My cell number showing up on caller ID as someone else
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Anonymous
| I just called my husband at work on his landline and he noticed that my phone number on his caller ID showed up as a different person (my number, but it said I was Jane Doe for example). I have had this cell number for over 10 years. I did a search online and that phone number does indeed show up as a Jane Doe in Manassas (I live in Arlington), with a PO Box. Now I am freaked out. I called Verizon Wireless, they said I am the only one with the number and my account is secure. Anyone know how this could happen and is this a sign that my identity is stolen???? |
FruminousBandersnatch
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Does it show up that way consistently - i.e., on your husband's phone multiple times and on other people's phones? It's possible that it's simply an error, and it may not be Verizon's error. There may be a caller id service that has a database of names/numbers, and they could've made the error. Do you get phone calls looking for Jane Doe on your phone? Not yet time to panic about identity theft. If you see any other signs that make you worry about identity theft, you can put a temporary alert on your credit report if you're concerned. See, for example, https://www.alerts.equifax.com/AutoFraud_Online/jsp/fraudAlert.jsp |
Anonymous
| For Sprint I can go online and set any name to show up. Have you checked your settings on line? |
Anonymous
|
I have called husbands number several times as a test and he says every time it shows up as this "Jane doe". When I call someone whose cell phone has me as a contact, I show up correctly. Verizon said they have only me as having that number and that no one has tried to access the account.
My husband's work landline apparently is actually an Internet phone connection, so it goes through the Internet. When I google my cell number, there are hits that show my number belongs to this Jane doe in Manassas with a PO Box as an address. It is all very weird. |
Anonymous
| Maybe the other lady signed up for some service, your numbers are similar and she mistyped. |
Anonymous
| I'm not sure how caller ID works for cell phones but when I first got my current number it showed my name as someone else when I called my mom, but not when I called other people. It was like that for awhile and I'm not sure if it still is. |
Anonymous
| I didn't think Verizon mobile phone showed names. Mine just shows my phone number (as does my husband's) on caller ID. |
Anonymous
| OP here, I have had this cell number for 13 years. The issue is happening when I call a land line that has traditional caller ID. I haven't had it happen to the caller ID of a cell phone I call yet because the cell phones I have been calling are people i already know, so my number is in their contacts and it automatically shows us via the contacts as me. But when I called my husband at his office, which is a landline, he noticed today suddenly the caller ID said I was this "Jane Doe" and when I google my cell number in a reverse phone number search i infact get that same person's name as having my number |
Anonymous
| Contact the FCC and see if they know of any scams like this. They have a Consumer Bureau and you can either call in or send them an email. Go to www FCC.gov. Click on a Bureaus and offices. Cluck in Consumer and Givt Affairs Bureau. It will tell you how to contact them. They are great. |
Anonymous
| Just go to the Verizon store. You can have them set the caller if of what your cell phone should read. |
Anonymous
| Check it on your carriers website. I changed mine to Batman for a few months once. They must scan for fun names like that every so often because I became "wireless caller" before too long. |
Anonymous
| Same thing happened to me for awhile. My cell phone would show up on our home phone caller ID as my then-2 year old's name. No one else in our family has the same name as DS so I have no idea what happened. |
Anonymous
| se |
Anonymous
| I would change your number as a matter of security. |
Anonymous
| Relax no one else has your number and your identity has not been stolen. Caller ID is a very old and disjointed system. There is not one database with everyone's name and number in it. Instead there are MANY databases and they are not synched well. The best you can do is to make sure your carrier has the correct name associated with your number and hope that at some point this will be propagated across all the other databases. It's really not a big problem these days because everyone's cell phone uses their contacts to associate a name with a number; no old databases involved. |