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Unwanted 'phone' calls.

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Nigel Goodwin

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Just wondering if anyone can clear up what's been happening here recently?.

My home phone is connected via Voip (as I cancelled my landline completely a year or two ago) using a Grandstream HT-702 Voip adaptor, feeding a Panasonic Dect phone with four handsets.

About a week ago we started getting loads of nuisance calls, some had caller ID of 401 - which seemed strange?, but I was able to simply add that number to the call barred list in the phone.

The other calls though were like nothing I've seen before, no caller ID, and the ringing didn't pulsate - it was continuous, so never triggered the answer phone in the Panasonic. If you answerd the phone all you got was a regular beeping. As this went on throughout the night, I unplugged the phone entirely.

As a solution I've bought and installed a CallBlocker, and set it to refuse all withheld numbers (and various others as well), and this appears to have solved the problem.

But has anyone any idea what these calls are?, and why it's a continuous ringing signal?.
 
I am sure your system is different from the US's. Typically, when nuisance calls happen and no one is on the other end when the phone is answered, it is a sign that some piece of scum is checking to see if the line is active. According to the many threads on this matter, the cretins who sell our numbers get a premium for selling only confirmed numbers.

The US has had a "do not call list" for many years that is supposed to be respected. Unfortunately, the measure was passed and allowed only a civil penalty, which means the offended party has to identify the caller, serve them with a lawsuit, and win in court. Damages are very limited, e.g. $500 to $1000 for all that effort. The hardest part is to identify the caller who often is not in the US, but uses spoofed numbers. I have even seen my own home number on caller ID when receiving one of these nuisance calls. Such calls are not considered harassment in the legal sense, so law enforcement can't help.

My solution is not to answer the phone unless I recognize the party, and whenever I am at home, I turn off call answering. Even when I am not at home, I usually leave it off unless expecting a call.

John
 
My home phone is like a junk e-mail box; if they need a number for some purchase or other I give that out. So, everything I don't want goes there; been that way for ten years. Anyone that knows me calls my cell; if I don't recognize the caller I don't answer.

kv
 
Do you have a static IP ?

I vaguely remember someone having this issue when they opened the incoming ports manually for their VOIP adapter and it got "hacked" - spammers could make direct incoming calls to the phone system without going through the carrier.
 
That would present a nuisance, but the real worry with VOIP is access to your outgoing line or indeed your account. You only discover they have it when your bill shows someone called the Moon and everywhere in between, every day for an hour last month. There's no disputing that it came from your phone, it just wasn't you that made the calls. It's even more of a risk if you have a small PBX open to abuse from the web...
 
Do you have a static IP ?

I vaguely remember someone having this issue when they opened the incoming ports manually for their VOIP adapter and it got "hacked" - spammers could make direct incoming calls to the phone system without going through the carrier.

As far as I know it's not a static IP, but as it's pretty well never disconnected it probably never changes very often :D
 
That would present a nuisance, but the real worry with VOIP is access to your outgoing line or indeed your account. You only discover they have it when your bill shows someone called the Moon and everywhere in between, every day for an hour last month. There's no disputing that it came from your phone, it just wasn't you that made the calls. It's even more of a risk if you have a small PBX open to abuse from the web...

My Voip service is PAYG, so I can't get a big (or indeed any!) bill :D

I've checked my Voip web control page, no unknown calls made, and indeed no trace of the unwanted calls with no ID either?

Not had a single call (of any type!!!) since I fitted the CallBlocker - although I've obviously rung it myself and made sure it accepts calls OK.

If anyone is interested?, this is the one I bought:

https://www.cprcallblocker.com/
 
As far as I know it's not a static IP, but as it's pretty well never disconnected it probably never changes very often :D
Have you manually opened any ports on your Router / Gateway ? It could be that open ports are attracting the phone spammers.
 
That could be where the issue is - it could also be a total red herring.

I remember a similar discussion a couple of years ago on a different forum - the solution was to use a non standard incoming port for your VOIP - have a read through here : https://www.dslreports.com/forum/r2...ls-from-name-number-100-that-don-t-get-logged
https://www.obitalk.com/forum/index.php?topic=4067.0

As above - possibly a red herring but certainly worth looking into .

Thanks for that, I'm not using the standard port anyway - but it seemed a good idea.

So I checked the support forums for my Voip adaptor, and someone had asked a similar question - with the answer been to alter some settings in the adaptor to essentially only accept actual Voip calls, and ignore any 'probes'.

I've done that now, so possibly that will cure the issue, although the callblocker has already done so (but worth having anyway for the extra blocking facilities :D)
 
Fingers crossed that sorts the issue :) I've got one of those strange memories for random facts and I remember the most bizarre stuff while not being able to remember what I had for breakfast this morning lol.
 
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