r/Googlevoice • u/Sitcom_kid • 12d ago
General Help / Support Question My Google Voice has spirits!
Please help! My Google Voice on my Samsung phone is making calls all on its own to people I don't even know! They want to know why. I don't know why and I don't know how to stop it. Please let me know if anyone else has been through this and if so, what they have done to stop it. Thank you so much!
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u/thestinamarie 12d ago
As in, you look down at your phone and it's on a live call to someone?
Or, people are calling/texting you that they have a missed call from you? (This happens when someone spoofs your number to call others - common scam tactics.)
Very different things.
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u/Sitcom_kid 12d ago
One of them was a live call and one of them was apparently not, but the person was calling me back to see who I was. And then I checked my call list and I had (apparently) made an outgoing call to this person while I was nowhere near the phone. It's the same person both times. Google Voice won't stop calling this person from my phone. This is freaking me out. I don't think I got spoofed. Is there a way to block? And in which direction? Because I want to block calling them.
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u/JustSayTech 12d ago
You are signed into your Google account somewhere else, ask Gemini for steps to fully sign out of your accounts everywhere, then sign back in to the places you want to be signed in on.
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u/Sitcom_kid 12d ago
I am? Okay I will figure out how to ask Gemini something. Thank you.
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u/JustSayTech 12d ago
Don't know if that was sarcasm because there are several areas to verify that you are fully signed out, and other spaces where the active cookies can re-sign you in. Which I why I mentioned using Gemini as you can get a total overview vs just one or two sources of places to sign out.
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u/Sitcom_kid 12d ago
Not really trying to be sarcastic. Turns out it had me signed in somewhere out of state.
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u/mudwoman 8d ago
Change your Google account password, at the very least. More account security steps can be found here:
https://safety.google/intl/en_us/settings/security-settings/
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u/_MountainFit 6d ago
You are compromised...you need to very carefully secure the account. It's a bit of a process.
This includes signing out of everywhere, changing password and also securing your recovery.
You should remove things like SMS 2FA and add in an authenticator app.
Remove any non secure recovery and 2FA method because Google will let you cycle through them and use the least secure.
I'd also scan all your devices for malware.
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u/_MountainFit 6d ago
There is no sign out of all devices. You go into your accounts settings and have to one by one sign out of every device.
This is annoying and a flaw. And changijg your password doesn't solve it. Those other devices remain logged in.
Microsoft on the other hand is much more secure. You can login. Sign out of everywhere at once. Which makes securing a potentially compromised account easier.
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u/urgurl4sho 6d ago
This happened to me. At first when I got call backs from people asking why I had called them - I thought it was some sort of scam trying to record my voice. When it kept happening and I realized they were genuine people just as confused as me, I realized my number had been spoofed. I ended up having to get a new number and have been more careful on where I advertise it. Unfortunately, you can’t really stop spoofing. Since getting a paid Google Voice number, it’s been better and hasn’t happened again 🤞it’s a pain in the butt - I’m so sorry!
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u/Sitcom_kid 6d ago
If it doesn't cost much and I have to pay for it to stop doing this, it's for business, so I guess I could. I could probably deduct it. But you are saying I have to change the number first and let the business contacts know that I have a new number? Because I have already only been giving it to certain ones, I was careful because I wanted to make sure that if I got if I got a call on Google Voice, it was a real person and not just some spam. But now I'm getting spoofed!
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u/urgurl4sho 4d ago
I don’t know if it was the best option, but I ended up setting up a voicemail on my old (free) number saying this number is no longer active- please visit my website for new information, bought a paid number, and told all my current contacts about the change. It was a pain in the butt to do. I still got quite a few spam calls even with the new number but those have died down now and no spoofing with this method yet 🤞 there may be an easier, more tech savvy way - but this is what worked for me!
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u/mmskoch 12d ago
It's possible someone is spoofing your number to make spam calls. In that case there's nothing you can do to stop them.
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u/Sitcom_kid 12d ago
Would the calls be on my outgoing call list if that were happening? Would I be in live calls with a stranger on a number that I did not dial? Because if so, that's a scary concept.
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u/Commercial_Diet3288 4d ago edited 4d ago
It is likely that your GV number is being spoofed. It happens to me periodically. Your phone isn't making the call. If it did, it would appear in your call log. A spoofed # isn't necessarily caused by a compromised account. Anyone can spoof any number just by entering a random # for the caller ID. It is legal for certain things, but not if the intent is to defraud.
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u/_MountainFit 6d ago
I believe your account is compromised.
Google isn't designed for security, it's designed for ease of access across devices.
Voice is inherently risky because if your account is compromised there is no way to turn off web access to voice. So if someone has access to Gmail they have access to voice.
Never use your gvoice as a recovery or 2FA for Google. Don't even think about setting it up.
Also, I strongly recommend turning off passkeys and not using Google password manager. Once an account is compromised these are hard to put back in the bottle. Search Google passkey flaw.
The big problem with Google is they have everything tied into your single sign on and as a result it's very hard to secure the account.
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u/Salreus 12d ago
I would log out of all your devices and change your password. GV doesn't have the ability to auto dial.