Am Receiving "Return" Calls from Strangers I Never Called.

Four times in the last two days I have received "return" calls from people that I do not know and have never called. Just to make sure I am not losing my mind I have checked the online phone logs. There were no outgoing calls to these people's numbers.

I made what I knew ahead of time was a mistake by trying to contact support first. Makes me want to go back to smoke signals. Gave up.

Anybody know what's going on here and how to fix it?

Thanks

Accepted answers

jonjones1

@tperk wrote:
Four times in the last two days I have received "return" calls from people that I do not know and have never called. Just to make sure I am not losing my mind I have checked the online phone logs. There were no outgoing calls to these people's numbers.
I made what I knew ahead of time was a mistake by trying to contact support first. Makes me want to go back to smoke signals. Gave up.
Anybody know what's going on here and how to fix it?
Thanks

This is a problem with all phone providers. Its known as spoofing. The purpose is to use anothers phone number by spammers who then get the poor person hit with irate people that thinks it you. At present verizon and others are offering free robocalling blocking and reporting features. These auto sensing programs and apps verify if the call came from thst person and if not alerts the consumer that it is spam.

the FCC is mandating that phone systems have plans and solutions to these spamming and bogus calls by 2020

All comments

jonjones1

@tperk wrote:
Four times in the last two days I have received "return" calls from people that I do not know and have never called. Just to make sure I am not losing my mind I have checked the online phone logs. There were no outgoing calls to these people's numbers.
I made what I knew ahead of time was a mistake by trying to contact support first. Makes me want to go back to smoke signals. Gave up.
Anybody know what's going on here and how to fix it?
Thanks

the FCC is mandating that phone systems have plans and solutions to these spamming and bogus calls by 2020

tperk100

Thanks much! I should have thought of that.

Pahiker1

This just started happening with my number as well. If I read your response correctly, if I actually make the call then verizon won't block it on someone else's phone, right?

Pahiker1

I know what you mean with the support, with all the money we pay Verizon for their service I'm getting tired of Indian tech support. I usually spend 15-20 minutes explaining the problem because their grasp of English is so poor. Which is odd, since English is the offical language of India.

jonjones1

@Pahiker wrote:
This just started happening with my number as well. If I read your response correctly, if I actually make the call then verizon won't block it on someone else's phone, right?

Correct. Its is for spoofers. They will have their calls show as the real phone number instead of some poor customers.

mimigf55

Is this an automatic service from Fios or do I need to do something to activate it?

jonjones1

I understand it should be on your line. In fact the fcc just gave verizon and other companies the ability to stop them scam callers dead in their tracks.

you might check your account particulars and see if it is on.

https://www.verizon.com/support/residential/homephone/calling-features/stop-unwanted-calls

Pahiker1

Friend of mine had a great idea, shame it's not a feature.

Allow creation of a contact list, then allow the option to block anyone who is not on that list. You might lose real calls, but you can always fix that in the future by adding them to the list. But at least unwanted calls would not make it through, no matter who/where they originate.