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Juk · 20-03-2008, 22:20

Sorry for the essay but this is really complicated and extremely stressful.

We have been good customers of Telewest/Virgin Media for over ten years. We have never faulted a payment and never had any serious problems with our phone line, internet or T.V. packages.

On 26th January 2008 an Engineer from Virgin Media came out to repair a fault on our phone line (the line went dead for some reason on the 19th January) and since that exact date unknown mobile numbers started appearing on our telephone bill. Calls were being made to Yemen and Saudi Arabia which came to £147 on the phone bill. These calls were not made by us and only started on the date the engineer had came. Over the past our monthly bills for telephone calls have been around £20, with about 20-30 calls made – this bill had almost 250 made. We had also been receiving random phone calls from people we did not know saying our number had phoned them, sometimes at ridiculous hours like 2 a.m.

Another engineer came out from Virgin Media to check the physical line (green box outside house) and said there was NO problem on the line!

We asked for an investigation by Virgin Media and this was escalated to the fraud department. We also asked for a total call barring to go on the phone line to try and stop these hacked phone calls being made from our line. The current bill is totalling another £100 already. We were not told how to activate this call barring plus we had to wait a further 24 hours for it to be on our account as the previous advisor put a ban to premium rate numbers only on the account which needed 24 hours to remove. It was finally active on Thursday 28th February this is logged on the computer.

On the 2nd March we were very shocked and disturbed to receive another call from an unknown person who had received a call from OUR number which he obviously would not recognise. We did not phone this person. We rang Virgin Media immediately to see what had happened to the call barring; they said it was still active. We asked how someone could get around the call barring as only my mother knows the PIN number and hasn’t shared it anyone. The advisor this time was totally unhelpful and wasn’t the least bit interested.

So our account is still being charged for these calls we are not making.

We have gathered written evidence of our clocking-in records from the workplaces of all of us to prove we were out when some of these calls were being made.

We were put on soft disconnect about 2 weeks ago, no TV, no Internet and no usage of the calls - but they carried on (bill is now around £600).

Today we were told by the Fraud Department that this was NOT a case of illegal fraudulent use, which leaves us all destroyed.

We got back intouch with customer services and the woman my mother spoke to sounded very helpful and checked our records, we've NEVER even dialed a bloody international number in 10 years!!

Basically, 10+ years of fine service,
26th January Engineer comes to "fix" line,
huge amount of calls from that date,
2nd engineer came out to check line and said there was NO crossed wire or anything,
fraud squad says it's not hacked or illegal usage...

Does ANYONE have the slightest idea of what could of gone on? How/What could that engineer of done to us to make this happen? Is there anything that could of gone wrong with the lines on virgins end?

20-03-2008, 22:20	#1
Juk In need of help! Join Date: Mar 2008 Posts: 10	People making calls from our line... Sorry for the essay but this is really complicated and extremely stressful. We have been good customers of Telewest/Virgin Media for over ten years. We have never faulted a payment and never had any serious problems with our phone line, internet or T.V. packages. On 26th January 2008 an Engineer from Virgin Media came out to repair a fault on our phone line (the line went dead for some reason on the 19th January) and since that exact date unknown mobile numbers started appearing on our telephone bill. Calls were being made to Yemen and Saudi Arabia which came to £147 on the phone bill. These calls were not made by us and only started on the date the engineer had came. Over the past our monthly bills for telephone calls have been around £20, with about 20-30 calls made – this bill had almost 250 made. We had also been receiving random phone calls from people we did not know saying our number had phoned them, sometimes at ridiculous hours like 2 a.m. Another engineer came out from Virgin Media to check the physical line (green box outside house) and said there was NO problem on the line! We asked for an investigation by Virgin Media and this was escalated to the fraud department. We also asked for a total call barring to go on the phone line to try and stop these hacked phone calls being made from our line. The current bill is totalling another £100 already. We were not told how to activate this call barring plus we had to wait a further 24 hours for it to be on our account as the previous advisor put a ban to premium rate numbers only on the account which needed 24 hours to remove. It was finally active on Thursday 28th February this is logged on the computer. On the 2nd March we were very shocked and disturbed to receive another call from an unknown person who had received a call from OUR number which he obviously would not recognise. We did not phone this person. We rang Virgin Media immediately to see what had happened to the call barring; they said it was still active. We asked how someone could get around the call barring as only my mother knows the PIN number and hasn’t shared it anyone. The advisor this time was totally unhelpful and wasn’t the least bit interested. So our account is still being charged for these calls we are not making. We have gathered written evidence of our clocking-in records from the workplaces of all of us to prove we were out when some of these calls were being made. We were put on soft disconnect about 2 weeks ago, no TV, no Internet and no usage of the calls - but they carried on (bill is now around £600). Today we were told by the Fraud Department that this was NOT a case of illegal fraudulent use, which leaves us all destroyed. We got back intouch with customer services and the woman my mother spoke to sounded very helpful and checked our records, we've NEVER even dialed a bloody international number in 10 years!! Basically, 10+ years of fine service, 26th January Engineer comes to "fix" line, huge amount of calls from that date, 2nd engineer came out to check line and said there was NO crossed wire or anything, fraud squad says it's not hacked or illegal usage... Does ANYONE have the slightest idea of what could of gone on? How/What could that engineer of done to us to make this happen? Is there anything that could of gone wrong with the lines on virgins end? Last edited by Juk; 20-03-2008 at 22:25.