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 ]

[Client62]

@Kain_W

Please raise a ticket  & post the ticket number back to this thread.
Feel free to use these words.

VOIP Ghost Calls / Direct IP Calls (SPIT)

Customers suffering this issue should note that this is not a traditional call to your telephone number, don’t inconvenience yourself by requesting a number change. The lack of a ring signal may be the only thing preventing customers being spoken to by a spam/scam caller. 

From the customer’s perspective connecting a telephone instrument to an RJ11 socket of a Hub(3/4/5) is using an analogue telephone service and it is quite reasonable to expect a similar fuss free telephone service.

From Virgin Media’s perspective they are a VOIP operator, with responsibility for the service operation including customer line security.

The current situation of customers receiving calls that present on telephones with a blank caller id and no ring tone are Direct IP calls made to the customer’s public IP address on port 5060 the default in bound SIP port. A Direct IP call could be from a true VOIP phone but far more likely it is bulk calls from a computer script to xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:5060 the public IP address of the Hub.

VM Hubs have SIP ALG enabled and from what we see have inbound Direct IP call answer enabled, but do not appear to have a ring cadence pattern set for this call type, hence the call is silent.

VOIP providers usually advise customers how to avoid being exposed to Direct IP calls from the public internet so as to avoid nuisance calls.

Virgin Media might like to consider implementing the most common and effective approaches to preventing Direct IP calls, these are either HUB ATA firmware changes and/or VOIP platform changes…

Disable Direct IP calls (Hub)
Only permit genuine telephone calls via the registered SIP proxy,  i.e. restrict in bound and out bound calls to those that will be shown on customer bills.

Use a non-standard SIP ports (Hub & VOIP platform)
Change the UDP ports number to remove the known in bound attack surface at UDP 5060.

Disable SIP ALG (Hub)
To stop routing uninvited UDP 5060 SIP traffic from the public internet to the HUB’s Analogue Telephone Adaptor.

[lenworth]

We keep getting messages from different members of the VM team and each one does not look back at the history of this issue. We have been told numerous times that the problem has been put in the hands of your tech team and that they are working on a fix. We just want to know when.

There have been over 400 messages on this thread now!

John

[1malcolmgeorge]

I do not know about a "ticket" but Kevin (a Mod) arranged for the engineer to visit my home. The engineer checked the connections and pronounced them as in order and that it was not something he knew how to fix. He said he would report to the team who should be dealing with it/

One Waits and Hopes!

[1malcolmgeorge]

Thanks for input but how does one raise a ticket. I originally called Virgin media faults and it was they who advised checking the forum

[1malcolmgeorge]

Paulina, I originally created an individual post but was subsequently advised about the existence of these posts and advised to add my post to it. My original complaint was in October, others are months older.

Is it not possible to get the leader of the Team responsible for the release and subsequent rectification process to stand up, be counted and explain why, what, when and how the problem occurred and the rectification solution.

5 months of these problems is surely time for someone to resolve the problem

[Chris_Myers]

See message 365 for latmanagement update received!

[Chris_Myers]

Sorry - finger trouble - latest management update received at message #365

[cheile48]

I've noticed that over the past few days that the number of "calls" received each day is slightly reducing. Could this mean that something is being done about this issue? It is still ridiculous that VM is still wrestling with the matter over eight months since it emerged, doesn't really inspire confidence in their capabilities.

[Client62]

When a fix is in place you will know, the Ghost Calls will totally vanish.

I wrote post 401 of this thread having concluded VM did not have a grip on this issue or its mitigations.

[Woodbutcher1234]

No chance, if anything I am getting more calls!

Lost all faith in VM, I signed a contract on a recommendation, bad decision. Can't change without losing a lot of money.