Stop My iPhone From Making Ghost Prank Calls?

November 12, 2013 10:55 AM

People I have never heard of before are calling me to ask that I stop calling them. Fine. If I had called them, that is! But I haven't. Neither has my phone, according to its log.

No clue what is going on here. But I really want to make it stop.
All the Internet has come up with is: "nothing you can do. It's a prank. Happens all the time."
I am hoping someone here knows something the Internet doesn't.
I don't want to get back at the culprit, just want to know how do I make it stop and prevent it from happening again?

iphone 5. model A1428. running iOS 7.0.3

posted by anonymous to Computers & Internet (8 answers total)

Why do they think you're calling them? Caller ID can be faked without involving your cell phone.
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 11:02 AM on November 12, 2013 [3 favorites]

You can't stop it. It has nothing to do with you or your phone. Someone probably picked your number completely at random and is spoofing caller ID on their end so that people can't call them back, and they don't really care about the collateral damage.
posted by brainmouse at 11:04 AM on November 12, 2013 [3 favorites]

Yeah, it's not your phone. Someone else is masking their phone number with yours.
posted by heavenstobetsy at 11:05 AM on November 12, 2013

What they said. All you can do is change your number and hope that someone doesn't fake that one either (which is likely -- the odds are pretty low that this is someone pranking you).
posted by Etrigan at 11:07 AM on November 12, 2013 [1 favorite]

This recent article seems highly relevant: L.A. Times.
posted by AppleTurnover at 11:23 AM on November 12, 2013

Happened to my co-worker few years back. Was one of those robo-call scam outfits for car warranty's or something similar....but they were calling thousands of people a day with her number as the caller ID/callback number. After 2 days of irate/confused people calling her and no help from ATT she just had to change her number.
posted by Captain_Science at 11:47 AM on November 12, 2013

This is just like if someone used your return address on the mail they sent out. Neither you nor the post office would necessarily be able to stop them. You would be hard pressed to even figure out who was doing it unless the mail asked for the recipients to contact them.

If anyone who calls you is willing to answer your questions, you could try asking them for any info they have about the call, like was there a company name or any other contact info given. If they are even more willing to help you, they could stay on line next time they are called and act as if they are interested long enough to get more contact info.
posted by soelo at 2:35 PM on November 12, 2013

Ask every person who calls to complain to you to contact their phone company to complain. Your phone company can't do anything - there's no call on your line, so nothing to investigate. The person who got the call can complain, their phone company can track who really called, and can (maybe) do something. I'd probably let unknown calls go to voicemail, then maybe send a boilerplate text:
A marketer is calling people and has forged my number as their caller ID. Please direct complaints to your phone service provider. I'd like to get it corrected even more than you.
posted by theora55 at 10:04 PM on November 12, 2013