Something's calling a number on my line... NOT ME!

[Unobtanium]

I've received about 3 calls from a person's cell phone that I've never met before, twice waking me up, accusing me of calling her at 3:30 in the morning! She said this has been happening for two to 3 weeks. From what I could gather after further questioning, the span between calls is random, but the time of call is always approximately the same. She lives in a state bordering mine, and no one else has ever complained of this. As for my situation, I live alone, have a fax machine, and a network with one wired computer and one tablet pc connected to a wireless network (password protected, changed from default etc). I connect through a dsl modem then to a wireless router then wired to computer. Have any of you heard anything like this? My first thought was maybe I faxed her in the fax machine... not so. Next I wondered if some trojan on my computer could be either going through the DSL to my phone line somehow (I'm a CS minor so I'm not that up on things...), or perhaps is going through my wireless and picking up a portable phone signal (would sound more like a random interference than a virus, but its obviously not). So, I'm going to keep in contact with her, make sure it does happen a few more times, turn off both computers at night, and if it stops, see if I can narrow it down to one. I do a lot of P2P (college kid) so I'll take the inconvenience out of interest. I'm sorry if this is the wrong forum, but this was the first place that came up on a google search for virus discussion forum, so if I'm wrong your forum's doing good! Ikeep Mcaffee and adware programs up to date and scanning regularly. Windows is updated as well and I'm behind a zone alarm firewall. I'm very curious, you guys seemed pretty informed, so I hope you can help or at least have fun speculating!
-Thanks

 

[sleipnir214]

Or maybe someone is screwing around with a PBX.

Keep in mind that, similarly to an e-mail's sender, a phone call's caller ID data is completely arbitrary. If someone has the access to program on a PBX, it is trivial to tweak the caller ID settings on the PBX so that a phone call coming out of it looks like it comes from someone else.

Do you know anyone who can progam a PBX, was up at those times, and who likes to pull pranks on you?


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[eyec]

there are other sites/services that offer caller id spoofing.

where you call a number then input the telephone number you want to show up on the person's caller id and viola - you just called someone's exgirlfriend and dumped on her but someone else gets blamed.

google caller id spoofing to see what i mean.

 

[SamBones]

Here's a USA Today article about caller ID spoofing. It even includes a description of a "prank" exectly like what's happening to you.

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2006-03-01-caller-id_x.htm

When she gets the call, does someone talk? Is it just silent? Is a modem screaming? That could determine what's originating the calls.

No matter what it is, it's something someone is doing to HER, not you. You're just an innocent victim. She needs to think about who might want to play a joke on her like that. Also, she can get different features from her phone company, things like selective call blocking and anonymous call blocking. She could block the your number and that might stop this spoofed ID call.

Just some thoughts.

 

[airbourne]

You might want to check your phone bill for outgoing messages. If you live in a college dorm or some sort of college apartment setting, or even with a roommate, it could also be a simple matter of your line being tapped by a neighbor.

Example, my friend lived in an apt, and his neighbor knew where my friend always answered the phone and so the neighbor cut a small hole in the wall, cut the wire, connected it to a jack, and plugged in his phone to my friends phone line. Because he completed the circuit and the neighbor only made phone calls when my friend was asleep or away, my friend could never figure out where those calls were comming from. He only discovered the problem when he heard his neighbors phone ring at exactly the same time. You can guess what happened after he unplugged his phone and called himself using my cell phone...

Another possible question is do you have a 2.4 or a 5.8 GHz phone that can be expanded? Maybe your neighbor has that same phone and it picks up your base unit. Though you should see an extra handset listed on your phone display.

Example: Uniden Powermax 5.8 GHz is a digital expandable phone that you can buy remote units for that do not require being plugged into a phone jack to work, they expand of an existing base unit.

 

[dglienna]

Have her dial *69 the next time that it happens. If she doesn't get you, then she should call to report it to the authorities. If she does get you, then it is coming from your line. Is any computer connected to a phone line (for faxing?)

Viruses have been known to dial out.

-David
2006 Microsoft Valueable Professional (MVP)
2006 Dell Certified System Professional (CSP)