Text messages appearing to be from my number which I did not send

I have recently had an issue whereby I sent a text message to someone in my phone book but when this was received it looked as if it had been sent by a third, totally unknown number.
I also experienced the opposite, whereby someone received a text appearing to be from my number which I categorically did not send.
No-one had access to my phone on either of these occasions (or any other iPhones/iPads I've previously or now own) and it is not a prank of any kind - messages are literally being sent appearing as if they are from a different number than the one that sent it.
How is this even possible and do I have any privacy whatsoever when sending messages or could these literally be sent to anyone with an iPhone (as I have experienced in both directions)?

My Apple ID is on my iPad but the message I allegedly 'sent' was received by the other person as an SMS.
Even if this is the case, I just cannot fathom that this can even be possible. It got to the extent that I was receiving abusive calls from women accusing me of texting their boyfriends when I hadn't! It makes me question how many times this may have happened but gone unnoticed because the recipient had just decided to ignore the message from an unknown number.
How can I trust that my messages won't be being sent willy nilly to random people across the world?!

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