Hacked landline?

[BH1903]

My 80 year old mother is plagued by calls from people claiming she’s called them. She hasn’t. There’s about 40 a day all day from 6 o’clock in the morning. It’s causing her a lot of distress. BT says her number might have been cloned by scammers who are making the calls and there’s nothing they can do except change her number, which isn’t exactly convenient. Number one concern is she’ll be charged for making the calls she hasn’t made. Number two we’d just like the unsolicited calls to stop so she isn’t being bothered. Some callers are getting aggressive with her. Any ideas? Has anyone else experienced this? BT don’t seem to have heard of it happening before but she can’t be the only one.

[Keith_Beddoe]

@BH1903 

Any number can be spoofed, its very common, she is not being charged for these calls, as she did not make them. Often its just a ploy to get the person`s attention.

What she needs to use is a call blocking phone like the BT4600. This only allows selected number to get straight through, all others have to announce themselves first, scammers never do that as they use automatic call software.

https://www.bt.com/help/user-guides/phones/landline-phones/cordless-phones-with-answer-machine/bt460...

[Keith_Beddoe]

More advice from BT.

https://www.bt.com/help/security/how-can-i-stop-nuisance-or-scam-calls-

Can be rather involved, so the call blocking phone may be worth trying first.

Caller display needs to be active on her line, as the phone needs that to filter the calls.

Just blocking each call manually is no good, as there are an infinite number of phone numbers.

A "whitelist" of numbers that she wants to receive calls from, is saved in the phone`s directory. 

The phone will not ring for any other number, unless they announce themselves, and she knows who they are, otherwise they will not get connected.

[BH1903]

Thank you so much. The ‘whitelist’ sounds an interesting option. Blocking individuals, as you say, doesn’t work as each caller to her tends to only call once. Course what we’d all like is that the cloning was preventable in the first place!

[Keith_Beddoe]

@BH1903 

Actually, its often only an excuse to call, it does not actually mean that they received a call from your mother, but its a good conversation starter.

Once Call Guardian is activated on the BT4600, usually the "announce" option is best, just in case its someone calling who is not in the phone`s internal directory. They can be added to the list so that next time they call they get straight through,

It an easier option than sending calls to the answerphone, although scammers do not normally leave messages, it would be inconvenient for anyone she knows.

[BH1903]

Kind of good to know she's not the only one. And thank you again for the great advice. It's amazing how quickly these things become distressing, so good to know there's a solution. Thank you again.

[iniltous]

You probably should also check the line hasn’t been ‘crossed’ , so your mother has a different number to the one you recognise, it’s easy to check simply dial 17070 from the line , the voice response should be something like ‘this circuit is defined as 01***, ******, if the ‘wrong’ number is read out then there is a cross connection that needs putting right , but TBH , if that was the case you wouldn’t be able to contact her  as when you call her number , someone else would answer , you would have to call the ‘wrong’ number to get through.

TBH , there is nothing to stop bad actors ‘spoofing’ a number , but there is no advantage in them using a genuine number that’s in use , spoofing an unused number in the same number range serves the same purpose, she also would have to be very unlucky for a scammer to use her number repeatedly,(  many scammer call centres are sophisticated enough to continually change the spoofed number to keep ahead of any call blocking attempts from the receiving networks ) , plus  all the people the scammer tried to called but were not at home , and the number  was on that persons phone as the last incoming call , and then that person was so ‘concerned’ , that they called back and said ‘why did you call me, so you mother is extremely unlucky to get so many strangers to call back your mothers number .

personally if I see an unknown number on my last call received, if it’s a different town/city to mine and not a number I recognise, I wouldn’t dream of calling it back , knowing it’s either a scam or a wrong number and if it’s genuine they will call back or leave a message.

There is no way a scammer making calls that show your mothers number are actually made from her line ( chances they are made from another country ) so there is no concern that the calls will appear on your mothers bill , the crossed line scenario however would , so even though it’s not likely, check the number on your mothers line , as well as 17070 , she could also just call you , and you confirm on your phone the number displayed to you is correct .

[BH1903]

Apologies for the late reply, I very much appreciate the very thorough response. Thank you. You are exactly right, if so many people didn't call us to find out who had fictitiously called them, it wouldn't be such a problem for us. It's amazing how quickly it becomes distressing... they start incredibly early in the morning and at one stage we were getting 40 calls. Some people are understanding, others are really aggressive, though I totally get why. Like you, when I receive such calls, I just block them, but of course I appreciate some people want to know who has rung them. But, to be selfish, if so many of them didn't ring us we really wouldn't have a problem! They even leave messages and their names, which seems crazy to me. The only solution has been to unplug the phone at peak scammer times. After a week or so, the volume is maybe reducing. Hopefully it will soon run its course and the jokers have moved onto a new number... though we've had five calls in the time it has taken to write this message!

Thanks again.