How can someone else send a text from my number and receive a text that was meant for me ????

PLEASE can someone explain this to me…. On Wednesday, January 4, 2023 I had to change my cell phone number because my number was hacked/spoofed. Before I explain what happen let me share that my cell phone carrier is xfinity (they use Verizon towers) and I have an IPhone 11.

here is how I found out about my phone number being hacked: my boss called me and asked if I had my phone on me bc he received weird responses back when texting me. 1.) I never texted him “who this” and “Jeff who”. I also never received my boss’ text where he asked me to call him when I had a chance. I sent him a screen shot of what I saw and he sent me a screen shot of what he saw. Then, I noticed read receipts were showing but I have that feature turned off. Lastly, I usually text myself notes. I noticed that the day this all happened, the color of the bubble on my text kept changing to blue and green and read receipts were showing. Again I have that feature off (see screen shots below).

i ended up changing my number after having it for 20 years plus. I want to understand what happened here. Was it a glitch or a hack? Xfinity could not confirm either but the rep (which mind you was lazy in my opinion) told me it was prob a glitch and recommended me to not change my number. I didn’t want to risk a hacker getting into my Accts so I changed the number.

has this happened to anyone? I have no idea how this happened or what really happened either. Thank you all for your help!!!!!!

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