atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Wiring - Telecom Carriers - Trunks & Services Telecom Service & Providers Weird Calls/#'s on 800 Incoming Bill, Stumped

On our 800 number bill we consistantly have about 100 to 150 incoming calls per month from a number in Philadelphia. We are in Texas. Calling that number a recording says it is not a working number. This has been going on for seveal years. Prior to that it was a different number from Philadelphia.

Call duration varies from .6 to 12+ minutes. Calls are received with time on them during the day and even when we are not open and no one is there at night. This is NOT an internal employee problem.

The phone company the number is assigned to is Broadview and I've found out their customer who the number is assigned to is an Internet Lead Tracking company. They haven't been much help tracking the problem down. AT&T, our carrier hasn't been much help either. The number is a DID line.

When I contacted the Lead Tracking outfit they said the number was not assigned and then she said she would "disable" it.

I want to get to the bottom of this because it has forced me to go to a higher tier block for LD service and at times it even goes over that. AT&T just wants me to put call block on our main hunt line. That may work but it is only a bandaid not a solution. Additionally, we get calls from Mexico and other countries that call block would block.

Our phone guys came out and checked our Panasonic switch and said they could not see any way someone is dialing in and redialing out. We don't have any options from AT&T on the lines that would allow that.

I suspect someone has figured a way to hack AT&T billing and transfer bills to other users. Sounds far out but when they can't figure it out what else is someone supposed to think.

Any ideas on this would be greatly appreciated

Can't help but can offer a suggestion.

Do you have call tracking software installed in your phone system? Or at least can you track the SMDR feature of your phone system to see if the calls are actually making into your phone system? Match up the times to SMDR to confirm.

One other thought is that it could be some type of an LD reseller. A company that could provide LD voip services from computers. If someone uses their computer to make calls, (something like Skype) this could be one of the nodes that calls originate from.

Can't figure out the night time calls unless you have voicemail taking messages from the caller.

I agree. You really need to be able to track those calls so you can tell what happens when you answer them and who is on the other end. Right now you have no way to monitor whether your 800# billing is even correct.

I'm going to assume also here that with over 100-150 calls per month either there is a billing error or if they are being answered you would notice that many wrong numbers. Certainly those lasting 12+ minutes must be for something.

I think all you have to do is nail down a few of those calls to get an idea of what's going on.

-Hal

The fact that you can't call this number is actually fairly common. If the offender's account is a PRI, the number shown could just be their BTN (billing telephone number) which is almost always a fictitious number. If they are not sending a legitimate number in their outbound calling string, then the BTN shows by default.

The area/exchange codes shown may indicate the original owner of the code (Broadview), but that doesn't mean that some other service provider hasn't snagged the number via number portability. Still, you are on the right track in seeking Broadview's help.

If the calls were all very short, I'd chalk this up as a typical automatic dialer programming mistake. That would make perfect sense, but the 12+ minute calls warrant an internal investigation on your system's end as others have said. It is very rare for an illegitimate call to last that long unless your voice mail/auto attendant lacks the ability to drop them. That is always tough to pinpoint.

I'm with everyone else that you'll need an SMDR printout from your system at a minimum to truly get to the bottom of this matter.

I am going to harass the Lead Tracking company today. Not enough to @#$# them off, just enough to hold their feet to the fire. I'll let you all know how it goes. I need to talk to our phone techs and find out about the SMDR angle.

Thanks for the help.

Dave

Block the calls from other countries, except Canada, if you don’t need that service.
It’ll be to late if you wait for the phone bill.

Problem Solved..

We use an Internet SEO (search engine optimization) company.

We have a different 800 number (they call it a virtual 800 number) on our web site that was pointing to our normal 800 line instead of our company main telco line.

That still doesn't solve the calls that have time on them when we are closed but that could just maybe be an employee that lives in a trailer on the property. There aren't many after hours calls with time on them.

They are still apologizing for the screw up.

Thanks for all the help

Thanks for letting us know the resolution. Hope you figure out the long duration calls soon.