Winfinite Indow 818-555-0130
November 24, 2019 9:00 PM Subscribe
Recently I searched my own phone number on Google and found a bunch of sites that claimed to know who had that number. They all claimed it was assigned to someone with an obviously fake name. These are separate from the background check sites like Spokeo or Truthfinder and its workalikes. What is the purpose of these sites?
I imagine they're also plastered in ads if you don't have an adblocker running. Easy to generate a website with every possible number if you pair them with fake generated names.
On a more paranoid note, I've sometimes suspected these sites are owned by spammers so they can tell when a given number is searched during/after a call and flag it as belonging to a real person. Like clicking an unsubscribe link in a spam email.
posted by Rhaomi at 12:35 AM on November 25, 2019 [1 favorite]
On a more paranoid note, I've sometimes suspected these sites are owned by spammers so they can tell when a given number is searched during/after a call and flag it as belonging to a real person. Like clicking an unsubscribe link in a spam email.
posted by Rhaomi at 12:35 AM on November 25, 2019 [1 favorite]
Perhaps to lure the actual owner to contact the sites and give them the correct information, thus assuring it's an active number and maybe grabbing more info along the way?
posted by Thorzdad at 5:44 AM on November 25, 2019
posted by Thorzdad at 5:44 AM on November 25, 2019
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posted by RustyBrooks at 9:12 PM on November 24, 2019 [1 favorite]