New phone scam where first 3 digits are the same as yours (number spoofing)

It's the old telemarketing long distance scam where if you pick up the call, it'll play a recorded message saying you won a prize from some hotel or airline chain (WestJet, Mariott, etc.) telling you to press 0 or 1.

This time they're using a new trick. Basically, they number spoof the first six digits of your phone number (same area code plus first 3 digits of your phone number). The phone numbers belong to real people, but they're not the ones making the call.

For example, say your number is 604-123-4567.

The calls will either appear as:
604-123-**** (local spoof)
+60 4-123-**** (spoof of a number from Malaysia)

I've started to ignore every call that starts with the first 6 digits of my cell.

 

Thank you for this. I have had a number of these calls. You think it's local because it shares the first 3 digits as your own number.

 

Started getting these Westjet calls last week. I was wondering why it was always the same first 3 numbers as me.

 

... i mainly get strange text messages. the worst culprit was facebook ...

... i'd get several messages every day which had nothing to do with me (which were costing me 50 cents each) and for the life of me i couldn't find a way to shut them off. finally i contacted the phone company and they gave me a secret code to send facebook and that worked ...

 

These phone scammers calling us with spoof numbers forty times a week all deserve a slow and painful death, their fingers cut off with machetes, their eyes pulled out with dentist tools, their vocal cords torn up by a levy, arms in a tree chopper and legs cut off with a chainsaw

 

The solution is very simple. buy a Panxxxxxxx cordless phone. In settings, go to "Call Block", go to "Block range of numbers" and set the fist 6 digit number of yours in.(Example: yours number is 604-123-4567, then you set the phone to block all incoming calls with 604123, that's it. The phone will block all call start with area code 604, follow by 123. So doesn't matter what the scammer change the last 4 digits, the phone will block it.