Can 2 cell phones have the same phone number?

[Jacazza]

I heard from a tech guy that I sorta know that 2 cell phones can have the same phone number. I think it's called cloning a phone. If that is possible would text messages be sent to both phones. Or has this techie been b s..ing

[Master Disaster]

Yes, it actually happened to Linus.

 

Someone with enough info about you can convince your network they're you and get get them to issue a clone SIM. Put that SIM in any phone and it acts exactly like the first phone, will receive calls & texts and to any 2FA will appear to be the original phone.

[Egg-Roll]

1 hour ago, Master Disaster said:

Yes, it actually happened to Linus.

 

When?

[JDK319]

Yes

[Zagna]

My provider has a service called Multi-SIM where two phones share a number. Limitations are that the secondary phone can't send/receive MMS or that it can't call the primary phone. Primary phone can call the secondary by calling the secondary phones "actual" phone number.

[Ezzy-525]

16 minutes ago, Egg-Roll said:

When?

 

[Mooshi]

No. You can spoof a number, but 2 phones can't have the same physical mdn.

 

When two devices share a number,  one device has a different physical number that the carrier uses to identify it. This is how smartwatches are setup for example.

[Egg-Roll]

1 hour ago, Ezzy-525 said:

 

Ah ok, that's a little different, what happened is someone claimed to be Linus (believe it or not a simple stolen phone bill can work) and got a new sim activated on his account. What OP was asking is is it possible to have 2 phones function as 1.

 

It isn't very likely due to very few leaving their phones out of sight.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phone_cloning