In May and June of 2022, the SAU information technology team has received reports from staff members of people calling and complaining that they received spam calls or robocalls that appear to come from SAU's phone numbers or from that person's phone number. This is not the first time this has happened, but it has been a while since the last round of calls like this. Unfortunately, there is a security vulnerability that affects almost every phone number in the world where anyone can impersonate someone else's phone number on outbound calls. Many would say this is just a convenient feature of digital phone calls, but it is primarily used for spam. There is no way for SAU to prevent this, but the FCC can take legal action against people doing this in some circumstances. If the FCC can't get to the person spoofing a number, then they will generally fine the phone company that the person is calling through which will eventually stop these calls.
It is likely that someone selected a block of numbers that SAU uses because they start with "517" and they are pretending to call with SAU's phone numbers to people in the Jackson area to trick people into picking up local phone numbers. If you get a voicemail or phone call from someone complaining that you called them when you did not, then that means someone spoofed your phone number when they were actually calling from a different phone number. If someone returns that spam call, the call will go to you and not to the original caller as they only spoofed your phone number and don't have access to your actual phone number.
What you can do:
- If you think you are a victim of fraud or you have fallen victim to a scam, you should contact the fraud division at your local police department as soon as possible.
- If someone calls you and complains that "you called them," you should tell that person to ask their phone company to perform a traceback on the spoofed call. A traceback allows phone companies to report specific suspicious activity from their customers and allows the FCC to hold the originating phone company responsible for using a number that they don't have permission to use. This will allow the FCC to uncover the true originating carrier of the spoofed calls and take legal action when appropriate.
- You are welcome to share this page with someone that reports this issue to you (spamcalls.arbor.edu is the shorter link to get here)
- In general, if you ever get a call from a legitimate business you should assume that the person calling you is trying to scam you unless you initiated the call. This is why banks or hospitals tell you to call them if you are concerned about fraud, and why you shouldn't provide personal information to someone that called you first even if you recognize the phone number or have it saved in your contacts.
More information:
The best way to contact the SAU Information Technology team is by sending an email to helpdesk@arbor.edu.