Malicious phone call ...... with a twist

[rigga]

At work currently, and just had a call off the wife to report something strange has just happened.
Son was out with his girlfriend, and received a call on his mobile from my wife, her caller id, picture, number etc, except there was a man's voice on the phone saying "we are at your home watching you "
He obviously freaks out and races home, as it happens a passing police van was flagged down and diverted.
When arriving at home, its very apparent the call was not made by my wife, who is oblivious to all this, and is happily watching a film. Police are non the wiser what's happened, and as there is nothing amiss, have left.
Wife has double checked sons phone, and the call does seem to have apparently originated from her, but it didnt!
I think its one of his ttty mates winding him up, and I know he has the wife's number as he's rung before, so if my suspicion is correct ...
Hows he bloody done it? .

[m3jappa]

Pretty sure its one of the prank apps, i had it done to me and done to others via me, although not as sinister as that though tbh.

Basically app calls you and whoevers details are put in making it appear its come from that person. Did he hang up or let the call go through as the one i have had done says at the end you've been pranked.

[rigga]

No mention of it being a prank call, just how it was described to me, so suspect call ended.

[eltawater]

Maybe someone called your son with a VOIP call and spoofed the Caller ID to be that of your wife's number?

If the receiving mobile just matches up the Caller ID number as your wife's number, not sure it's smart enough to identify it as spoofed and would presumably just pull all the usual contact picture etc out of the local phone contacts book?

[shopper150]

Perhaps an additional number has been added to her contact on his phone?

[Gromm]

Let me guess she has an Android OS phone? Most likely she unwittingly installed one of these malicious apps or it was compromised by myriads of cyberims/script kiddies. It may be a good idea to install and run one of free antivirus apps and then update to the latest Android OS.

Edited by Gromm on Saturday 28th December 21:55

[anonymous-user]

numbers can be spoofed.

[rigga]

Gromm said:

Let me guess she has an Android OS phone? Most likely she unwittingly installed one of these malicious apps or it was compromised by myriads of cyberims/script kiddies. It may be a good idea to install and run one of free antivirus apps and then update to the latest Android OS.

Edited by Gromm on Saturday 28th December 21:55

No, wife has iPhone, son has a android Samsung A40 which he had for Christmas, just swapped his sim and memory cards over from his previous phone.

[rigga]

Thesprucegoose said:

numbers can be spoofed.

Yes ive been reading up on that, but its the full caller id thats puzzling me, picture and everything came up on his phone, although if his phone received a number that matched the stored contact on his sim, then that would explain it.

[Defcon5]

It’s someone taking the mickey.

They are using one of the numerous methods to spoof the CLI that is received by the recipient of a phone call.

Phone networks accept an incoming CLI as true, there is no verification, so they just send the details to your sons handset as they have received it and he handset has matched it to a stored contact.

Its definitely someone who knows both your sons and wife’s number though!

[FunkyNige]

rigga said:

Thesprucegoose said:

numbers can be spoofed.

Yes ive been reading up on that, but its the full caller id thats puzzling me, picture and everything came up on his phone, although if his phone received a number that matched the stored contact on his sim, then that would explain it.

That's exactly what has happened - it was on TV a few weeks back where fraudsters were spoofing the number they were phoning from to look like a bank. In your son's case they spoofed it to look like your wife's phone number and his phone would just assume it's your wife phoning.

[boxst]

FunkyNige said:

rigga said:

Thesprucegoose said:

numbers can be spoofed.

Yes ive been reading up on that, but its the full caller id thats puzzling me, picture and everything came up on his phone, although if his phone received a number that matched the stored contact on his sim, then that would explain it.

That's exactly what has happened - it was on TV a few weeks back where fraudsters were spoofing the number they were phoning from to look like a bank. In your son's case they spoofed it to look like your wife's phone number and his phone would just assume it's your wife phoning.

That. I used to play with these kind of things years ago where the networks were not very smart with caller id. I had it in my mind that it was illegal in the UK to fake a number for the last couple of years but maybe I just dreamt that.

[Gromm]

rigga said:

Gromm said:

Let me guess she has an Android OS phone? Most likely she unwittingly installed one of these malicious apps or it was compromised by myriads of cyberims/script kiddies. It may be a good idea to install and run one of free antivirus apps and then update to the latest Android OS.

Edited by Gromm on Saturday 28th December 21:55

No, wife has iPhone, son has a android Samsung A40 which he had for Christmas, just swapped his sim and memory cards over from his previous phone.

Interesting, and yes numbers could be spoofed and your Mrs's sim could've been cloned, however I think it’s one of these rogue apps. Can you please clarify whether the call got registered in your Mrs outgoing calls?

[rigga]

No call was registered on the wife's phone at any point during the evening

[rigga]

I strongly suspect its my sons so called "mate ", who in the past has pretended to be someone threatening my son for a laugh, withheld the number at that point, but son has autism, anxiety issues and adhd, which when confronted by issues like this sends him into a meltdown, this mate knows this.

[ging84]

rigga said:

Yes ive been reading up on that, but its the full caller id thats puzzling me, picture and everything came up on his phone, although if his phone received a number that matched the stored contact on his sim, then that would explain it.

There is no 'full caller id' there is just the number, It is the software on the phone that matches the number to one in your contacts and and displays a name and photo if it has them. So when the number is spoofed, all that happens just the same as if the real person was calling.

[rigga]

ging84 said:

rigga said:

Yes ive been reading up on that, but its the full caller id thats puzzling me, picture and everything came up on his phone, although if his phone received a number that matched the stored contact on his sim, then that would explain it.

There is no 'full caller id' there is just the number, It is the software on the phone that matches the number to one in your contacts and and displays a name and photo if it has them. So when the number is spoofed, all that happens just the same as if the real person was calling.

Which is what I said .....

[ging84]

rigga said:

Which is what I said .....

I misunderstood your post, i thought you were still confused about it.

[anonymous-user]

Relatively easy to spoof a CLI, but illegal.
Actual caller can probably be traced, if there is malicious intent & you want to pursue..

[rigga]

Wife is ringing O2 tomorrow morning to ask some questions, son is with Tesco who use O2 also which may help.