I know that after being de-activated for so long mobile numbers get ‘recycled’ but I’ve recently had an issue with a number that’s been in my phone for years.
So I tried to call a friend three times yesterday, every time getting a very angry lady who does not approve of being phoned up by a stranger. I then used another mobile phone, copied the number exactly and managed to get through to my friend. When I tried on my own phone afterwards for a fourth time, I got through to my friend again.
I’ve never had this problem before with my friends number, and I call her almost everyday and if this little bit of information helps, when I told my friend what had happened she said her phone has been playing up all day and when she made calls herself she heard a noise on her phone that sounded like it was ‘under water’.
If someone else does have her same number, is this something she needs to be worried about? Maybe it’s a new scam or something? Or a glitch in the exchange? Or just explaining what’s happened would be much appreciated.
Scrambled calls are these-days always a problem in the exchange. And I’m really quite puzzled why it still happens.
Regarding mobile phones, my only real experience is with GSM phones and the phone number is set by the SIM card. It was possible to clone early SIM cards but not recent types.
With a cloned SIM card the network will swap constantly between two phones with the same card. However at any instant only one will be recognised and a call to or from that phone will stay with that phone.
So if your phone is GSM, it’s not malevolence, it’s incompetence that’s causing scrambled calls.
Wow. This would drive me insane. Is it only when you select the number from your contacts list that this happens? Or does it still happen if you physically enter the digits manually on your phone’s keypad?
Using Google Voice or similar can make one number ring multiple phones. Any line can pick up first. But it’s not something that can normally happen unintentionally. It’s been awhile since I set one up but I believe you have to confirm the number and can’t sign up strangers.
No, the phone number is NOT in the SIM card, you can change phone number while keeping same SIM card.
So, there’s the answer !. The error may occur when the other lady requested a change of phone number and got allocated the wrong number … Maybe they realized this and got it fixed.
Wrong. The SIM card contains the secret ‘number’ for that phone called an IMSI. The phone network sees that secret IMSI number and associates it with a traditional mobile number. If the local network can’t do the association it asks remote networks till one answers with a mobile number - often in some different country.
Any two phones with the same IMSI on their SIM card will have the same ‘phone number’.
Although the IMSI to phone number is network based it’s fairly rare for a network to change the mobile number associated with an IMSI. Normally they issue a new SIM card. Even if you keep your number but change networks the new provider will issue a new SIM card/IMSI. This is because the SIM card remains the property of the issuing network and is cancelled when you leave the network
The first three times I called was from my own phone and yes, I selected the number from my contacts and it would call a different lady. On the fourth time from another mobile phone I manually dialled in the number, copying it from my phone, and getting through to my friend. On the fifth time from my own phone again, I selected the number from contacts again and got through to my friend.
Did you ask the “angry lady” what her phone number was? That would answer the question of whether a phone number was duplicated or was there a problem with the exchange.
I did try to talk to her to figure out what may have happened but the minute she realised she didn’t know who I was she started name calling and putting the phone down immediately. I tried to reason with her but she was just unnecessarily rude.
This is pretty obvious, but were the two cell phones have the same area code? I once spent some time trying to figure out why I couldn’t call a certain number and it was because I was using someone else’s cell and did not use the area code, expecting it to default to the local one.
These days I pretty much always dial the area code because my phone starts acting wonky without a full 10 digit number.
This is one of my pet peeves. I call a number and ask “Is Bob there?” The person that answers says nobody named Bob lives there. I say “I’m very sorry. Have I reached 555-1212?” The person angrily shouts “No” and hangs up. Feeling very foolish, I figure I misdialed and dial 555-1212 again. The same damn person answers the phone.
It seems that this is the way it works 99 times out of 100. I’m not asking them to tell me their phone number. I already have it. If they would just say “yes” I wouldn’t have to call them back and bother them again. Instead, they act like I asked them to tell me their bank account number or something.
Do people really think that confirming the number that I just dialed would allow me to pull off some sort of scam or come over and rape them? I don’t get it.
Coincidence? This just happened to me: tried to dial voicemail and got some random guy. Apparently call forwarding was set up. They said it could be a pocket dial set up but I’ll keep my eyes open if it’s something else. So check your forwarding settings. Granted, sounds like something else is going on.
Pretty silly response, isn’t it? I put it differently, though: “Oh sorry. I dialed xxx-yyy-zzzz, did I punch it wrong or will I get you if I try it again?” So far I haven’t hit any asshats with that approach. Perhaps my area code is kinder than yours.
When someone calls me and it’s a wrong number, I often say “What number did you dial?” and they often answer. Sometimes it’s just a bit off and I say “Oh, try that again.” Or it’s my number, so I say “That’s my number and there’s no Sophie here.” Sometimes people have told me numbers that had no relationship to my number at all (and it didn’t seem like they were jiving me). I don’t remember that happening in a long time, though. (Though I have recently been on calls when suddenly there was another conversation going on … you’d think that would be impossible these days!)
More often, though, as soon as I answer, they hang up. IMHO that’s rude, but I don’t let it bother me because if nothing else it doesn’t waste my time. Unless they call right back. I still try not to let that bother me, but with more mixed results!
In any case, it’s better than getting Rachel from Cardholder Services. I wanna kill Rachel and all of her coworkers.
