Have I been phished by a hooker?

September 29, 2012 11:16 PM

Have I been phished? If so, what do I do? I suddenly started getting phonecalls and texts from people looking for prostitutes. They're calling both my cell and home phones. I recently applied for a credit card, and now I'm afraid the site wasn't legit.

My husband says that phishers wouldn't want to bring the fraud to our attention this way, so it's more likely a really unpleasant prank. In any case, yikes! How much should I panic?

posted by mneekadon to Work & Money (10 answers total)

Response by poster: More importantly, how do I make it stop?
posted by mneekadon at 11:23 PM on September 29, 2012

There really isn't enough information to know if a credit card application and these phone calls are tied in somehow. It does seem very unlikely however as the purpose of phishing is to use your personal information to generate a profit - not to make prank phone calls.

You make it stop by getting a new phone number. In the future get a Google Voice phone number and forward it to your main number. Use the Google Voice number fr all your commercial transactions and if you begin getting unwanted calls then you can block such calls very easily in Google Voice.
posted by Podkayne of Pasadena at 11:29 PM on September 29, 2012

Have you googled your phone numbers to see if they have been posted online? This is could be just some nasty prank and someone put your phone numbers on craigslist advertisement.
posted by QueenHawkeye at 11:37 PM on September 29, 2012

Response by poster: I didn't find anything out of the ordinary on Google. I didn't start getting calls to the home phone until I shut off the cell.
posted by mneekadon at 11:52 PM on September 29, 2012

Probably not the easiest thing to do, but maybe ask the people calling you where they got your number from.
posted by Solomon at 1:23 AM on September 30, 2012

I've heard of female activists targeted by hate groups getting their numbers listed on craigslist or fetlife as sex workers to sort of outsource the harassment.
posted by spunweb at 1:33 AM on September 30, 2012

I started getting calls to my work cell phone, asking for 'massages' or 'services'. When the caller would stay on the line long enough, I started asking where they got my number from (e.g. had it been published somewhere?), and they all claimed it was a mate who had passed on the number. But after I did that a few times, it did stop. I am not a feminist activist, I had not applied for any credit cards, it didn't appear that my number had been published online, I am in Australia, don't know if that makes any difference. In my case, it was only my work phone (though because I was on call, it was a bit irritating!). I'm not saying that you shouldn't be alarmed, but in my case, it lasted maybe two months (of very intermittent phone calls) and then stopped.
posted by AnnaRat at 2:11 AM on September 30, 2012

This happened to someone I know recently. Apparently, her phone number used to be that of a strip club and Google maps managed to list her number as the strip club's number. The calls were too awkward for her to figure out where these guys were actually trying to call. Eventually the guy who owned the club figured it out, phoned her to say what was happening and got it sorted with Google. Of course, in that situation, the owner wanted it sorted quickly once he figured it out.

I would have assumed something similar was going on except for the calls moving to your landline, which makes the 'number listed somewhere by accident' scenario much more improbable. I'm guessing if the answer to this question were yes, Podkayne of Pasadena's comment would mean you thought of this, but do you have a Google Voice number now (that maybe you set up and forgot about)? Or a Skype number? Something that would have rung through to your mobile first and when that is off, rings through to the landline? (I'm not positive Google Voice behaves this way if your mobile is off, but it's worth checking.)
posted by hoyland at 5:29 AM on September 30, 2012

I didn't start getting calls to the home phone until I shut off the cell

Definitely a prank. I'd try to be patient with this for a little while - either don't pick up the phone or answer in a way that makes it very clear you don't have what they're looking for. I would personally consider recording them (if you're in a single-party recording state) and keeping track of the phone numbers calling, just so I felt like I was doing something.
posted by arnicae at 6:10 AM on September 30, 2012

I recently applied for a credit card, and now I'm afraid the site wasn't legit.

While I think this is unlikely to be tied to the phone calls (which are probably the result of a prostitute with a penchant for Craigslist typos), maybe you could post a link to the site so the Metafilter Number One Detective Agency can take a look at it and let you know if anything seems off.
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 6:19 AM on September 30, 2012