Scammers are spoof calling people from their own phone numbers

Scammers have taken a new direction in the way the conduct schemes over the telephone lines. While spoof calling is nothing new to scammers in general, spoofing the targets own phone number to make it look like the target’s phone is calling them is new and that’s just what they’re doing.

Scammers are now spoof calling people from their own phone numbers. This means that if a potential victim’s phone number is 555-5555 they will receive a phone call from 555-5555 and if they answer the phone call they may be greeted by a robocaller or a person.

A current scam going around plays a recorded message that insists your IP address has been compromised if you answer the phone. In this version of the scam, the scammer calls you from your own phone number and will play a recorded message if you answer the phone. The recorded message says that Microsoft is calling to let you know that your IP address has been compromised and needs to be changed. The message then says to press 1 to change your IP address.

This is Microsoft letting you know that your IP address has been compromised by several countries and you need to change your IP address now. Press 1 to change it now.

If you press 1:

• It makes you a target. It allows the scammers to know that you fell for the scam and that you are susceptible to scams.
• You may be connected to a tech support scammer who will try to utilize various social engineering methods to obtain remote access to your computing device. The tech support scammer may try to make you purchase a fraudulent service for your machine.
• You may be asked to supply personal information including your full name, phone number, home address, information about your location or computer, and more.

There’s not much that can be done to stop a scammer or anyone else from spoofing your phone number aside from blocking your own phone number in order to stop your own phone number from calling you. Spoof calling is free and very simple for anyone to accomplish; There are many ‘spoof caller’ applications and services that provide different solutions to spoof call people.