Someone Found My Name-And It's Weirding Me Out

[+ Gar1eth]

I was texting someone I found online using a Google Voice number. I was once stalked. So I use that and my middle name. I figure if we ever actually meet (and he's not crazy), I can tell him my first name.

 

All of a sudden this guy 'accuses' me of being an attorney- which I'm not. But he uses my actual 1st name and my last name. Now this Google voice is under an alias.

 

I asked him if we had ever talked before. And he said no. I have no idea in heck how this guy found out my name. It's scary as that's the reason I use Google Voice to begin with.

 

Any technology mavens out there have any ideas what's going on?

 

Gman

[+ Gar1eth]

The one possible saving grace-there actually is an attorney with my same first and last name. So he apparently thinks that's who I am. I hope it doesn't cause any trouble for the attorney though.

 

Gman

[rvwnsd]

If your Google account (i.e. your email, etc) is under your actual name, it very likely popped up when he looked at your Google profile.

[+ BlueSky]

I assume that when you Google your Google Voice number nothing relevant comes up. It weird how he found your name and then linked it to a lawyer. Yikes.

 

( I once had a GV number that would bring up an old ad/profile for a female escort. I'd been using it for a while so I didn't bother changing my number. It might have made a few escorts wonder WTH if they searched on my number.)

[MrMattBig]

Seems that the lawyer he is referring to in some capacity used to use the google voice number you now have. Just by cosmic fate you have the same name as well

[+ Gar1eth]

If your Google account (i.e. your email, etc) is under your actual name, it very likely popped up when he looked at your Google profile.

 

The Google Account is under an alias.

Seems that the lawyer he is referring to in some capacity used to use the google voice number you now have. Just by cosmic fate you have the same name as well

 

While that's a probability, I really think for all practical purposes, it's an impossibility. I've had this Google number for a long time-probably over 5 years. And while I'm in Texas now (and so is the lawyer), the Google number is from another state. To think a lawyer with my name had the same out of state phone number over 5 years ago really has to be an impossibility for all practical purposes.

 

No I'm sure that somehow from the text he was able to look-up my first and last name. He then googled that and found a 'wrong' me.

 

I don't think I did anything to compromise my identity. I don't have another phone to test it on currently. But I did text my regular number from the Google voice number, and on my phone it comes up as Google Voice.

 

I'm going to assume (if we posit that I didn't somehow do something to reveal myself) that whatever he did isn't very common at this point as I don't think it's ever happened before -or at least no one before has ever called me on giving them my fake name (well really it's not a fake name-i give them my middle name).

 

Gman

[+ Charlie]

I have a rather unusual name, and I always thought I was unique. However, the first time I tried to google myself, instead I found links to a young engineer in Switzerland, who is much hotter than I ever was.

[Nvr2Thick]

When you perform a Google search on your GV number does anything turn up? Try with and without dash separators. Use quotes. What happens when you search on your Google account, with and without the "@gmail.com"?

 

Did you provide a recovery e-mail address or phone number for the Google account or GV number? I created a GV number with a fake name, tied to an aliased e-mail address. When I perform a reverse phone search on my GV number using one of those pay searches it turns up both my fake name and my real name.

 

I don't think that these connections are available to the outside world, but Google creates some very scary associations within the data they collect from you. If you're logged onto a Google account while you're browsing Google can create connections to your Amazon ID, your Comcast or AT&T or other ISP profile. If you have a couple of different Google accounts Google will associate them all based on the fact that they've all logged on consistently from the same device.

[+ LIguy]

Check your Google voice settings. When I receive texts using Google voice they also appear in my IMessages. It's very possible that he received the texts through IMessages and not Google voice.