HELP: Someone else is using my mobile number!

AlfieBear

I hope someone can help with this. Over the last two weeks, I have received calls & texts from +4176 & +4177 numbers. I finally answered a call yesterday out of interest & this girl told me she had been receiving calls & a text from my mobile number. Said she was from Switzerland! I asked her to forward me the text that she had received from my number & this is what it said:

"YOU HAVE WON 530,000 POUNDS IN THE FACEBOOK HAPPY PROMO, WINNING NO:FB1112, FOR CLAIM SEND EMAIL TO: facebook@megawealthconsultant.com OR CALL +447035905064"

Obviously I did not send this. I rang Vodafone and they obviously have no record of me sending a text to or ringing these numbers. They said that there's not much that they can do. The girl there did try to google the mega wealth consultants but nothing showed up. I received another call this morning at 08.30 from another +41 number. Can anyone please advise me on this? How did they get my number? Is there a contact for facebook support that I can email? Will I just change my mobile number even though I've had it for years? has anyone else had this issue? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

biko

447035905064 - your number is UK?
The scammers might use a internet service to send these text spams out and just randomly typed in a "from" number which happened to be yours.
At least now the poor folks they scam aren't ringing the actual scammers.

Google the phone number, it shows up on a few sites
http://scam-detector.com/social-networking-scams/facebook-account-winner
http://www.419scam.org/419-phone-2012-04.htm
http://whocallsme.com/Phone-Number.aspx/447035905064

Pat Mustard

AlfieBear wrote: »

I hope someone can help with this. Over the last two weeks, I have received calls & texts from +4176 & +4177 numbers. I finally answered a call yesterday out of interest & this girl told me she had been receiving calls & a text from my mobile number. Said she was from Switzerland! I asked her to forward me the text that she had received from my number & this is what it said:

"YOU HAVE WON 530,000 POUNDS IN THE FACEBOOK HAPPY PROMO, WINNING NO:FB1112, FOR CLAIM SEND EMAIL TO: facebook@megawealthconsultant.com OR CALL +447035905064"

Obviously I did not send this. I rang Vodafone and they obviously have no record of me sending a text to or ringing these numbers. They said that there's not much that they can do. The girl there did try to google the mega wealth consultants but nothing showed up. I received another call this morning at 08.30 from another +41 number. Can anyone please advise me on this? How did they get my number? Is there a contact for facebook support that I can email? Will I just change my mobile number even though I've had it for years? has anyone else had this issue? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

http://www.419scam.org/emails/2011-10/29/00074871.1.htm
Nigerian fake lottery scam, apparently.

Looks like they are spoofing your mobile number, which seems to be backfiring on them since the victims are contacting you instead of them.

Contact Comreg and see if they can/will do anything about it.

Email vodafone and ask them to give you a written response about what they intend to do about it, as they seem to have fobbed you off.

Email facebook with the details and see if they are willing to do anything about the fact that these guys are scamming people using the facebook name. Considering the manpower and resources available to facebook, it might work.

Ignore calls and texts from Switzerland for the time being and see if any of the above will work.

Pat Mustard

Just one thing, to be clear. Your number isn't +447035905064, is it?

There is obviously no point in contacting Comreg (which is Irish) in relation to a UK number. Maybe you could get on to the UK telecomms regulator, though.

AlfieBear

Hi guys, thanks for the replies! No my number is not a 0044 one.
I have an Irish mobile number but these girls are claiming that they are receiving texts from my Irish number and the text contains the UK mobile number! I will def do what ye are suggesting & see what happens. Thanks!

Pat Mustard

The one thing that does not make sense to me is that the scammers are using your number at all. If they use your number as part of their scam, then they are diverting their victims to you, and when those victims contact you, they become aware of the fact that this is a scam.

In short, the scammers appear to have nothing to gain by spoofing your number.

So that part does not make sense at this point.

Could you google the Swiss numbers that came in to your phone and see if anything unusual shows up?

AlfieBear

@The Mustard - I did Google the Swiss numbers but nothing showed up for them. I rang Vodafone again this morn & the girl was very helpful. She seems to think that the Swiss girls are also involved in the scam and by suggesting that I am sending them texts, they are trying to get me involved in doing something for them? She was saying that these guys are probably randomly putting together digits and hoping that they will get in contact with someone. What I dont understand is how they got my mobile number? I dont have it on facebook, I checked that this morn. I am in the process of contacting ComReg so hopefully they will do something. I cannot find a contact email for Facebook support though?

Pat Mustard

Maybe the scam is that if you call or text the Swiss number, you pay a premium rate and that's how they make money.

In any case, I wouldn't contact the Swiss number in any way.

My guess is that they'll give up eventually.

To contact facebook: https://www.facebook.com/report/

ballooba

If you have a an account for sending bulk sms you can often specify the sender ID. These messages could have originated from anywhere. It would be difficult to trace and would have to start from the recipient's end. It has nothing to do with your phone company or Facebook.

Pat Mustard

ballooba wrote: »

If you have a an account for sending bulk sms you can often specify the sender ID. These messages could have originated from anywhere. It would be difficult to trace and would have to start from the recipient's end. It has nothing to do with your phone company or Facebook.

That is interesting with regard to how the OP's number could have been used, but it doesn't explain the motivation for why it would have been used.

It makes more sense that the people who are supposedly ringing from Switzerland are the con artists.

Sponge Bob

ballooba wrote: »

These messages could have originated from anywhere. It would be difficult to trace and would have to start from the recipient's end. It has nothing to do with your phone company or Facebook.

Exactly. You were just unlucky OP.

On the other hand some stupid people actually went to the expense of contacting you!

nava

As others said, they could be just using a software to send the txt and using your number as the sender.

Also worth checking your webtext allocation, could be someone hacked on your webtext account and used it to send the txt's, in that case change your password straight away and contact your operator.

BurnsCarpenter

It's very likely that your online mobile account has been hacked and used to send out scam web texts. This is quite common at the moment.

I'd go back to Vodafone and check if that might be it.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/0208/o2.html

picturehangup

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but today I received a call from Lombard finance, asking for (insert name) to call them back.
They were looking for someone, mentioned the name, but it was not me. I told them this, and I asked them to verify the details this other person had given them, and lo and behold, they had fraudulently given them my mobile number. I had been receiving strange calls from down the country, asking for (insert name) to call them back. Getting a bit creepy now, rang the Gardai and they are looking into it for me. Does this amount to identity theft, and what should I do about it? Has anyone else had this happen to them?

picturehangup