But I didn't place the call ...

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Jan 02, 2006 Posts: 4

Here's a problem I have not seen discussed on the Vonage Forum; and, based on the complete lack of help/followup/answers from Vonage Canada, they've never seen it before either.

For the past few weeks, several 1 minute phone calls have been attributed to my Vonage phone numbers - both the regular number and the Softphone number ... but the calls were NOT placed by my Vonage equipment, a vtech broadband phone.

In fact, for the past 7 days the adapter has been disconnected from the network, but the calls continue to take place and continue to be attributed to my number - a physical impossibilty.

Has anyone else been experiencing these mysterious phone calls?

Posts: 120 · Member of the Week Joined: Aug 30, 2006 Posts: 120

I'm surprised no one has responded to your post.

I personally have never run into this problem. Did you report it to Vonage Canada, and if so what did they say? I would be interesting to know what's going on there.

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Jan 02, 2006 Posts: 4

Their reply:
"... We did some investigation on our end and found that the device is
working fine. It looks like someone is spoofing your telephone
number. Please notify your local police department and open a police
report.

In the mean time, we can change your phone number. Please let me know
if this is feasible.

Thank you for choosing Vonage. I hope I have addressed your concern.
Please do not hesitate to contact us by calling 1-877-272-0528 or by
replying to this email.

..."

I'm not an internet or Voip expert but since these calls were showing up in my log of placed calls, it seemed to me that it was more than spoofing which I interpret as merely looking like like my number to the receiver. Vonage's system thought it was my equipment placing the calls, hence, charging them to my account.

Anyway, Vonage didn't seem to take this issue very seriously so I decided to cancel my Vonage account. Simply changing phone numbers seemed a bit lame.

Posts: 120 · Member of the Week Joined: Aug 30, 2006 Posts: 120

Very strange. I wonder if it someone was somehow compromising the the vtec phone, and placing calls by communicating with the base. It would be been interesting to test if the problem persisted with a standard Vonage phone adapter/router, with a different phone connected to it (such as a 5.8 ghz panasonic cordless, which is what I use).

I personally avoid any vtec product. They seem to be sub par on lots of levels, from my experience. Thanks for the feedback though. I'll keep an eye on my call ctivity from now on Smile

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Jan 02, 2006 Posts: 4

From my first posting:
"In fact, for the past 7 days the adapter has been disconnected from the network, but the calls continue to take place and continue to be attributed to my number - a physical impossibilty."

The problem is with Vonage's network vulnerability, not the cordless phone ... it was sitting in a box - not connected to the network - not plugged in - zilch.

Posts: 435 · Posted: Wed Oct 25, 2006 9:03 pm Post subject:

Is the number being dialed the same?

and if so, what is your network availability set to/for?

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Jan 02, 2006 Posts: 4

houuser wrote:

Is the number being dialed the same?

Nope. Lots of what appear to me to be random numbers. The one commonality though is the level of irateness at the other end of the line.

houuser wrote:

and if so, what is your network availability set to/for?

Huh?

Posts: 12 · Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2006 8:47 am Post subject:

Get your number changed to avoid any further problems.

Posts: 120 · Member of the Week Joined: Aug 30, 2006 Posts: 120

cro wrote:

From my first posting:
"In fact, for the past 7 days the adapter has been disconnected from the network, but the calls continue to take place and continue to be attributed to my number - a physical impossibilty."

The problem is with Vonage's network vulnerability, not the cordless phone ... it was sitting in a box - not connected to the network - not plugged in - zilch.

Yikes.. that doesn't inspire confidence. I'll keep a close eye on my activity from now on to be safe. What bothers me the most is Vonages' apparent lack of concern about the issue. If the adapter was sitting in the box, it's not you who should be notifying the police, it should be Vonage. However, it would be a stretch for them to implicate themselves by doing so.

The only peace of mind I see in this situation is that this issue has *not* come up before, and that Vonage Canada themselves indicated they haven't received similar reports. Therefore, either it's a glitch, or someone truly did compromise their network. If it's the latter, we should see more and more of it happening.