Are there apps that can allow someone to use your phone number and can you be billed for those calls?
Wishbone2
Newbie

I have a question. What phone app or computer app allows the other person to use your phone number and make it look like you are calling another number when you are not around your phone. I looked up Google Voice and the way it reads you could use someone's phone number and call another number and have it billed to the other number.

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SickFreak
Specialist - Level 1

We both answered it from two different avenues.

When someone spoofs a number, they're not putting a call on someone else's phone number, they're just trying to make it appear that it's coming from them when it's not.  To make the system actually think it actually came from them and bill it back would require something more sophisticated, like a cloned SIM.

In a way, it's kind of like all the spam e-mails we get that are from party A, but actually come from someone else.  The return address is not the same as the sending address unless they've hacked into the system and sent it from there.

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SickFreak
Specialist - Level 1

There are many spoofing systems around.  This is how we all get calls over and over and over again from the same people, but they use a different number each time.  But even if someone used my number, that doesn't mean I'd get billed for it unless they had cloned the SIM and put it in another phone.

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smith6612
Community Leader
Community Leader

Not exactly the way Google Voice is intended to be used Smiley Happy Realistically, any SIP provider can do this, since the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN)'s Caller ID system was designed during an era where there wasn't an efficient means to validate the caller. SIP/VoIP doesn't need to obey they courtesy rules by nature, but most people stay honest with the system.

Most phone systems are smart enough to not trust Caller ID for call loopback charges. Calling Collect, though, is still a thing.

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Wishbone2
Newbie

This is pretty good I've gotten 2 different responses. If you are dishonest you can use a SIP/VOIP system and put calls on someone else's phone number. I get one person saying yes and one saying no.

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SickFreak
Specialist - Level 1

We both answered it from two different avenues.

When someone spoofs a number, they're not putting a call on someone else's phone number, they're just trying to make it appear that it's coming from them when it's not.  To make the system actually think it actually came from them and bill it back would require something more sophisticated, like a cloned SIM.

In a way, it's kind of like all the spam e-mails we get that are from party A, but actually come from someone else.  The return address is not the same as the sending address unless they've hacked into the system and sent it from there.