Constant "no number calls" since moving to IP Telephone from landline (Home) (Resolved)

[Chris_Myers]

My area has recently been migrated from landline to IP telephony which seems to work well with one exception.  My received calls report 10-20 daily calls from "no number".  There is no call made (no ringing) and no message left, just a report that "no number" called and a time.  OFCOM state it should be addressed to the provider and the Telephone preference service state they can do nothing with marketing or computer generated calls.  This did not happen until switched to IP telephony and has been daily since (coincidentally - I think not).  This appears to be a man-in-the-middle network attack and is therefore worrying (as well as filling my recent calls with rubbish).  Virgin media say they cannot see these calls, yet their system records it on my recent calls log. Anyone else having this problem or have a resolution?

[MOD EDIT: Please see post for an update ]

[chelmoo]

That's interesting; I notice this morning that the seven calls on my list (since yesterday afternoon) have changed from 4 minutes to 5 overnight. I wonder how many it will go through (or how many times it will go through the whole ten digits) before we get a resolution?

What is disappointing is that the engineer made a big point of recommending friends and family and we had thought of getting my father-in-law to make the swap. But if this happened to him he would go absolutely bananas....just as well we didn't.

[Vikki_M]

Hi @chelmoo

Thank you for the update.

We will get back to you as soon as we know more. 

Thank you for your patience whilst we look into this. 

[Chris_Myers]

2o Sep2022. I was called by virgin media today and had a very frustrating conversation. The net result was “we” cannot see these calls which are affecting your phone number so you can block nuisance calls or change your phone number. This is just wrong on so many levels. I tried to explain that this was potentially a network attack on the mail servers that are computer generated against random numbers and that, without appropriate investigation, how do VM know where else in their system is affect/attacked. I suggested it be passed to the cyber security team to investigate and was told basically they were too busy to bother them. Just change you phone number and thanks for calling us. One month, several hours, meaningless conversation and no result. I suspect the call is now closed.

[Robert_P]

From the notes, the call was from the team we raised this with for investigation. We understand your frustration and appreciate the concern regarding this, if you decide to change your number please let us know and we will be happy to arrange this and in line with your concerns I will forward the details and information to the internet security team.

Rob

[chelmoo]

Do I take it that's the advice to me.....and everyone else? To change the number I've had for 25 years?

[Robert_P]

That would be your choice Chelmoo, I would wait until the internet security team have come back with something before changing as once it's done we can't alter it back.

Rob

[ModTeam]

Hi Chris_Myers,

I can assure you we are keen to provide a resolution to this matter. Although our new voice network does use IP to transport the voice service between the customer and the IP-voice-switch, these connections do not go over the public internet, and uses a private transport solution.

In regards to the calls you are receiving, so that we can provide some more answers could you confirm where you are seeing the 'received calls report' from? Is this on the handset itself?

Thanks
ModTeam

[Chris_Myers]

As stated previously, the Calls appear only in one place, in the Recent Calls List on the handset. For it to have been sent to the handset and to not actually be a call (this is different from withheld numbers etc.), I surmise this list is probably provided by the IP Telephony servers. 

As stated by myself and others it has not appeared before moving (in my case a BT DEC Phone system comprising an answer phone (no messages left) and 5 handsets) to Hub 5 and switching from Virgin Media landline to IP Telephony. 

The fact that it occurs on multiple users, seems to be related IP networking, and that Virgin Media state it cannot be seen at "their end" (not sure if these means the servers or admin application?) would suggest the possibility of a man-in-the-middle brute force network attack against a (computer generated) list of phone numbers. That, more than the simple annoyance of the repeated calls, would be the main worry (if it is undetected thus far, what damage is it doing and where within Virgin Media systems and therefore, potentially, their customers)?  This is why I flagged it as relevant to the Cyber security Team.

[Chris_Myers]

OOPS just noticed I've stated email servers when I meant Voicemail services.

[snozski]

Chris

This is clearly a bug with VOIP on the hub 5 nothing else , this is why they delayed the launch of the new hub for so long .  They even stated this multiple times (people with VOIP cant trial hub5)