TELECOM 247

> Friends of mine went on holiday from the UK to Paris in January.
>
> When their BT bill arrived recently, it included two 0845 calls
> costing approx. Ł10 in total plus VAT, allegedly made whilst they
> were out of the country. They are an elderly, childless, married
> couple whose house was left locked and burglar alarmed during their
> absence abroad. Nobody else has legitimate access and no burglary
> has occurred. The phone inside the house and not in an outhouse,
> etc.
> BTs call centre which theyve rung several times (India of course
> - they could barely understand some of the operators!) says this
> could not happen and that someone must have used their phone in
> their absence, by some means or other.
>
> How are phantom calls of this kind created and whats to be done?
>
> Advice appreciated.

> Paul Clarke wrote:
>> Friends of mine went on holiday from the UK to Paris in January.
>>
>> When their BT bill arrived recently, it included two 0845 calls
>> costing approx. Ł10 in total plus VAT, allegedly made whilst they
>> were out of the country. They are an elderly, childless, married
>> couple whose house was left locked and burglar alarmed during their
>> absence abroad. Nobody else has legitimate access and no burglary
>> has occurred. The phone inside the house and not in an outhouse,
>> etc.
>> BTs call centre which theyve rung several times (India of course
>> - they could barely understand some of the operators!) says this
>> could not happen and that someone must have used their phone in
>> their absence, by some means or other.
>>
>> How are phantom calls of this kind created and whats to be done?
>>
>> Advice appreciated.
>
> You may be suprised how easy it is for your phone line to get unauthorized
> usage, especially with all the contractors working on the network. Tell
> them to keep on complaining & put it in writing as Openreach have a very
> poor view of such things happening, at the very least they should get
> their money back & quite possibly they may just some brainless drongo his
> cards.
>
> There is absolutely no reason for such thngs to happen as most PCPs have a
> line & the number of lines available in an exchange available for private
> calls is not small.
>

>
> Very many thanks. Most helpful. Just thinking, could it be someone who has a
> cordless phone on the same frequency or channel as my friends cordless?

> Friends of mine went on holiday from the UK to Paris in January.
>
> When their BT bill arrived recently, it included two 0845 calls costing
> approx. Ł10 in total plus VAT, allegedly made whilst they were out of th=
e
> country. They are an elderly, childless, married couple whose house was le=
ft
> locked and burglar alarmed during their absence abroad. Nobody else has
> legitimate access and no burglary has occurred. The phone inside the house=

> and not in an outhouse, etc.
>
> BTs call centre which theyve rung several times (India of course - they
> could barely understand some of the operators!) says this could not happen=

> and that someone must have used their phone in their absence, by some mean=
s
> or other.
>
> How are phantom calls of this kind created and whats to be done?

> Friends of mine went on holiday from the UK to Paris in January.
>
> When their BT bill arrived recently, it included two 0845 calls costing
> approx. Ł10 in total plus VAT, allegedly made whilst they were out of the
> country. They are an elderly, childless, married couple whose house was
> left locked and burglar alarmed during their absence abroad. Nobody else
> has legitimate access and no burglary has occurred. The phone inside the
> house and not in an outhouse, etc.
>
> BTs call centre which theyve rung several times (India of course - they
> could barely understand some of the operators!) says this could not happen
> and that someone must have used their phone in their absence, by some
> means or other.
>
> How are phantom calls of this kind created and whats to be done?
>
> Advice appreciated.
>

>Friends of mine went on holiday from the UK to Paris in January.
>
>When their BT bill arrived recently, it included two 0845 calls costing
>approx. Ł10 in total plus VAT, allegedly made whilst they were out of the
>country.

> Not disputing this, but Ł10 on 2 x 0845 calls must have been pretty
> long duration.