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Mystery calls to local numbers and 123 numbers but I have no phone connected???????????

serenityjane
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Registered: ‎03-05-2016

Mystery calls to local numbers and 123 numbers but I have no phone connected???????????

The last 3 bills contained alot of 123 numbers and more recently the last 2 bills contain many local numbers which all contain the number 01613211111, or 0161312222 or thereabouts, the same numbers but in a different sequence. The total amount charged to date for these unmade calls are £37. Most of the calls have happened when I've been out of the house, and even on holiday?. Plusnet state there is no fault on the line and no crossed line etc, and that I am fully responsible for paying for these calls!!. I dont even have a phone connected in the house anywhere?!. I hope I get this sorted otherwise it will be a lengthy route through the ombudsmen and CICAS.

26 REPLIES 26
Anoush
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Re: Mystery calls to local numbers and 123 numbers but I have no phone connected???????????

Hello there. Sorry to hear you're seeing a lot of unknown numbers on your bill.
The first thing that I'd do is check if these numbers appear on the raw call data in your exchange (if this hasn't been done yet)
I'll take a look at your account when I'm in the office tomorrow morning.

 

(Edit)

I'm having difficulty finding your account, please could you PM me your username?

 

(2nd Edit)

I've found your account and have traced the calls on the raw call data held by our suppliers, indicating that those calls were made from your line. Is there no one in your house that could have made those calls without your consent?

This is my personal Community Forum account to help out around these parts while I'm at home. If I'm posting from the 1st March 2020, this means I'm off-duty with no access to internal systems.
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aesmith
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Re: Mystery calls to local numbers and 123 numbers but I have no phone connected???????????

Could these have been made by an OR engineer for test purposes?   Were there any DSL drops during that period?

Anoush
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Re: Mystery calls to local numbers and 123 numbers but I have no phone connected???????????

There were no drops in the connection at the point when the calls were made.

This is my personal Community Forum account to help out around these parts while I'm at home. If I'm posting from the 1st March 2020, this means I'm off-duty with no access to internal systems.
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w23
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Re: Mystery calls to local numbers and 123 numbers but I have no phone connected???????????

Sounds rather familiar: https://community.plus.net/t5/My-Account-Billing/Mystery-calls-to-123-quot-speaking-clock-quot-or-qu...

Call me 'w23'
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HarryB
Plusnet Help Team
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Re: Mystery calls to local numbers and 123 numbers but I have no phone connected???????????

Whenever I see threads/queries regarding mystery calls to 123 my first though is what @aesmith mentioned. However that only really applies if it's a few calls.

 

Looking at your itemised phone bill, this seems to have been ongoing since 26/03/16 at all times of day/night. The amount of calls, the times these calls have been made and the fact that it's not just 123 calls leads me to believe it may not just be a case of engineers testing.

 

Do you have anything that has to connect through your phone line? I've seen similar things happen in the past where alarm systems regularly check the time by dialling 123 and also make calls back to the alarm provider on other numbers for other stuff.

 

Although it may not be an alarm system in your case, is there anything you've recently got since around 26/03/16 when these calls started appearing?

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 Harry Beesley
 Plusnet
w23
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Re: Mystery calls to local numbers and 123 numbers but I have no phone connected???????????


@HarryB wrote:

is there anything you've recently got since around 26/03/16 when these calls started appearing?


Could that possibly include a line fault simulating 'pulse dialling'?

Call me 'w23'
At any given moment in the universe many things happen. Coincidence is a matter of how close these events are in space, time and relationship.
Opinions expressed in forum posts are those of the poster, others may have different views.
198kHz
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Re: Mystery calls to local numbers and 123 numbers but I have no phone connected???????????

w23 is on the right track here I believe.

I once had a caller display unit which was intermittently dialling '123' and various local numbers like 21123 and 22132 etc.

The OP says there is no phone in the house, so presumably no caller display unit either - but something is dialling random digits 1,2 and 3, almost certainly as loop disconnect pulses.

What about the 0161 calls I hear you say. The OP says they're local calls, meaning that if she is in the Manchester code area, then a call to, say, 321 1111 would appear on the bill as 0161 321 1111.

This was a recurring problem in the days of uninsulated open wires tapping in the wind, but I imagine a similar situation could occur in a cable, or maybe cabinet, shorting the pair on and off as traffic rumbles by?

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serenityjane
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Re: Mystery calls to local numbers and 123 numbers but I have no phone connected???????????

Hi, This is Serenity, the customer. I have had no new appliances since 26/03/16, I was on holiday in Spain between 28/03/16 until 06/04/16.

Apart from the local code prefix (0161) all numbers mostly consist of 1, 2, and 3, with a few odd number 4.

I do recall some phone engineers messing about with all the wires about a month ago, so maybe this needs investigating???

Here is my bill with the number's on, they continue into April too!

29/04/2016 01613112211 00:11:19 00:01:00 no  £0.26
  28/04/2016 01612111111 22:53:31 00:01:00 no  £0.26
  28/04/2016 01612111322 22:09:26 00:01:00 no  £0.26
  28/04/2016 01612111111 20:14:34 00:01:00 no  £0.26
           
  27/04/2016 01613132111 18:14:24 00:01:00 no  £0.26
  27/04/2016 01612111111 16:28:39 00:01:00 no  £0.26
  27/04/2016 01612111111 16:19:39 00:01:00 no  £0.26
  27/04/2016 01612111211 09:03:27 00:01:00 no  £0.26
  27/04/2016 01613111112 07:41:14 00:01:00 no  £0.26
  27/04/2016 01612112231 07:23:43 00:01:00 no  £0.26
  27/04/2016 01613112131 04:32:19 00:01:00 no  £0.26
  27/04/2016 01613112221 01:37:47 00:01:00 no  £0.26
             
  TOTAL:   £23.62

 

Whatever the cause of these mystery numbers, Plusnet still insists that I made them, and apparently that is their final answer....no further investigation!

