Hello Martina123,
Welcome to the community!
I'm sorry to hear you've received calls from people thinking you've been calling them. The calls are made by scammers or spammers using spoofed numbers. In your case, they happen to have spoofed your phone number. Unfortunately, there isn't much that can be done to prevent numbers from being spoofed. Even the RCMP are not immune to being spoofed (see here and here). Unfortunately, there isn't much providers can do to prevent SPAM calls either. As you are aware, the numbers shown on caller ID do not belong to the spammers. They often belong to innocent, unsuspecting people -- such as yourself. That makes it difficult to track and apprehend the scammers/spammers.
In addition to the spammers/scammers spoofing the numbers of banks, the CRA, collection agencies, mobile providers, etc, they will also spoof phone numbers within their target range to make potential victims think the calls are coming from people they might know. Since your area code/prefix is for Fido (unless you ported from another provider), many of the calls will also appear to come from Fido phone numbers. It's called Neighbour spoofing (see here). In some instances, the spammers/scammers will use the recipients' own phone numbers to make the calls, called mirroring. Those are just the phone numbers the spammers/scammers chose to spoof. As mentioned, there isn't much that can be done to prevent numbers from being spoofed. The calls are generally made using IP calling services and the numbers are spoofed before they even enter the call network (see image here).
The mobile providers have implemented Universal Call Blocking which is meant to block calls from malformed phone numbers. That said, I'm doubtful whether it will have much of an effect on the amount of SPAM or SCAM calls since many of them appear to have properly formed phone numbers. In addition, STIR/SHAKEN (Secure Telephone Identity Revisited/Signature-based Handling of Asserted Information Using Tokens) has also been adopted to further reduce the amount of nuisance calls (see here). However, I have my doubts as to whether those measures will reduce the amount of SPAM calls. My understanding is the STIR/SHAKEN will only identify possible SPAM calls and mark the calls as suspected SPAM. As you noted, the device of the person returning your supposed call showed likely SPAM. STIR/SHAKEN is working to identify calls with spoofed numbers, as intended.
Unfortunately, I don't think there is a suitable solution to this problem. I think steps are being made to make IP calling services accountable for scammers/spammers abusing their services. However, some of those services likely originate from overseas. It is unlikely regulations imposed in North America will be enforceable abroad.
Hope this helps 😀
Cheers
Hello again,
Unfortunately, I don't think blocking IP calls or IP calling is feasible. In this day and age most, if not all, calls are transmitted over the internet via some sort of IP calling for at least some portion of the call. For example, voice-over-LTE (voLTE) and Wifi-calls use the internet (via the mobile providers' gateway) to transmit calls (ie see graphic here). In addition, most calls from so-called land-lines are also likely sent over the internet (see here). I'm not sure how many calls still use the old Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN).
The IP calling services to which I referred in my previous reply are providers without traditional land-line or cellular networks. It would not be possible to block calls to or from those providers as anyone can port their number to one of those services. In addition, the vast majority of the customers using those IP calling services do not have any nefarious intent.
Alas, it is not possible to determine whether a particular IP call is legitimate or SPAM/SCAM. The current technology can only identify whether a call may be possible SCAM and/or SPAM.
Hope this helps 😀
Cheers
