Virgin Media Community

[Charlotte74]

My parents have been getting many scam calls and I would like to change their phone number and take them ex directory - how do I do this?

[Jodi_S]

Hi Charlotte74,

A warm welcome and thanks for posting on our community forums. We can certainly understand your parents wanting to get their number changed due to nuisance calls, however before we do this for your parents, you can put a few things in place to see if you can prevent any further scam/spam calls. Check the link here https://www.virginmedia.com/help/landline/block-nuisance-calls.

If they still require a number change after trying the suggestions in the link above, it will need to be the account holder that contacts us through our community forums as we cannot change any telephone numbers without speaking with the account holder first.

You can either get the account holder to create their own community post, or call get them to call us on 150/0345 454 1111 and they can request this over the phone. 

Kind regards Jodi. 

[nodrogd]

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@Charlotte74 wrote:

My parents have been getting many scam calls and I would like to change their phone number and take them ex directory - how do I do this?

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I ought to point out that both the above measures will not stop scam calls. These calls do not target specific numbers, but whole groups of numbers. The scammers use robot diallers to work through every possible number combination on each telephone exchange, so changing number will just send you to a different part of their “scan” of the exchange. Your parents will still get the calls every few weeks or so. These scammers are mostly based in India, & fake or clone UK based numbers to look legitimate. Going ex-directory will also have no effect. Robot diallers don’t look at the phone book or use directory enquiries. They just dial every number in a sequence, & if you are unlucky enough to be in that sequence you get a “silent” call (to test if there is a user at the other end) or a scam operator.

The only way to stop these calls is a call filter that only lets through recognised numbers. Look for phones with TruCall technology built in.