There's something else that happens called phone spoofing. This happened to us last June when we received 211 calls from all over the US and Canada from furious people who wanted to know why were calling them over and over again. We WEREN"T calling them but our phone number was on their display and they were receiving random calls all day and night for the better part of two full days.
After a few hours of our phone ringing off the hook on day one I decided to answer a random call (didn't know what to expect) on the other end was some roughneck in the Alberta oil patch threatening to find me and beat me up. Another call I answered was what sounded like a very pissed off old lady in Texas "Iiii dooon't neeed thaas!!" she said that. She was as pissed as the guy from Alberta. perhaps she called him asking him to beat me up
I noticed after some time that the calls I answered were no longer calling me back.. I took this as a good thing thinking that me answering was breaking that particular chain. That Friday night I stayed up well into Saturday morning answering calls from all over. By now I had talked to a woman in Chicago who when I told her what was happening said "oh, you're being phone spoofed' I asked her to call me back if she received another call from our number to which she had no problem with. (she was really nice) I never heard back from her so I assumed my theory was right. My wife handled all the calls on Saturday morning while I slept in.
By 2pm the phone had stopped ringing. To this day when I see Florida, Ontario, Montana or wherever I admittingly get a little nervous, but those are just scammers or salesman/women. The guy from Alberta never showed up. Lucky him
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caller_ID_spoofing
