4. I regularly get calls from my area code and the next 3. So my phone says they are from my city and I am more likely to pick it up (not really, I don't pick up calls on my cell, but in the scammers' minds). So I agree with what mala said. There is a scam that called this lady from your mom's number and now she is calling back.

Well this explains all of the missed calls I've been getting on my cell lately. What's the end game here? Because it's a local number, I'm more likely to answer it, but it's not a neighbor, it's someone selling me something or scamming me?

It's not necessarily always a scam. This is a very common practice for salespeople in my industry and a highlighted feature for a lot of phone systems/dialers. (Call using a local caller ID to increase call answer rates!) The goal is to increase answer rates.

[berbles]

I actually JUST watched a crime show that had a story about someone using a spoofer to rob people. Tell your mom to check her bank accounts and credit reports. Seriously.

This guy used a spoofer to make it look like John was calling his bank. With social media, the scammer was able to learn information about John like his mother's maiden name and what street he grew up on, so he was able to trick the bank's customer service people into believing he was John and then made off with all kinds of money. I think the show said 1.5 million from thousands of people before they caught onto him.

[RoxMonster]

May 2, 2017 17:06:43 GMT -5 berbles said:

I actually JUST watched a crime show that had a story about someone using a spoofer to rob people. Tell your mom to check her bank accounts and credit reports. Seriously.

This guy used a spoofer to make it look like John was calling his bank. With social media, the scammer was able to learn information about John like his mother's maiden name and what street he grew up on, so he was able to trick the bank's customer service people into believing he was John and then made off with all kinds of money. I think the show said 1.5 million from thousands of people before they caught onto him.

That is scary. My mom has literally no social media presence whatsoever, but I'm sure there are other ways to find out that info, too. I will let her know this and have her check her statements.

She said the calls stopped last night and she has not received any more today. The number will be blocked, but she is waiting to do anything with calling the cops unless/until the calls should start up again from a different number (or if she gets a ton of blocked VMs from the other number).

Thanks for all the advice last night! I think I finally convinced her it was a scam and sometimes people run scams just to be assholes, even if they don't make sense.