Charged for calls I never made

Grandad99

My latest Virgin bill - phone, internet and TV - was nearly £20 more than usual.

The extra was for 4 calls to 0749, 0871 and 0872 numbers.

I dialled these numbers and received a "number not recognised" message for all of them.

Virgin say the calls were made from my phone but as I am the only user I know they were not. Virgin offered to send an engineer to check my phone saying if he found I had not made the calls the charges would be removed. if the calls had been from my phone I would have a £99 charge to pay.

If the engineer can interrogate my handset he will not find the calls but if someone has gained access to my line I risk a bill of £99.

Comments and advice very welcome.

Ian011

What were the actual numbers? It is possible that these were scam numbers that have subsequently been closed down.

Had the numbers worked, your test calls would have added several pounds to your next bill. It is dangerous to call unknown numbers.

jaybeetoo

Grandad99 wrote: »

Virgin offered to send an engineer to check my phone saying if he found I had not made the calls the charges would be removed. if the calls had been from my phone I would have a £99 charge to pay.

1. Virgin will not send an engineer. If you are lucky they will send a technician.

2. How is checking your phone going to prove you made the calls?

3. Have you Googled the numbers to see who they are for?

onomatopoeia99

jaybeetoo wrote: »

1. Virgin will not send an engineer. If you are lucky they will send a technician.

Unfortunately the majority of the British public and MSE posters don't know the difference between an engineer and a technician.

[Deleted User]

onomatopoeia99 wrote: »

Unfortunately the majority of the British public and MSE posters don't know the difference between an engineer and a technician.

TBF neither do Sky, Virgin et al.

DoaM

Does your phone keep a record of call history? If yes, can you see any of these calls in the history? (Apart from, obviously, the ones you say you actually made).

pmduk

Have you Googled the numbers as per reply #3?

Grandad99

Googled -"not registered with any phone company"

r2015

Had the numbers worked, your test calls would have added several pounds to your next bill. It is dangerous to call unknown numbers.

Years ago there was a telephone competition that if you were the 1000th caller you won £1000.


When you called you got an engaged tone so you hung up and tried again.


However the call was answered immediately so there was no ringing tone audible, and the engaged message was actually the message being played not the actual engaged tone so the call was in fact being answered and charged for.


So how do you know that the

"number not recognised" message

was genuine and not a message after the phone was answered?