I got an unsettling phone call tonight

I got a phone call tonight from an old guy, he said my name and phone number appeared on his caller I.D. and it had something to do with the DAV ( disabled American veterans) I have no idea how he could determine that it had something to do with the DAV just from a name and number on his caller ID.

what`s unsettling about it is, I don`t have a cell phone, my landline has always been an unlisted number for at least 30 years,and I haven`t made a phone call in at least 3 months.The last phone call I made was in February 2017 to an auto repair shop.

the guy knew my name and unlisted number,he repeated them back to me from his caller ID.

I didn`t give him any info , I just confirmed that yes that was name and that was my phone number and that yes I` am veteran but I`m not a member of theDAV.

Then he said that he just wanted to make sure I wasn`t calling from the DAV to solicit contributions because a friend of his use to be a member of the DAV and caught them doing illegal stuff with the funds and they kicked him out of the DAV.

I again told him that I`m not a DAV member but I hope he finds out who made the call and what it`s about.
then he starts talking about how he is a korean war vet and he doesn`t understand how my name and number appeared on his caller ID, so I hung up on him.

a reply to: Tardacus

There's scam companies that can basically put any name and number up on the caller ID. I get a call at least once a month on my office phone where the caller ID shows that I'm the one calling myself.

originally posted by: TobyFlenderson
a reply to: Tardacus

There's scam companies that can basically put any name and number up on the caller ID. I get a call at least once a month on my office phone where the caller ID shows that I'm the one calling myself.

I bet that's exactly what happened, and I bet the guy who got the sales call was special forces. I worked at a cemetery once and called a number for a veterans day event. Instead of answering the call, the guy looked up the number and showed up at the office the next day to discuss the reason someone called him. I have no idea why he felt that looking up the number and then coming in to the office was better than answering the phone, but I bet he had a good (interesting) reason.

That's the very reason I use voicemail for numbers I do not know. If its important they will leave a message. Helps with the debt collectors as well. They never leave messages.

a reply to: Tardacus

Meh ignore it. Scammers and prank callers have ingenious ways of obtaining data about people they target.


Either that or raise the paranoia factor through the roof!

I wouldn't sweat it.

Older people get confused.

So, what were you doing with the DAV ?

See how easy that happens...

I get calls like that, they are scams. I got a call from a woman asking me about a vacation that she got a call from and she hit the redial and it dialed me. She asked me if I have anything to do with travel agencies I told her no and nobody called from my number. They somehow mask the number they are dialing from to be a local phone number, picked at random somehow. I saw on the news some guy from Florida was working with some people from Mexico running that particular scam.

I in no way will donate a cent to anyone who calls. There are ones from the VFW that call, I do not do those, I talked to the guy from the VfW here, he is a friend, and he said even if they are legit, they give pennies on the dollars to the VA. He said if you donate at the VA by buying an auxilliary membership and you support the VFW and also get benefits from it, they have picnics and a private bar. A lifetime membership is only two hundred fifty bucks. They have cheap drinks there, too bad I don't drink anymore.

The Sherriff and wounded warriors are two more that are scams most times. Some are legit, but which ones and even then, the agencies get pennies on the dollar of your donation.

Dude that is freakin creepy.

a reply to: rickymouse

Just wanted to say you are spot on about the scam and spoofing thing. Ive been getting scam calls like made these past few months and itll always be a local area code number. Even better, they seem to really like to match the first 7 digits including the area code to my number exactly when they spoof.

Which is really crafty because of how typically a family will all have the same first 6 digits in all of their cell numbers depending on if they got phones together at once or not. Theyve almost gotten me with that spoof a few times.

Whats funny is, my number is 8 years old and said area code is no longer local. They also have figured that out somehow and will spoof my new area code in random numbers as well. Super annoying.

Oh and has anyone tried buying a used motorcycle on craigslist lately? I # you not minimum 8 of 10 ads will be scammers trying to get you to send them the money through Amazon and they will deliver the bike. The bike you arent even allowed to check out first rofl. At least in my area this is the case. What a joke. I know like anyone does to be careful of scams on such sites but c'mon it never used to be this rampant.

originally posted by: lightedhype
a reply to: rickymouse

Just wanted to say you are spot on about the scam and spoofing thing. Ive been getting scam calls like made these past few months and itll always be a local area code number. Even better, they seem to really like to match the first 7 digits including the area code to my number exactly when they spoof.

Which is really crafty because of how typically a family will all have the same first 6 digits in all of their cell numbers depending on if they got phones together at once or not. Theyve almost gotten me with that spoof a few times.

