01/27/2018
This is happening, please read and be aware.
“Many people these days are noticing they are missing phone calls from what appears to be a local phone number on their caller ID however when they call that number back, they find that the person who actually owns the number says they never called them. This shady technique seems to have gained recent popularity with telemarketers, especially when they call a mobile phone number.
What seems to be going on is that when a telemarketer calls someone, they "spoof" a local cell phone number in an attempt to fool people into thinking the caller might be someone they know in order to increase the odds the called person will answer. What that means is that the telemarketers are able to hide the actual phone number they call from by replacing it with a random number they know to be local to the area they are calling. For instance, if you have a cell phone number with the "512" prefix, a telemarketer will use an application to replace their actual phone number with another random "512" prefix number when they call you. The person who actually owns the number they are spoofing then has no idea that their number is being used to call you so if you were to call the number back, that person will tell you they never called you, which is indeed true.
Please keep this in mind if this happens to you. The person whose number is being spoofed in these instances is being harassed much the same as the person who initially receives the spoofed call. Telemarketers sometimes pick a number and use it to call several different people, which then many times causes the owner of the number to receive a lot of calls from people who claim to have received a call from them that they never made.
If you find that you've missed a call from a local number that you are not familiar with, it might be a good idea to just not call that number back immediately and simply take the call if they were to call again, especially if you think you may have legitimately missed a call from someone you know.”