Chinese language robocalls scammer calls to PN mobile

[#1]

@Matty_b

My wife has the 'sweetie' deal and is very pleased with it. It is owned by '3'. The family are all on their major network and we have not detected any difference in speed or availability when using their 'alternative' network in a variety of locations, including rural UK holiday destinations. I am not aware of any other company that gives you cashback each month for every MB of data that you do not used. For those of us who are on home Wi-Fi for the majority of the time, that's a big incentive.

[#2]

@Matty_b If you specifically want to stick with the EE network a company that has dairy products for sale are 'piggy backed' to EE. I have their PAYG SIM which is much too pricey for data use, but it's OK for the occasional phone call or text. They do a number of monthly plans though. I have had good customer service experience of them.

[#3]

Then it leaves a 30 day ticking clock for PN to resolve this issue

Unfortunately there's not much we can do as per my previous replies. Moving to a different mobile provider i.e. changing your number may or may not resolve the issue as the callers would be dialling randomly.

[#4]

FWIW

I'm not a PN mobile customer and have just had one of these calls (first time for me) - caller ID was 0.7.7.0.5. 5.7.2.7.8.4

(dots included to stop bots obtaining the number as no doubt at some point it will be active via a genuine user).

I don't have voice mail active either, so upon answering I simply heard a female Chinese robotic voice.

Number blocked

[#5]

Still getting them...

Last call was 08:44 this morning, they won't give up, and you can't complain to the ICO, as the numbers are uniquely spoofed..

Pity PN couldn't come up with some sort of resolution... Its a shame, when the only fix is 'customer churn'

IMHO, if someone at PN had played ball, this would have fixed a customer issue, resulting in increasing loyalty & word-of-mouth brand promotion (through responsive and proactive problem resolution)

[#6]

I spoke to PN about a number change because of this and they said it will cost 25 quid!  If it's right that this problem is only affecting PN there's clearly been a data breach which under the new GDPR laws is going to be very costly for PN.  I think they should do free switches for anyone affected. 

I'm on a rolling contract so I have an easy solution to this - just a pain in the [-Censored-] to have to do it, and hopefully, it will not repeat on the new number. 

[#7]

@Paul688 @Matty_b There has been no response from Plusnet about this problem, apart from the Plusnet Help Team saying "Of course we'll investigate internally ..... Unfortunately there's not much we can do as the callers are using an auto-dialler, which means that no two calls are the same" and "Just been advised that we'd only change a mobile phone number if a Crime Reference Number is provided."

No-one is anonymous on the Internet, yet no progress appears to have been made. I have my own website and I block IP addresses that persistently send out e-mails using fake and random e-mail addresses. I should think that tracking down rogue phone callers is pretty similar, as the calls will no doubt be coming from a specific number. As we know, they are certainly not coming from UK mobile phone numbers!

We have been away on holiday, hence the lack of posting from me on this forum, but I have had the irritating calls most days, along with the equally irritating answerphone message. None of the family on other networks has had these persistent calls. I also have an EE Pay As You Go SIM which has not been subject to these robotic calls either, even though Plusnet uses the EE network.

If progress is being made, then would someone please update us?

[#8]

I've advised a couple of times that that there's not much we can do about this, which is essentially the information I've received from our operations team. I'll be happy to go back to ops for clarification but it's likely to result in the same response.

[Gandalf]

Gandalf "I've advised a couple of times that that there's not much we can do about this, which is essentially the information I've received from our operations team. I'll be happy to go back to ops for clarification but it's likely to result in the same response."

It isn't a question of can but won't. I suggest people getting these calls complain to Ofcom about Plusnet.

In this country calls are not terminated for free. The caller pays and the service provider for the called number gets a cut one way or another. Claiming that you can't trace someone who has to be paying you money is not at all believable to me.

I have two Plusnet mobile contracts and have had at least 100 of these Chinese voice spam calls between them. Mostly from spoofed mobile numbers but recently one claiming to be from Ohio and another from a London number. Recently a few have been going to voice mail.

I also have phones with Tesco, O2, and 3 sims which have had zero Chinese spam calls. I more suspect the mobile numbers have been leaked by an android app (probably from a crappy Chinese company) than Plusnet., however, that must be in combination with the Plusnet/EE network allowing them keep delivering these calls from spoofed numbers.

[#10]

@nonplusme

I joined PlusNet Community back in August, specifically because of this issue and I think that may be your reason for joining too. After a lull of no Chinese Robocalls, things are back as they were in mid August, with calls from fake UK mobile numbers most days. I am having to block all calls that are not in my address book, which merely masks the problem but does not alleviate it. I posted previously that our grandson started getting these calls the first day that he joined PlusNet mobile, even though he had no-one in his contact list and had no additional apps installed, so I don't think that the issue is with rogue Android apps. Our grandson's father asked that his son's number be changed and that it had to be a new, previously uncirculated number, not a 'recycled' number that may have been the subject of spam calls in the past. He has had no problems since, so could this be the reason? I have an EE PAYG with Asda that has had no calls from fake UK mobile numbers or unsolicited numbers with a London dialling code (yes I also get those too!) so it is not an EE issue but a PlusNet one. Re 'I suggest people getting these calls complain to Ofcom about Plusnet.' I would be interested to hear if anyone on this community has done that and what the response has been.

[Howard_BB "I would be interested to hear if anyone on this community has done that and what the response has been."]

Howard_BB  "I would be interested to hear if anyone on this community has done that and what the response has been."

I did ages ago. They will record your complaint and that is about all. Theoretically spam telephone calls are not their problem because the Information Commissioners Office is supposed to deal with companies making unsolicited calls. The ICO can't do anything because whoever is responsible can't be identified (unless the Chinese contains some clue?). So trying to get either to do anything you will probably just get bounced between them. Ofcom do record complaints and generate statistics on general and supplier specific satisfaction levels.

I have had both my plusnet numbers from when it was Life mobile - long before any Chinese spam calls.

[#12]

@nonplusme

Many thanks for the update outlining the steps you have taken. It seems as if my Android app "Calls Blacklist - Call Blocker - (block all numbers except contacts) will not be redundant any time soon.

[#13]

I've been getting these since early August on my plusnet 30day number. None are coming through on my spouses plusnet number or my EE PAYG. All give an 07 number but never the same one. I've resorted to sending calls not in my contact list to voicemail with a message to text or email me. Some of these calls generate a voicemail many don't.

I seem to only get one of these a day normally between 08.30 and 18.00.

Not had these on the landline though.

Industry wide investigation needed before copycats appear.

[#14]

And still they come. From the call log on one of the phones:

Today from (probably spoofed) London number.

Calls from mobile numbers on the 15th, 14th, 12th, 10th, 7th.

[#15]

@nonplusme @stmary Recent calls blocked on the 15th, 13th (2 calls) 11th, 10th and 8th. Even worse than the calls are having to listen to the Mandarin voice messages, just in case it's a genuine message. £25 for a number change on PlusNet for any of us on a monthly contract! Definitely not! I am switching to either Smarty ('3' network with cashback on every unused MB of data) or Asda EE £10 for 3GB of data. After 3 months and no end in sight to the Chinese Robocalls, I have had enough. None of our friends and family on any other network has had this problem.