So,

A couple of days back, my OH got a message left on her mobile, caller was an unknown mobile number. Paraphrasing, “hi [name], it’s dad, just ringing to say happy birthday. Also, can you give us a ring, you’ve not answered any of our emails or texts and we’re really worried.” The [name] was my OH’s actual first name, and the caller sounded genuinely worried.

So far so big coincidence, right?

Just had another one now, different voice, “hi, is that [name]?” (same name.

My OH replied, yes it is, who’s this?

Question, “what’s your surname?”

OH, “I’m not giving you my surname, you rang me! I think you must have the wrong number.”

“Yes, I must have. Sorry. Bye!”

So two separate people have called, both knowing her first name. No attempt at a scam so far, no pressuring into revealing further info beyond a passing request for her full name which could arguably be a legitimate question (if I’d rung someone and got a strange voice claiming to be someone I knew, I’d probably have asked the same thing).

Googling both source numbers leads me to a website – uk-book.info. This site superficially lists people’s phone books, but the data looks random, the names sound false. Googling the site tells me that a couple of people have found their own numbers on there (against random names), but nothing further than that.

What’s going on here? Monumental coincidence? Or something else? All I can think is a namesake has given out their number incorrectly; but even then, why would someone say they’d sent texts (presumably to the same number in their phone book) when nothing’s been received? If it’s a scam it’s not one I can immediately comprehend.

No idea, but I approve of a mod posting in the wrong forum.

Just done a WhoIs on that domain.

http://whois.domaintools.com/uk-book.info

Says it’s registered to “Blue Shield Publishing” in Delaware. Googling them suggests they’ve other similar sites; http://fr-annu.com/ for one, ostensibly a French version of the same thing, and http://call0049.com/ which is a German one.

Feels like this is a red herring to me, but it’s a bloody weird one.

No idea, but I approve of a mod posting in the wrong forum.

Oh, plums. Fixed.

Curiouser and curiouser.

Googling her number – and mine for that matter – also point to that site where our numbers are listed (with spurious data). So I guess question #2 is, anyone here not listed if you google your own number?

I found the sites mentioned on a French page,

http://www.stop-harcelements.net/p/harcelement-prive.html

If Google Translate is to be believed, it’s suggesting that if your number’s on the site then you’re at risk of identity theft by a “mafia network of spammers,” which sounds like scaremongering to me. They could readily be made up numbers, there’s no other info.

maybe they are calling hoping that there’s no answer and a convincing message is left,( as happened )so that you phone them back on a rip off scam rate. When you answer they then cannot leave a message so they just ask for more information ( such as a surname – which happened) that could then be used to leave further even more effective messages in the future by either them or other scamming friends. They may receive a fee for this info. from their friends – first and surname – being the most valuable)? Then it maybe – Your nan’s name, your doctors name etc etc. The more info they keep getting from people the more the value and effectiveness.. and so the network goes on.

maybe….

Just Googled my mobile number, and the only hit I got was from this one from around 2010:
http://www.matteoweb.it/scripts/elenco-numeri/comment-page-34/?qr=xno_phone_numbers&prefix=787&last=160000

so that you phone them back on a rip off scam rate.

Yeah – it wasn’t an 070 “personal” number though, it was a regular mobile number.

I appreciate that not all scams originate from foreign climes, but they sounded like genuine people. First guy had a West Country accent and, as I said earlier, sounded genuinely concerned; second was “quite well spoken” according to my OH.

I am in somebody’s phone book on that site too! My name is Reynaldo Molloy. I kinda like it y’know.

I’m Aves Ray

Had a few fonej**cker type calls a number of years ago..hence the suspicion..

maybe the caller had a genuine reason to phone and did not know the number of their son/daughter/relative and may not have been in contact with them for some time etc etc. They may have been incorrectly diverted to said mobile from another source, and were just unsure if the number was correct upon phoning,hence the further questions?

it’s probably innocent enough although thinking about it I had an odd call prolly about the same time as said FJ saying..it’s grandad(my name wasn’t mentioned) happy birthday. sounding really upbeat and jolly.. please call me..and that was it. I wonder if my name was on my voicemail whether the call would have been personalized. Probably just a wrong number though.. just struck me as odd at the time as no name of the caller was mentioned, or anything else mentioned within the message.. I may be wrong but i think most grandads who hadn’t spoken for a while would usually have a bit more to say.

if you’d not have answered any of the text’s then ‘dad’ and other said ‘relative’ would both have a number that was different to OH. unless OH rec’d texts. Also ‘our text’s’ suggests more than one so it’s unlikely the text’s went missing to OH phone. If they had texted another number then why use the number for OH for the phone call ( unless the had assumed the number was incorrect and then incorrectly obtained OH number somehow based in first name. Does seem a bit odd. Maybe check to see if an unknown call was missed beforehand that may have revealed via VM the OH first name. Also if a call went to Voicemail but no voicemail was left/activated it’s possible the call would not came up as either a VM or a missed call and OH name still revealed.

