Phone Hacked - ???

Posted by: Mike-B on 15 September 2018

I had a phone call this morning "This is Shirley (N.American accent) from your ISP .... we will be disconnecting your broadband.... "    OK no probs with that,  I get similar calls on an almost daily basis.  Although I post them into my 1572 junk call box, it's a waste of time because whoever is doing this just comes through on a new number & always a UK area code.    

Since this mornings call I have been inundated with genuine people 'calling me back' & saying I called them.  I spoke with BT including their security service:  They don't see a problem with my account or line,  its not been compromised & it does not show I've made a shed-load of outgoing calls.

Any one had similar & if so how did you fix it.   ??

Posted on: 15 September 2018 by Simon-in-Suffolk

Mike, almost certainly your telephone account hasn’t been hacked... certainly if BT confirm that... however.......

in the world of almost ubiquitous SIP telephony integration with PSTN and mobile networks it can be fairly  easy for a rogue to insert whatever present number they want in a SIP Invite message into the PSTN. This could be your phone number. Now in the UK SIP service providers have an Ofcom obligation (for calling consumers) to validate presentation numbers being offered by the calling parties using the SIP service. However in some situations total trust is given to the calling party, and if they are hacked and compromised or indeed a rogue operation, your number can be masqueraded (essentially it just a text string) and it is nothing to do with BT or who ever holds your legitimate number. 

In your situation I can’t think of a reliable solution, other than I know if commercially an organisation receives a  criminal call masqarading with your number.. it sometimes/often  can be traced, and if they have received your call using a SIP trunking service with a commercial grade carrier the call can be usually traced to a SIP network address (which is separate to the masqueraded telephone number) after the event (though one needs to work quite quickly).  This can then become a criminal matter.

The chances you are not alone and if a major compromise may well be under investigation... in which case it will probably stop .

Posted on: 15 September 2018 by Mike-B

Thanks Simon,  you confirmed my suspicions if I understand your technical terminology correctly;   in simple-speak = the rouge ISP scammer used my phone number as a caller display to make a block of auto calls.   BT Security have since come back & offered the same explanation.   

Posted on: 15 September 2018 by Gazza

I get this call at least twice a day from Shirley that she with the U.S accent will disconnect my BT broadband. I am with virgin media broadband....annoying but just one of the many.

Posted on: 17 September 2018 by Simon-in-Suffolk
Mike-B posted:

....   BT Security have since come back & offered the same explanation.   

Posted on: 17 September 2018 by Mike-B

I've not had a call from Shirley today,  wonder what I've done to upset her, I'm feeling really guilty - not 

Posted on: 22 September 2018 by Bart

We get similar calls in the States. The funniest are those done with a computer voice, telling me they are from our Internal Revenue Service (national government tax collecting authority) and that they have a warrant for my arrest and unless I call back and make payment the "cops" will arrest me.

I also get calls from India telling me my MS Windows has a security problem.  Of course I only own OS X machines . . .