Virgin Media Community

[Anonymous]

I recently received my home phone bill and I have a call on there for 2 hours for a charge of £20 for a call I did not make! Is this an example of spoofing and how can I prove I did not make this call from my landline? 

[goslow]

Plenty of past examples on here for phantom call charges (if that's what you have got).

Usual questions are whether your phone connects via the phone socket on the VM hub (21CV/'VOIP' connection) or via a conventional telephone wall socket.

Does the bill identify the prefix/dialling code of the alleged number being dialled? Past examples include expensive 09 numbers, 084 and international?

[Anonymous]

Hello

My phone is plugged in via a conventional wall socket.

I do not use my landline at all, I only have one for a cheaper deal on my broadband, tv and phone package. I have a single call on my itemised calls bill for the duration of 120:00 to a 01923 number in Watford.

[goslow]

A common feature of these phantom calls mentioned on here is that the customer doesn't use the phone line and, often, doesn't even have a phone plugged in.

Usual explanation for a conventional phone socket connection is a 'crossed line' somewhere back in the system.

VM will usually offer to send a technician to investigate. If they identify such a fault you should be reimbursed.

One of the VM forum team should reply here in a day or two and help you with this.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for your replies. I have tried calling VM directly to talk about this but all I was told was they couldn't help me and I have to pay the bill, no attempts to actually help figure out why I am being charged. Very frustrating.

[goslow]

You should get a better, more helpful, reply from the VM forum team on here. The VM telephone support typically are just reeling off answers from an on-screen script.

Other common features of the phantom calls are they go on for a very long or very short period of time or very exact periods of time e.g. multiple short calls of 1 second etc. or calls at unsocial hours in the early hours of the morning.

Do you know what time the call was placed?

Have you actually tried calling the number (during a free call time so as not to generate another charge) and see what it connects to (business, residential etc.)? You should then be able to confirm it has nothing to do with you.

Do you have anything else connected to the line which might generate a charge (security alarms, care alarms, call blockers etc.)? On a past topic a call blocker was ringing out and generating charges.

Wait for the forum team to advise when they get here.

[Anonymous]

The call is recorded for a very specific duration of 120:00 minutes at 16:25. I tried calling the number today from my mobile and it just connects to a random persons home phone but not sure how this can be used to confirm I did not make the call and do not even know this person.

I have a second call recorded for a duration of 1:00 but because this is below £0.50 I do not know the number or time.

I do not have anything else plugged in to the line.

[goslow]

You just need to record what has happened (and you've already done some investigation) and demonstrate that the pattern of the calls (exact timings of very long and very short durations to numbers you have no connection with) do fit with the previous patterns of phantom calls which have cropped up on here in the past.

Reports of these phantom calls on here average out at around 4 per month for this kind of thing.

I'm sure VM know what all the likely causes and explanations for this are but topics like this are usually whisked off to private messages by the forum team ASAP. Final explanations and resolutions for such topics rarely ever come back to the public forum.

[Anonymous]

I have never had this happen to me before. I don't ever make calls from my home phone, I only receive spam calls. I certainly have no connection to this number I allegedly called, which VM surely should be able to see from my account history. I will wait to hear from someone from the VM team.

Thank you for your replies.

[Molly_T]

Hi Fraser, welcome to the community! Thank you for posting.

Also thanks to other members of the community on this thread for their helpful responses and insight so far. 

As they advised, I will need to send you a PM to confirm a few details to look into this further for you. You will find the PM in your Inbox in the top right corner of the page. 

We can return to the public thread with an update as soon as possible! 

All the best.