The NSA just had a new batch of interns start working for them… 😉

Do you work with Hoonose, by any chance? 😉

Heh.

Answering machine OGM is a good shout; just checked though, it’s the stock message, her name’s not on it.

*tin foil hat*
It’s a ploy by Google to get you to search for your number.
*/tin foil hat*

Mine number’s listed on uk-book.info in “The phone book of Mather Chantel”, and also on ukphonenumber.net and mobilephones-uk.com – those last two seem to just be a big list of sequential numbers with no linked info.

My number is in the phonebook of ‘Ould Delores’. I reckon scam – I checked the phonebook and the numbers were scattered from all over the UK. I live in Nottingham but am Welsh so my telephone numbers are mainly the Nottingham/Derby area plus some in Wales.

They put random numbers up in some “internet phonebook”, having no idea who the numbers belong to. Someone googles their own number for whatever reason and finds Dodgy Ken’s Internet Phonebook has their number listed against a Gary McShit living in Dorking.

At this point, you’re supposed to say “ooo, I’m not Gary McShit”, and email Dodgy Ken with your correct details. From this point on your mobile number is sold to every scammer in the world and is buried under a pile of spam. Your identity is stolen, and you live out the rest of your days in a Colombian prison helping other gentlemen pick up the soap.

That sounds plausible. I’d have expected a big “click here to correct your entry” button if that were the case though?

Like I say, weird.

What mrbelowski said – I think it’s a way of getting people to update the fake/randomly generated listing with the correct details, so they collect real name/number combinations for whatever purpose.

http://uk-book.info/

Big “click to correct” button in orange bottom right of the page.

DO NOT CLICK THAT BUTTON!

(And beware orange buttons on the bottom right!)

probably just googling your own number and clicking thru to the site is enough to confirm a probable valid number, since iirc google and co. pass search terms thru to searched-for website and/or analytics etc.

edit: and I never answer any phone if I don’t know who it is. if it’s important, they’ll leave message, email or something. voicemail is stock default on every phone, but that’s mainly because I CBA to record a custom one.

maybe just google the number obtained with the words scam and see what comes up. Think there’s sites that people list odd numbers on

edit – you’ve done that already

Big “click to correct” button in orange bottom right of the page.

Aha! I’d overlooked that. Cool, can put that side of it to bed now at least.

well done mrbelowski 🙂

probably just googling your own number and clicking thru to the site is enough to confirm a probable valid number, since iirc google and co. pass search terms thru to searched-for website and/or analytics etc.

Ooh, knackers, I hadn’t thought of that. Good shout.

I never answer any phone if I don’t know who it is. if it’s important, they’ll leave message, email or something.

I do this now. I pretty much never answer the landline, as there was a period a couple of years ago where pretty much every time I did it was an automated PPI message, or a surprisingly/suspiciously high number of wrong numbers asking for random people.

Likewise for mobile- if it’s someone I don’t know with a genuine reason to get in touch they can send a text or leave a message.

IMO this isn’t helped by genuine calls that are so hard to understand they sound like scams- Virgin, I’m looking at you here.
Someone with a thick accent tells you the company name, which you can’t understand. You ask them again, and still can’t catch it. Then they ask you to confirm your address, when you still have no idea who they are. At that point I tell them they can send me something in the post if it’s important.

Maybe that’s a bit paranoid, but TBH I can’t really be bothered with it in my old age!

I never answer any phone if I don’t know who it is. if it’s important, they’ll leave message, email or something.

We got so sick of cold calls that we’ve replaced our landline phones with a cheap £4 phone, with the ringer turned off. We’ve told all our friends and family to phone our mobile.

This does mean Microsoft don’t have any means of phoning me to tell me about the virus on my computer, and we’ll be unaware of the government grant we’ve not claimed, but…

Aaaand, mystery solved.

Just got an email from my OH,

“A lady [with the same first name] at [previous workplace] has been given my old work phone and it did indeed have call forwarding set up on it. She’s now removed it”

We thought of erroneous call forwarding yesterday, but discounted it as we’d have expected caller ID to show the referring phone.

Cheers all. We can stand down with the tinfoil now.

I just googled my phone number, and found a posting on a soviet(!, i.e. .su domain) forum that contains my name, email address, (old, well 2 years ago) home address, phone number, and (now expired) full credit card number, expiry date, CV2… crikey!

😯

Turns out it’s a forum for dodgy people to exchange / sell stolen credit card details. Slightly surprised that it’s not blocked by the work web filters, but there you go. Also turns out that at the time of posting, the details posted were all defunct. Still, it would be rather easy to get my name, address, email address and knowledge of which bank I use from it!

Cougar – Moderator

Aaaand, mystery solved.

Just got an email from my OH,

“A lady [with the same first name] at [previous workplace] has been given my old work phone and it did indeed have call forwarding set up on it. She’s now removed it”

We thought of erroneous call forwarding yesterday, but discounted it as we’d have expected caller ID to show the referring phone.

Cheers all. We can stand down with the tinfoil now.

So you’re falling for that old scam! 😉