We are IP Voice Networks, a trusted Ofcom registered telecommunications network.
If you recently received a call with one of our numbers displayed, it was not from us. This is likely to be due to a malicious practice called number spoofing.
Here's what's happening:
- Other networks allow their users to disguise their caller ID with any number, including ours, even if they have no legitimate connection to that number. This enables them to make large volumes of spam calls anonymously, often appearing to come from legitimate businesses or using numbers that are not even in service.
- This practice harms both you and us. You experience unwanted calls and potential scams, while our reputation is tarnished. We are forced to remove spoofed numbers from circulation, impacting our legitimate customers and at the same time reducing the stock of available numbers.
It's important to understand:
- We do not allow spoofing on our network. Our customers can only present phone numbers that are legitimately assigned to their accounts with us.
- Websites like www.whocallsme.co.uk, while potentially helpful, may not always provide the full picture. While they accurately identify us as the number range holder, they often fail to mention the widespread issue of number spoofing. This can create the misleading impression that we initiated the call, which is completely false. We have requested them, and other similar websites, to improve their information to avoid such misattribution of blame.
What to Do:
- Never trust the caller ID alone. Be wary of unsolicited calls, especially those requesting personal information or offering unrealistic deals.
- Report spoofed calls using this form. This helps us identify numbers used for spoofing and take them out of service so that genuine customers do not select them.
- In addition, you can report spoofed calls directly to Action Fraud UK, the UK's national reporting centre for fraud and cybercrime.
Report Spoofed Calls to Action Fraud UK:
We are actively fighting back:
- We utilise advanced fraud monitoring systems that continuously analyse customer account activity. When we find customer accounts that have been set up to make or receive calls fraudulently then our systems automatically identify patterns associated with fraudulent use and immediately suspend service on numbers exhibiting such red flags. This helps to prevent further misuse of our network, This stops their ability to make outbound calls but also stops inbound calls where the perpetrator is using another network to spoof our numbers on outbound calls or uses SMS smishing.
- We collaborate with industry, the government and law enforcement to combat fraud and hold perpetrators accountable.
Limitations:
- Unfortunately, we cannot directly stop outbound calls being made that pretend to be from our numbers. Since these calls do not originate or pass through our network, we cannot block these calls outbound, however calls to these numbers do not connect as the numbers are generally out of service.
Learn more about phone spoofing from Ofcom:
Please note: Due to data privacy regulations, we cannot disclose subscriber information to individuals.
Please note that we only ask for your email address so that we can reply back to you with an update on our findings, however if you wish to remain anonymous then just use fake@fake.com in the email field.
Data collected in this form is held with strict UK GDPR regulations and not used outside of the scope of this report.
