The annoying phantom 0800 wrong number caller

Recently my 0800 number has been ringing off  the hook, which is odd since I haven’t been marketing it. But here’s the annoying thing…

Whenever I answer, the caller says: sorry wrong number’ and hangs up.

At first I thought nothing of it. But very soon I began to get a little annoyed. I knew that the calls couldn’t be legitimate.

Because I spend a great deal of time on the move, I redirect my0800 number to a mobile phone. Many times I’m unable to answer the phone, mostly when driving, and much to my annoyance all the unanswered calls being made to my 0800 number (lately) leave no voice mail for me to follow up on.

Soon enough there was a pattern to the calls:

• it’s always the wrong number
• the caller doens’t hide his number
• the caller always hangs up when I ask a question
• the caller never leaves a voice message if the call is not picked up

Naturally each time I’m unable to answer I ring back at my earliest convenience. And this is where things get interesting…

…each time I do a dial-back on the number that rang, the person at the other end of the call informs me that they didn’t ring me.

It happened about 4 times before I twigged. These people really aren’t ringing me. It’s real surprise (and irritation) that I’m hearing at the other end of phone when I claim that they rang me.

Moreover, I now recognise the wrong number caller! It’s actually 2 different blokes, but each time the number ringing is different, so there’s no way to tell it’s either of them before you pick up the call.

And then it hit me: the third time I heard the voice on the wrong number caller, I instantly recognised the same intonation, the slight sigh of dissapointment, the tinniness of the voice…

It’s a recording. I’m hearing the same recording time and again.

At this point I googled 0800 wrong number caller and got to the bottom of the matter.

There’s something called CLI spoofing. Very briefly, a computer calls a list of 0800 numbers and plays a recording at them. It does this by hijacking a real telephone number (hence the term ‘spoofing’).

Why do this?

CLI Spoofing is akin to spam (the term used for unsolicited e-mail). The real reason as to why somebody would do this is only known by the person behind the spoofing, but some guesses are:

• it provides the raging imbecil with some amusement
• it targets a specific telephone company (the 0800 number provider)
• it inconveniences the 0800 client (me) and can drive me away from the 0800 number provider
• it costs the 0800 client (me) money each time I answer

Point 2 and 3 assume that the target is the 0800 number provider. Targeting a company’s 0800 numbers would inconvenience and irritate their clients and bring the company’s security and reputation into question, potentially costing them business and lost custom.

Point 4 however assumes that the client is the target. An 0800 number gives you the ability to provide a free call for your clilent, but you have to pay the cost instead. So answering spoof calls on a daily basis can soon stack up on your bill, particularly if you’re paying by the minute as opposed to by the second.

So the choices I considered were as follows:

1. switch to an 0845 number
2. bare with it and reasses

An 0845 number usually has costs associated with it also, but these are generally rental costs and not call costs as with an 0800 number, so spoofers wouldn’t be costing you money by the call, but this doens’t rule out trying to drive custom away from the number provider.

As it happens, I chose to bare with it and reasses, and I’m pleased to say that the wrong number calls to my 0800 number have now stopped altoghether.

To be honest, the whole spoofing setup seemed like a small operation (just 2 recordings).

Who knows.

It did cost me a little time and much frustration as the calls mounted up, hence this is worth posting in the scams & warnings section.

If the CLI spoofing occurs again I will consider moving to an 0845 number.

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