People getting calls from my number - But I never called them

[cheemais]

Hello all!

This is now happened thrice since the last week so something weird is going on for sure. I am getting calls from random people telling me that they got a call from my number but I haven't ever called them.

Has anyone run into this before and possibly know how this could be happening?

[srlawren]

@marshallmah again, other than you calling in to check/delete the voicemails from your mobile (which would consume outgoing minutes), these are not consuming your minutes at all.  It's a quirk of the system that Public Mobile show these as outgoing calls in your online call history, but you should NOT see your available outgoing minutes decrease as a result of people being redirected to your voicemail box.  

[marshallmah]

Cannot block the call that by passes the ring, not showing in call display on the phone. The call only shows in the history when the account is opened. 

Thanks. 

I'm just going to let it suck up the bonus minutes and then switch to a different provider. 

[marshallmah]

Yes, we really have to be refreshing every time the account is opened. Even if you refresh and log out, when you re-log in the old Unrefreshed page shows up again. 

I'm not short of minutes, I still have over 2000 bonus minutes. I'm only bringing this issue up because of the principle of the matter. 

Minutes should not be eaten up by this constant transfer to voice message by some automated system. My average phone usage is about 50 minutes per month. When the voice message gets activated and brings the usage over 100 minutes, I go over the monthly limit and also get deducted the same minutes again from my bonus minutes. Double whammy. 

It should not be like this, PM didn't just started up last week, these bugs should have been removed years ago. 

[dust2dust]

@marshallmah- Are you looking at the detailed usage logs? Or are you looking at the first page usage bars? Click on the little spinner refresh icons under there to the right to get proper updated information. The site is terrible at caching.

The bars should show minutes then data then texts would be a solid green bar.

[srlawren]

@marshallmah did you maybe block the number on your phone in the past?  If so, your phone would not ring and the calls would be transferred directly to voicemail.  Calls being transferred to voicemail do not consume outbound calling minutes.  If you think about it, they don't use any airtime since your phone is not doing anything, it's the network taking the caller to your voicemail box, so this makes sense.  The calls you are seeing in the log, I'm guessing they are ending in 4001 or 4002, and are in this list here, right?  https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Get-Support/access-voice-mail-out-of-home-province-pr....  

[marshallmah]

Never rings nor shows any phone log/call display. It only shows the out going calls when account is logged into.

[hTideGnow]

HI @marshallmah  but your phone never ring at all in that 40 minutes span?

[marshallmah]

Thank you, I know this info you. However, I never check my voice messages. I only check my text if there is anything important. As far as I can see from the records, any calls transferred to the voice messaging does count as minutes used, what else could be consuming all the minutes. Don't forget it is the same number transferred into the voice message every two minutes for forty minutes consecutively on one day. Isn't that strange and no messages left on the recorder. Maybe someone got nothing better to do?  I may have to post that phone number and maybe PM can block it out. 

[srlawren]

@marshallmah small clarification: the thing you see in your call log that looks like an outgoing phone call is actually the caller being transferred to voicemail, and does NOT consume any of your minutes.  If you dial in to check your voicemail from your phone, it DOES consume outgoing minutes, but you can always dial from another phone (home phone, work phone, friend's phone with unlimited outgoing, etc.) to avoid.

[marshallmah]

Actually my situation is different. I keep getting calls from the same number but it is not making my phone ring or show on my phone's call history. I was told it just activates my voice message thus recording an outgoing call without my immediate knowledge. It does show the number in my PM account call history. This happens one minute after another several dozen times a day. This eats up my monthly minutes and more. It appears many other PM customers have the same issue. Some even requested to have the voice message canceled. I would like to remove the voice message too. This month it ate over a hundred minutes. 

[softech]

@marshallmah   this is untrue!!!

it is what it calls Caller ID Spoofing.  It is done by scammer and NOT PM

PM did not engage in illegal activities like that nor try to trick customers for the purpose of pushing them to upgrade their plan

Please understand more on this topic here:

https://crtc.gc.ca/eng/phone/telemarketing/identit.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caller_ID_spoofing

[marshallmah]

This is set up by PM to use up your minutes, PM will not stop it as it is their only way to force you to upgrade your plan. 

This is the same as the constant calls to your voice messaging by the same number. No messages left, it just sucks up your minutes. 

[srlawren]

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@umarsattar wrote:

Hi,

I have the same issue. A lady called me from same first 6 digit as my cell# and asked me to stop calling her. I have not called her at all. I already have Viber installed, so i deactivated the account, but she said that the calls came in on her cell, not on any application like Viber or Whatsapp.
I am worried that my number is being spoofed and it just started now because I just ported my number from Bell Canada to Public Mobile this week.
I need some actual support instead of Online Bot !

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@umarsattar the timing is 100% coincidence.  These spam call bots just work their way through a random block of numbers using a randomly chosen number within the block as the outgoing number. So yes, your phone number has been spoofed by a robocaller and unfortunately there's really nothing you can do about it except tell the people that try to call you back that your number was spoofed and ask them to block your phone number.  

[umarsattar]

Hi,

I have the same issue. A lady called me from same first 6 digit as my cell# and asked me to stop calling her. I have not called her at all. I already have Viber installed, so i deactivated the account, but she said that the calls came in on her cell, not on any application like Viber or Whatsapp.
I am worried that my number is being spoofed and it just started now because I just ported my number from Bell Canada to Public Mobile this week.
I need some actual support instead of Online Bot !

