Anyone heard of this type of fault?

This is a bit speculative, but I was wondering if anyone has ever heard of the following type of fault with broadband, which has affected my parents.

Basically they have been getting calls from people claiming that they have been dialled from my parents' phone number and are returning the call to see what they wanted.
At first we all thought that it was just malicous calls, but it is different (mobile) numbers everytime, they are never withheld numbers, and when my parents explain that it is some sort of line fault the callers normally accept this and don't turn nasty. It happens up to about 10 times a week. Bearing in mind that many people who get a missed call from a number they don't know are unlikely to call back, it could be happening far more frequently. BT have checked the phone line and sent engineers to the exchange but can't find a problem with the phone line.

This problem has coincided with them getting brodband 6 weeks ago, so I have started to wonder whether there could be a link. I have never heard of random dialling or "crossed lines" being associated with adsl technology, so I just wanted to throw this out there and see if anyone with more technical knowledge might know if such a problem exists.

is there area code very similar to a mobile code but with a 1 in it ? Our area code is 01780 and we get plenty of numpties trying to dial 0780 prefixed mobiles.

yeah or numbers with repeating digts where people can't count and the phone ignores the last digit, e.g 07777 123 456(x - any digit) when they meant to dial 07771 23 4568

We also used to get loads for the local DSS when we had 751350 and the dss was 451350.

Could ask the parents to get BT to cahnge number due to nuisance calls. Its free if you can justify it and they don't mind the change.

Could be that a business has messed up on their outgoing CLI and put your parents number in.

If they are getting to be a nuisance, talk to BT as there is a possibility (with some hard work) that they could locate the originating caller.

Is there any pattern in the numbers of the people who have been called, or completely random.

I don't often use 1471, but I do look at my caller display when I return home. Have any callers reported multiple calls?

Not sure what help that would give at this stage, "but every little helps".

The fact that this started at the time of their broadband connection my be extremely relevant, or a red herring.

Edited by Ancient_Mariner (Tue 05-Sep-06 08:47:30)

to see if is your line that is ringing these numbers, check your phone bill and see if these numbers are on it.

Thanks everyone for their suggestions.

MHC, I am interested in your idea about a company mistakenly having my parents' number as the CLI number they are outputting. Is this easy to occur? Does someone literally just type into a computer the chosen number that they want the people they call to see? If they can, then someone just inputting the wrong number seems like quite a plausible explanantion, but how could it be traced back to the source? The thing that puts me off this possibility though, is that we wouldn't expect just people returning missed calls, but also people trying to contact back the specific company that called them, but using my parents' number as that is the one they believed they received the call from.

Ancient Mariner, until last night, all calls seemed to be from different numbers. Yesterday though a guy that rang last week rang again, claiming another missed call from their number.

I am trying to get my parents to find out as many details as possible from the callers, such as how long did it ring, did you answer the call and hear silence, was it a one off etc., but I don't think they really feel confident enough to do this, especially as one or two of the callers have been a bit aggressive.

ceebee2232, we have also been thinking that the next bill would be revealing (ie we will know if their phone is registering an outgoing call to the numbers). However, they are on a quarterly bill cycle, and we have a couple more weeks before they get the next bill.

Yarwell, no, their number is not distinctive or similar to a mobile number. Also, people seem to be literally dialling back to the missed call on their mobile, which makes it unlikely that people are trying to dial another number.

PeteK, the problem is if it is a problem on the line/ due to broadband, changing their number might very well not solve the problem.

It is interesting that no-one has thought of a way how the problem could be related to the broadband. As Ancient Mariner suggests, the fact that the start of the problem coincided with the installation of broadband could very well be a red herring.

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However, they are on a quarterly bill cycle, and we have a couple more weeks before they get the next bill.

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You can view your BT bills on line so long as you have the last bill to hand to confirm the details.


Another thought here, they aren't LLU customers are they (Bulldog specifically, but might apply to others too)

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Could be that a business has messed up on their outgoing CLI and put your parents number in.

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Admittedly it's been a while since I was last involved in such things but BT don't - or at least didn't - accept CLI from a customer. Though as I say that stance may have now changed.

If the OP hasn't already done so I would strongly suggest contacting their phone service provider (be it BT or whoever - NOT their broadband provider) and explaining what is happening.

Funny you should say that as I was reading an article the other day, though it was in the US not here. Rogue cold caller companies were using fake telephone numbers, as reported by CLID, to either avoid being reported for cold calling when the number was on lists like the TPS, or to avoid being caught when they were just scams. This is illegal in the US and I should imagine that OFCOM wouldn't be too thrilled at such practise here either.