A Real Story Of Tragedy: I Am A Victim Of Caller ID Spoofing

What’s the first thing you do when you receive a call? You look at the caller ID.

Robocallers and scammers spoof the names and numbers on the small screen to hide their identity and make you feel more comfortable to answer the phone.

On Tuesday, the Federal Trade Commission and 10 states drilled the last hole in the bow of a large Caribbean Cruise Line robocall operation that allegedly pushed out 12 to 15 million illegal calls a day to Americans around the country, including New Jersey. Five companies, and their owner Fred Accuradi, were charged with helping telemarketers change the number on Caller ID screens, regulators said. New Jersey was not part of the case.

It is with the heaviest of hearts that I announce to you that my personal phone number has been violated. That’s right. Me. The nice guy. My phone number is being used to call hundreds, thousands, maybe even multiple billions of people every day.

“Hey Chaps. How’d this happen to you, my good bitcc?”

Great question. Let’s investigate.

Investigation complete. I have no fucking idea. All I know is that I’m getting TONS of people calling me every day saying that they are returning my call about an inquiry into their credit. I don’t give the first shit or even half of a fuck about anyone else’s credit. I promise you that.

I went to AT&T. I actually drove my stupid ass to a brick and mortar store like an old. They looked at me like I had a dick growing out of my forehead when I told them my complaint. They didn’t care. It hurt. They told me my options were to call Apple or to change my phone number. We’ll get back to that in a second.

I spoke to Apple. They told me there wasn’t anything they could do because it was an issue that was strictly related to the phone number. That made sense.

I went back to AT&T. Again, they told me that the only thing I could really do is change my number.

Changing your number is fucking HORRIFIC. HORRIFIC. I’ve had this number for like 15 years. Friends from college, friends from the Marine Corps, people who I don’t ever even think about anymore, all those people have my number. Trying to figure out who text to let them know I’m getting a new number is daunting. I hate getting the “I got my number changed” text. Will people feel that way about me?

Will someone be driving and look at their phone and see “hey pal. This is Chaps. Got a new number” text from me and throw their phone back down on the seat and think, “DGAF, Chaps. Eat a dick, bro.”

God I fucking hope not but I’m not sure I have another choice.

This is the worst thing that’s ever happened to me. I’m shook.

That being said, my phone number might be closing but my venmo account wont be affected. I wanna squash that before the rumors even start.