New landline phone number not working - Scammers can still call

[iandavid]

My Father is 88 years old has been the victim of multiple scammers recently who have taken him for around £34,000  After a lot of convincing he agreed to change his home phone number.  He had a call on the 18th January with a customer service rep from Virgin media who told him that the phone new phone number would be active within the next 48 hours. He was informed of the new phone number and proceeded to email all his trusted contacts with the new phone number. 2 days later the phone number is not active and the old number still works. The scammers keep calling him.  He put in a complaint to Virgin C-1601241656 and received a reply on the 24th. The response is a joke. Just a bunch of AI generated garbage. He has since emailed the communications ombudsman. 

Is there someone at Virgin who can check to see if his new phone number is activated. Our whole family is  worried he is still open to these scammers. Please help. 

He is on fibre and has his mobile, landline and Tv all with Virgin Media. 

[Zach_R]

Hi @iandavid,

Thank you for your post and welcome to our community forums. We're here to help.

I'm so sorry to hear of what happened to your father, and that there appears to be an ongoing issue related to his current landline contact number. Please respond to the private message that I'll be sending to you shortly and we can assist you further from there.

Thanks,
 

[nodrogd]

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@iandavid wrote:

Is there someone at Virgin who can check to see if his new phone number is activated. Our whole family is  worried he is still open to these scammers. Please help. 

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Changing landline numbers is only a temporary fix. Scammers operate by using auto-diallers that dial thousands of consecutive numbers simultaneously, eventually dialling every number on an exchange. So sooner or later they will ring again when they get to his new number. If there is a response from the number it is tagged as active & the scam centre callers will follow up. I would also point out that all telephone numbers, especially landline numbers are recycled & will have had a previous user. This previous user could have been a company, or someone with bad debts, hence the possibility of more unwanted calls.

The scam call centres are based in India, & as our ageing telephone infrastructure cannot tell where an internet originated call is coming from neither the authorities or the telephone providers can currently stop them. Even if the phone is linked to an internet hub, landline calls are still routed through a traditional switched exchange.

[crump]

I did reply but got a message to say dont send private messages. I am the account holder and would like to talk to someone as my land line still has not ben changed as promised

John Chapman [MOD EDIT: Personal info]

[Steven_L]

Hey crump,

Welcome to the community and thanks for taking the time to post here on the forums. I’m sorry to hear of the issues that you’re having with your landline at the moment.

Private messages are only accepted if you have been invited by a member of the team to send one over to us. I would be happy to take a further look into this for you but first I would need to confirm a few details via private message, please look out for my message and we can get started.
Kind Regards,
Steven_L