[kr0bat]

I consider myself technically inclined, yet up until today I didn't realize numbers COULD be spoofed

One day a few months ago I woke up to a missed call from a verified number. I had been in a car crash the night before, and I was worried I missed a call from the driver's insurance company.

I called them back, and I was told that I was talking to a civil engineering firm; the receptionist was polite, but she sounded even more confused than I was. I had googled the number while I was on the phone, and yup, it belonged to a civie firm.

At the time I just assumed some engineer fat fingered my number by mistake, but I guess I missed a call from "Amazon" or "your insurance company" or some other nonsense. Funnily enough an insurance scam might have gotten me in the state I was in.

[ghaff]

And, in fact, there are good reasons to spoof numbers. For example, a company may want all/many numbers to look like they come from a company's central exchange as opposed to an individual person's desk.

[lostmsu]

That can be achieved through proxying.