Configured Obi200 yesterday. A local man is receiving calls from my home #

[picante]

I currently have Charter/Optimum phone service. Yesterday I did a trial run connecting and configuring the Obi200, which I undid hours later because I wound up hearing the annoying echo that people have mentioned in Amazon reviews.

I had my new Google Voice account as provider #1. It forwards to my Charter landline.

This morning a local guy called to find out who I was. It seems he's been getting calls from my Charter number. I haven't been making those calls, and they don't appear on my Charter calls list, which I consulted online.

Anyone ever had this happen? What the heck is causing it? Did the Obi configuration wizard reconfigure my modem so it came to life and started calling him? Is my number calling other people, too?

The guy who called told me he's using Google Voice, too. That's the only connection we found between us. He uses it for his business. I don't think there are many GV users around here.

Thanks to anyone who has encountered this mystery and can explain.
picante

[SteveInWA]

The very likely explanation, based on these calls not showing up when you examined your Charter account, is that this is unrelated to your recent Google Voice experiment.  Most likely, someone is spoofing your Charter phone number to make spam calls.

Did the other person tell you whether these were legitimate callers, or if they were the typical junk robocalls?

If the calls are junk, and you don't see them on your Charter account, then it's number spoofing, which is rampant.  Just in the past 24 hours, I got three of them on my Callcentric numbers. One was spoofing a private/consumer's number, one was spoofing a breast cancer hotline, and another was spoofing some random company.  It's a plague.

[picante]

Did the other person tell you whether these were legitimate callers, or if they were the typical junk robocalls?

Thanks, Steve, I'll ask him tomorrow when I call to find out whether the calls have stopped. I reset my Charter modem today, in case it was that.

If someone is spoofing my number, I assume Charter is who I have to contact next?

[SteveInWA]

If the calls return, it's spoofing.  There's nothing you can do about it, unfortunately.  It happens to everyone.

Just for the heck of it, I suggest you change your Charter password.  Use a long, strong password, and don't use the same password on more than one website.

[picante]

He's not getting calls anymore from my number. I assume other people could be, though, and my password was an annoying one to type in, so I did as you suggested. Thanks,
-picante

[Lavarock7]

It is not unusual for telemarketers to spoof a number in your exchange or area code. I have received calls like that both from valid numbers and from exchanges not yet enabled in my area code. Here in Hawaii, many people use cellphones the brought when they moved here and those cells have mainland area codes (not 808). Thus when I see a call come in from my telephone exchange I can almost always guarantee it is a spoofed number.