Yesterday, while I was out of town working at a client, I received a text message from my mom asking if everything was ok. I replied with with, “Yes. Why?”. She told me she just received a call from my phone number, but it wasn’t me. Caller on the other end said he had a note on his car because I hit it and left this number. He was angry and used profanity at her. She hung up on the call, and and that’s when she messaged me.
That started to freak us both out. The only logical way she could have received a call from my number (which is a google voice number) would either be from the physical phone in my house, or access to the google voice app on my phone or tablet. Since I was about an hour away from my house and had possession of my phone, I asked if she could take a drive by my house and make sure was wasn’t broken in to. Her and my dad went over to it and everything was secure.
When I got back home later in the day, I did a complete walk through of the house and nothing was disrupted. I checked the call log on the physical phone and my parents were not dialed from that phone.
So I’ve spent a good amount of time in the evening trying to figure out how this could have happened with no conclusions. I’ll have to change the account password, but the password was changed a few weeks ago, as well as enabling 2 factor authentication. My google voice history does not show any calls at that time. So I’m guessing someone spoofed the number, but how would they know a number that I call frequently?
Either there is a security issue with google voice, or it’s some kind of identity theft and someone has knowledge of this personal information about me. Either way, it’s a bit unsettling.
Have you given your Google Voice number to any online businesses? This sounds to me like it was more likely a phishing scheme, someone trying to gather information to answer security questions on one of your online accounts. I’d consider running through a few of your more important accounts (email, banking, domain registrar, etc) and update passwords and security questions.
Faking your GV number is pretty easy, they wouldn’t need access to your Google account to do that. Your GV is only as secure as your Google account though… I’d also consider enabling two-factor authentication if you haven’t yet.
Jameson-
As I stated, my account was setup with a new, strong password and 2 factor authentication about a month ago. And I realize spoofing a number is maeg easy, but they targeted a number a of someone I know using my (assumed) spoofed number. Overall it’s very strange. I will be monitoring sensitive accounts closely.
Perhaps they found your mother’s number in whitepages based on your last name.
I agree though… very strange scenario.