Hope I get it sorted, there is definitely a problem with the phone line or connection!.

Thanks for everyone's comments.

HarryB
Plusnet Help Team
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Re: Mystery calls to local numbers and 123 numbers but I have no phone connected???????????


@serenityjane wrote:
Plusnet still insists that I made them, and apparently that is their final answer

Just to clarify, we insist they were made on your line, not necessarily that you made them yourself. However automated testing isn't finding a fault.

 

It may be worth getting a fault raised with us and arranging for an engineer to go out to investigate further.

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 Harry Beesley
 Plusnet
MauriceC
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Re: Mystery calls to local numbers and 123 numbers but I have no phone connected???????????

Both No. Groups 0161 211xxxx and 0161 311xxxx are controlled by Mobile network operators  - Virgin for 211xxxx and a Dutch company Tismi-BV for the 311xxxx

See 

http://www.uk-calls.eu/0161311-tismi-bv.html

http://www.tismi.com/

http://www.uk-calls.eu/0161211-virgin-media-limited.html

Note:  No in depth investigation done, just a quick look-up on the number blocks.

 

Maurice

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HPsauce
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Re: Mystery calls to local numbers and 123 numbers but I have no phone connected???????????


@198kHz wrote:

 

something is dialling random digits 1,2 and 3, almost certainly as loop disconnect pulses.

What about the 0161 calls I hear you say. The OP says they're local calls, meaning that if she is in the Manchester code area, then a call to, say, 321 1111 would appear on the bill as 0161 321 1111.


This is the key to the problem, just because a number appears as having been "called" that does not mean that was what was "dialled".

 

This has all the hallmarks of an equipment fault and deserves to be treated as such.

 

Now which equipment, the nature of the fault and who is responsible is yet to be determined, but PlusNet, MAKE A START PLEASE!

serenityjane
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Re: Mystery calls to local numbers and 123 numbers but I have no phone connected???????????

Hey,

 

Plusnet seem to have gone quiet on this one!!!! How convenient. Engineer visited today and clarified there is no fault at my end. I do not have an alarm system, My sky box is not connected via phone line it rund on Wi-Fi and when I rang Sky they actually laughed and told me that "Plusnet knows this is the case", they are clutching at straws. Plusnet have now told me that I need to call the Police because somebody has been tampering with my phone line externally and using my line to dial these numbers (come on Plusnet you know this isn't the case!). Funnily enough most of these numbers belong to Telecom companies (how very strange!).

It look like I'm going to have to pay the bills for now, until I finally get my refund from Plusnet through CICAS, Oh and I will be informing Watchdog too!!

This diabolical company has not offered me any sympathy, resolution or refund and are simply ignoring my requests to investigate this matter further, I am absolutely fuming!!!

198kHz
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Re: Mystery calls to local numbers and 123 numbers but I have no phone connected???????????


@serenityjane wrote:
I am absolutely fuming!!!

As an ex-BT engineer, I am fuming on your behalf too.

 


Plusnet have now told me that I need to call the Police because somebody has been tampering with my phone line externally and using my line to dial these numbers

Oh dear, Plusnet - BIG FAIL. I don't think the police would appreciate wasting their time on such a ludicrous wild goose chase.

 

So, supposedly someone has been making calls, all a minute or under in duration (see Reply #9), to various numbers comprising solely the digits 1,2 or 3 (we can ignore the 0161 prefix on the bill as per Reply #12). Yeah right!  Roll_eyes

Let's look at the numbers on the bill:

Digit 1 appears 55 times

Digit 2 appears 21 times

Digit 3 appears 8 times

exactly as one would expect from an intermittently tapping line!

 

It was obvious from the initial post that there is nothing malicious or fraudulent going on, and subsequent posts have amply confirmed that.

 

There's just one thing bothering me - the frequency of these phantom 'calls' suggests that the line is tapping away for considerable periods, occasionally simulating a 'call' to a real number. Now, if this was happening somewhere between the customer's ADSL filter and the ADSL splitter in the exchange, then it would seem likely that it would affect the broadband performance, but as far as we know it hasn't. If it's happening on the telephony side of the filter or splitter, then the broadband would not be affected. Reply #4 could be significant. I'm just positing this in case it's something silly like a chafed cable in the house - under a carpet maybe?

 

In the OP's position, therefore, I would firstly remove the faceplate from the master socket, thus revealing the test socket. Then plug a 'dangly filter' into the test socket, and plug the router's ADSL lead into the filter. Leave for a few days, then check recent calls in the Home Phone Control Panel.

 

If the problem is still there, then raise merry hell with Plusnet until they see sense.

 

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MisterW
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Re: Mystery calls to local numbers and 123 numbers but I have no phone connected???????????

Whilst this would APPEAR to be an isolated problem, I wonder in fact whether it is ? For anyone with an included call plan, as long as their call charges are 0.0 would they ever check their call records for calls such as these ?   

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