[stonechucker]

Yes, there ways for people to spoof your number.  You can report a crime if you wish to the police, but it's really out of your control.

You can change your number, but that's only good until it happens again.  Tell your ex to block your number.  Delete her number from your phone.

[Hacker13]

The technology out there is so crazy now a days. 

I received a call from a female that says i called her my number come out on her in coming call but i have never called her shes my ex’s bf. i dont speak to this female at all my ex showed me a screen shot of my number calling her . Can some one really use your number and make it seem as you have called them 

[WearySky]

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@ToniCipriani wrote:

Just got a string of these calls the past days, same exchange number as my own plus random 4.

Quick google search seems to always point to Telus for some reason for this issue, and truth be told I never had this issue back with Fido and Bell, when my number was with them. It started with Koodo and continues on PM.

http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/saskatoon/phone-spoofing-scammers-disguise-as-local-callers-1.256...

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I had this issue *constantly* with Rogers, so it's definitely not a Telus-specific issue. 🙂  But yeah, a bunch of them lately.  Yay, $999 Air Canada gift card!

[Michael77]

Thanks for the information.

[ToniCipriani]

Just got a string of these calls the past days, same exchange number as my own plus random 4.

Quick google search seems to always point to Telus for some reason for this issue, and truth be told I never had this issue back with Fido and Bell, when my number was with them. It started with Koodo and continues on PM.

http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/saskatoon/phone-spoofing-scammers-disguise-as-local-callers-1.256...

[cheemais]

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@computergeek541 wrote:

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@cheemais wrote:

Thanks everyone for your suggestions and comments. One of the guys who claimed he got a call from my number mentioned that it was a viber call. So I installed Viber, registered an account and then deactivated it. Seems to have solved it and I am not getting any calls since then. Phew!

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Have you had your phone number for a long time?  Viber requires users to go through a pretty fool-proof phone number verification process before they even allow the phone number to be shown for outgoing call display purposes.  As you arleady know, Viber's servers call your phone number to verify that the phone number is really yours before they allow you to use the service.   If the Viber user had your phone number before you did and never uninstalled the application, Viber would have no idea that the phone number no longer belonged to that person.

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Yep I have had this number for only about 2 years so definitely someone else had this before I did.

[torontokris]

The psychology I believe is because for home phones the numbers that have the first 6 digits of your number i.e. 416-789- are typically your neighbours, so you will pick up. Although it doesnt translate the same way to cell phones it seems to carry on.

This is people spoofing your number, the person missed a call then calls back on that number. Esp if the person calling back has the same first 6 digits as you.

[computergeek541]

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@cheemais wrote:

Thanks everyone for your suggestions and comments. One of the guys who claimed he got a call from my number mentioned that it was a viber call. So I installed Viber, registered an account and then deactivated it. Seems to have solved it and I am not getting any calls since then. Phew!

---

Have you had your phone number for a long time?  Viber requires users to go through a pretty fool-proof phone number verification process before they even allow the phone number to be shown for outgoing call display purposes.  As you arleady know, Viber's servers call your phone number to verify that the phone number is really yours before they allow you to use the service.   If the Viber user had your phone number before you did and never uninstalled the application, Viber would have no idea that the phone number no longer belonged to that person.

[cheemais]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions and comments. One of the guys who claimed he got a call from my number mentioned that it was a viber call. So I installed Viber, registered an account and then deactivated it. Seems to have solved it and I am not getting any calls since then. Phew!

[tiktok72]

I'm not 100% sure but I had same experience before.  I checked my call history but I never dialed the number.  I also checked hangout and there is no call history either.  But just in case, I removed hangout and it's gone.

[srlawren]

@tiktok72 wow that seems odd.  Never heard of that happening with Hangouts before.  

[tiktok72]

Do you have Hangout on your phone?  If it does, remove and reinstall the app.

I had same experience before and it's gone now.

[computergeek541]

I've read about some websites that will let you place calls through the internet and will let you set the outgoing call display information to any number you wish.

Also, there's also a couple of less sinister ways this could happen.

A company can accidently assign a phone number to a new subscriber that is already assigned.  It's happened before.  I've even had Telus assign my phone  number to a new customer a couple of years after I ported out from them (they had to reverse it and give that new customers a different phone number).

Another way this could happen would be by using one of the other Telus brands' phone number porting procedures.  If someone (either accidently or deliberately) requests a phone number to be ported in, that will automatically assign that phone number to the account and that number will show as as the outgoing call display immediately.  This all happens before the original carrier even approves the transfer request. 

[WearySky]

This is a common tactic for spammers/scammers - are the people calling you with the same area code/exchange as you? There's apparently some psychology where people will be more likely to answer if the first 6/7 digits of the number calling them match their phone number, so they'll spoof the caller ID.

[srlawren]

Unfortunately, it's pretty easy for scammers to spoof your phone number in the outbound caller ID number.  I occasionally get a call from the same 604-XXX exchange that my number is in.  I never answer them because I know they are always spoofed calls trying to trick me into answering because the number is similar to my own.

[marsbar]

Has your phone been hacked?

If it's an Android phone, try resetting it to factory default settings and then updating to the latest security software updates.