What is going on with my number

[Redders]

Has anyone any ideas about this, I have had the same number on 3 for over 10 years, in the last few days 3 People have rang me up and said I have just rang them checking my call logs. I had not, I don't even know who the people are. I have just done a reverse call lookup on my number only to see on there it says it is owned by EE/Vodafone, how can this be and who is ringing these people.

[MZone · Accepted solution]

Your number is probably been used by scammers to spoof other people. So when they message/call people it shows your number as the caller rather than theirs. They usually go through loads of different numbers so would imagine they will move on from using yours soon and then you will stop getting people calling you. 

[JonathanB]

@MZone is spot on here, unfortunately illegal software is used to impersonate random UK numbers by internationally based scammers, in order to hide that the call is coming from abroad. There's usually nothing personal in the number picked, my impression from discussing this with Fraud Intelligence specialists is that the scammers simply don't realise that receiving a mobile call from a large organisation like Three (or other networks) is pretty much as suspicious as if the call were showing an International number. They also tend to change the number frequently, as they'll be attempting to evade being tracked by Fraud prevention teams and organisations.

Here's a page which covers more info about common fraud, including "spoofing" which is the term used to describe faking caller ID.

Thanks,
Jonathan