Charges for calls I didn’t make or receive

[Ian0847]

I am in the US for eight weeks. I do not use my phone for calls while in the US – only for Wifi - unless there is a family emergency. My wife’s mobile is with a different provider, and her package provides inclusive calls without charge while we are over here so we use that.

I have just received my latest O2 bill and it includes £30 for “calls made/received while abroad”, from and to an unknown number - which I did not receive or make, and which do not show up on my iPhone under “all calls” or “calls missed”.

The number is 1 44 07829736461

They have been coming in most days since they started, and last 13 seconds. The times of the calls vary and on at least one day there are multiple calls. The charges indicate that the incoming call is responded to by an outgoing call from my phone also for 13 seconds. These are not made by me and again do not show up on my iPhone calls list.

As the calls do not ring or show up on my phone I have no way of blocking the offending number. I have also searched it on Google with no success. I do not wish to call it back as I suspect I will be hit with a very high charge.

I have called O2 help, They have kindly credited back the charges, but have told me there is no way of blocking the number or tracing who is making the calls. Apparently the only thing I can do is set my phone to Airplane Mode while I am abroad. 

Alternatively I was recommended to buy the Travel Bolt On, but that would simply cause a £6 charge to be implemented every time one of these unwanted calls was automatically responded to. That would result in paying even more than I am currently suffering!

so…… questions:

1. has anyone else had this problem?

2. does anyone know how to stop it?

3. does anyone know how to block the number, which, as I said, does not show up on my calls list?

Thank you.

[MI5]

SMS

[gmarkj]

Won't be that then!

[Ian0847]

Thanks for all the responses. Hopefully the problem has ceased for the moment as there have been no charges in the past few days.

That however leaves the question of how and why O2’s systems are charging me for “calls while abroad”, which I have never made nor received – or even cause my phone to ring – and which do not show up in the recent calls section on my iPhone.

My only recourse seems to be to check my billing details every day when I am abroad, but even then I am dependent on the goodwill of O2 to credit back any charges which occur for the mystery calls.

O2 themselves can offer no solution.

Very unsatisfactory!

[Enlli]

The number is listed as Jersey. So I got someone with international calling to test it. Coming back as unrecognised.

[MI5]

Most likely scammers with a spoofed number then.

[jonsie]

That's why I think it's an automatic reply which won't go through your phone logs

The operator taking 13 seconds to tell you it's an incorrect number

Did you make a contact for it and then block it?

[Ian0847]

Yes I did thanks.

[Geoff8]

I had the same problem, only difference is some of the calls I can identify as customers but they don’t appear as missed calls. They only appear on my bill as incoming lasting seconds. 02’s solution is put the phone on flight mode for the whole time I’m overseas! 
another forum suggested turning off voice mail.. I hope this will work. The strange thing is my wife’s phone, also 02 didn’t have the same issue, she had missed calls and voice mail and no charges against them. 
Ive sent a complaint to 02 because I’m not satisfied with their response and solution. 

[Oxonian]

@Geoff8 

My personal opinion is that your complaint will not resolve the matter to your satisfaction. 

However, do please keep us updated on developments.