Whats funny is, my number is 8 years old and said area code is no longer local. They also have figured that out somehow and will spoof my new area code in random numbers as well. Super annoying.

Oh and has anyone tried buying a used motorcycle on craigslist lately? I # you not minimum 8 of 10 ads will be scammers trying to get you to send them the money through Amazon and they will deliver the bike. The bike you arent even allowed to check out first rofl. At least in my area this is the case. What a joke. I know like anyone does to be careful of scams on such sites but c'mon it never used to be this rampant.

Who would buy a motorcycle without seeing it first or taking it for a test drive, and even then checking to see if the title looks right. I can't understand how we raised such an easily conned generation. Then they feed pills to seniors that block their ability to reason and the scammers are aware of this going on.

a reply to: Tardacus

Unlisted phone numbers are just that, unlisted not secret.
There are a lot of ways to get hold of unlisted phone numbers for someone with a little "know how", and that only from the phone company itself.
You also leave traces after you with every phone call you make, to stores etc, to buy something and the "thing" you're looking for it out-of-stock and you left your number there so they can call you when they got the "thing" in store again. They don't really care if it's an unlisted number and it may stay on their files for years.
Then there are those who sell lists of phone numbers and Personal info (much like they do with email addresses) and you could get phone calls from all over the globe.

I don't buy the callers BS story, not even a tiny little bit. He was reading your name and number from a computer screen or (much less likely) a piece of paper.

Did you ask for his name and number?
Also you shouldn't have confirmed anything. Now he/they got confirmation of an active phone number (and your name and whatever personal details you mentioned) off that list (that I suspect he/they have), with a little check mark at your number, should he/they wanna sell on the list...

Now I don't wanna alarm you, it may be nothing, but should this happen again (and again and again and...) and as I take it you wanna stay "off the grid", I would strongly suggest you, if possible (ie depending on where you live), give up your land line and get one of those so called "burn phones", if you can buy one in the US, with cash and without showing Id that is (otherwise you can be tracked that way). But if you live someplace with bad/no cellphone coverage, and have to stick with the land line, I suggest changing your number....

Had a similar thing here too, but I never answered it at first, I just let the call ring out, and then did our *10# to get the number of the last unanswered call, which I googled and found it was some scam company asking for people by name, and explaining that someone had been in a car accident within the past 3 years at the address they lived at and they may be owed money - then asking for personal details.

I eventually answered it, and this indian guy was persistent that I had been in a car accident within the last 3 years... I played a long for a while, and asked "How do you know anyway?" and he rattled off some nonsense, so I just replied "Very strange, considering I don't own a car."

He promptly changed his attitude and hung up... lol

I don't own a car. and like you, my number is unlisted, and is a landline. I am glad I am on the NBN now, all calls get registered in the router as I have been forced to use voip - no isues so far, and a little more convenient.

But yeah, scam callers.. get them all the time here. If you get their number somehow, without talking with them, just google the number, if it's a known scam usually it is on some register.

a reply to: Tardacus

I always used to get weird and unwanted calls when I had a landline.

If you want to keep it then at least get an answering machine, so you can decide whether or not to pick up.

A little off topic: I got a call on my cell recently from my own cell number they called repeatedly and was really
freaking me out so I looked it up and there is a APP that changes (hides) the callers number to any they choose.

I didn't know that it could happen with texting but it did:

Last night I got a text on my cell saying "you drunken old lady you messed with the wrong people" and that I better sleep with one eye open because they know where I live and you have a lot of enemies you better watch over your shoulder we are coming for you...
I really got nervous... so like a fool I texted back saying you have the wrong person which really egged them on, it continued on their part for 1/2 hour I stopped texting them back.
So I called my son and told him the situation he took the number and looked it up on reverse call and found the number to be part of a scam from a landline in which they used a computer to text random numbers with their hateful garbage? What is the purpose? I don't know. I will be calling Verizon today to see if I have any weird charges on my cell and report the incident. Damn bastards.

a reply to: Tardacus

A few years ago, I was married, at work and then my father and sister got calls from a guy who said he is from the police, that I was missing.
Totally wasn't, registered and everything.
Funny sometimes. I believe it is one of those signs you can assume you have "uninvited attention", but I also might be a bit paranoid. Who knows.
Do you believe in coincidences?

My best guess either a scammer used your name and number (they do that often at random) that they somehow obtained at one point or another OR this guy was a part of a scam group himself pretending to be a nice guy who just wanted to verify your name and number......

Who knows, but yeah that is weird!

-Alee