Forum Discussion

MrsEmmaB's avatar
MrsEmmaB
Joining in
10 months ago

Charged for calls not made

I’m being charged for calls made from my landline, but it is impossible as I have no phone plugged in to my landline and I never have. I have been calling for two months. Nobody has any answers or understands or knows what I’m trying to say when I say it’s not possible for me to have made them.
I have called the number from my bill and it seems to be a scam. When I google the number. It is a local area code but an automated voice on the other end.

Can anybody help us every time I call or speak to somebody on the chat I get nowhere. Thanks

  • Robert_P's avatar
    Robert_P
    Forum Team
    10 months ago

    Hello MrsEmmaB

     

    We're sorry to hear of the confusion caused by the charges applied to a recent bill for calls, we appreciate you taking the time to raise this via the forums and welcome to the community.

     

    We can see you have called and spoken to the team today, we trust they were able to resolve the issue for you and offer advice going forward.

     

    Rob

    • MrsEmmaB's avatar
      MrsEmmaB
      Joining in
      10 months ago

      Hi No unfortunately the issue is not resolved it’s like they don’t believe I’m not making the calls but if they came to my home they would see I have no phone and if they call the number they will see it’s some sort of scam so it needs looking in to they won’t refund me because apparently if my landline is active I must have made the calls it’s so frustrating 

      • Zach_R's avatar
        Zach_R
        Forum Team
        10 months ago

        Hi MrsEmmaB,

        I'm sorry to hear that. What was discussed and advised during today's call exactly?

        Thanks,
         

  • Client62's avatar
    Client62
    Alessandro Volta
    10 months ago

    VM's Horizon like telephone billing system strikes again !

    • MrsEmmaB's avatar
      MrsEmmaB
      Joining in
      10 months ago

      I take it I’m not the only person to have had calls charged without even having a phone ? 

      • Zach_R's avatar
        Zach_R
        Forum Team
        10 months ago

        Hi Emma,

        Though it can happen, it is rather rare. The technician will be able to check during their visit the cause.

        Thanks,
         

  • drcymru's avatar
    drcymru
    Joining in
    10 months ago

    I've just discovered I've been making phantom calls since last June.

    A small amount every month totaling £10.37. Is there anyone on the Forum Team who can help to sort this problem out for me (and the many others who seem to have the same problem)?

    • TimH255's avatar
      TimH255
      Tuning in
      7 months ago

      Just found this thread. I've had a small number of calls on my bill this month that I 100% have not made. Too early in the morning for one thing, but more importantly, we simply don't use the landline. As every family member has a mobile with unlimited minutes, there's no reason to. 

      Had a bizarre conversation with customer services though. They seemed more interested in offering me a new package. Still not resolved the issue.

      Apparently the calls must have been made from our landline, because the computer says so. My handset says otherwise and as the Post Office have recently had to own up to, computers aren't always right! 

      • goslow's avatar
        goslow
        Alessandro Volta
        7 months ago

        Do you see the numbers being called, dates, times, call charges etc.?

        Phantom call charges tend to follow certain patterns of dialling, times of day, call duration, numbers called etc.

  • MrsEileenS's avatar
    MrsEileenS
    Joining in
    5 months ago

    Hello. I just found this thread after searching if I could be charged for phone calls we haven’t made. We do have a landline phone but never use it and the phone calls I was charged for were made when we were out for the day. I also spoke to someone at  Virgin Media and was told that someone must have made the calls and that is why I have been charged. Our reaction was to disconnect the phone but looks like that’s not foolproof!

    • goslow's avatar
      goslow
      Alessandro Volta
      5 months ago

      Does your bill show the actual numbers being called or are they hidden in the sub-50p category of the call charges?

      How do you plug in your phone? Is it via a conventional telephone socket on the wall or does the service come in via the phone connection on the back of the VM hub?

      • MrsEileenS's avatar
        MrsEileenS
        Joining in
        5 months ago

        Hi. The bills show the actual numbers called. They are both to the same number which has  a Leeds area code and when I googled it it came up as a number associated with debt scam with a negative rating and over 25,000 searches on it.

        The phone is plugged into the VM hub.

  • goslow's avatar
    goslow
    Alessandro Volta
    5 months ago

    It would be more accurate to say that it is much less likely that phantom calls would happen on a phone line via the hub but it is not impossible. There have been past topics on here where landlines via the hub have run up phantom call charges. There have even been past topics where a conversion to a 21CV hub connection was implemented to mitigate against phantom call charges and yet the phantom calls continued.

    https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Home-Phone/Someone-is-using-my-landline-phone/td-p/4531065
    https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Home-Phone/Charged-for-calls-I-didn-t-make/m-p/4917581
    https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Home-Phone/Ghost-charges-to-international-numbers/td-p/4967252
    https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Home-Phone/Phantom-call-charge/m-p/5124250
    https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Home-Phone/Charged-for-unmade-calls/m-p/5141979
    https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Home-Phone/Ghost-call-charges-again/td-p/5192333

    A further 3 topics (where a 21CV connection was used) are in the forum archive

    https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Home-Phone/Getting-charged-for-phone-calls-I-have-never-made-as-there-is/td-p/4406247
    https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Home-Phone/I-ve-been-charged-for-calls-that-I-didn-t-make/td-p/4414274
    https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Home-Phone/charged-for-numbers-I-haven-t-rung/td-p/4416584


    @MrsEileenS

    If you are experiencing phantom call charges, they typically follow certain patterns. You may find calls of very short of very long duration or repeating calls which are an exact number of minutes. Calls may happen at unusual times of day and night (when no one would normally make a call). Some calls are to local numbers or a particular dialling code along with a random sequence of numbers after the dialling code.

    We have also seen some kind of scam/fraud charging taking place in the past on here but IIRC that was to do with premium rate 09 numbers.

    We have also seen cases where certain items of equipment in the home have run up unexpected call charges when they 'phone home' to a call centre etc. (such as some call blocker devices and security/care alarms). If you have anything like that connected to your line you may want to investigate those.

  • NW100's avatar
    NW100
    Joining in
    28 days ago

    I am having the same problem here.  The landline comes as part of my package but I don't have a handset connected to it (and never have, in fact I'm not even sure where the connection is), so it's literally impossible for me to have made any calls.  Some phantom charges appeared a couple of months ago, I phoned Virgin to ask them what was happening and the operative agreed to refund the charges - but while doing so very clearly refused to accept my point about the impossibility of having made the calls, and therefore without actually investigating what was happening or offering any explanation of (or solution to) the problem.  Now I have the same on this month's bill. It's not a significant amount of money but a) it shouldn't be anything, and b) what happens if next month it suddenly is significant?