Calls placed from empty house and phantom caller-id

Posts: 533 · Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 4:58 pm Post subject:

zander wrote:

Vonage is not a member of the Better Business Bureau.

I don't want to get this thread off track, because it is a good one. But just to clarify, Vonage Canada is not a BBB member, but Vonage US is.

Posts: 1424 · Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 5:55 pm Post subject:

While I can conceive of a way to do this by having a different Vonage device pretend to be your device while connecting to Vonage, this solution is a bit extreme.

I suspect that it is more likely that Vonage has recycled your number and didn't close out the previous account holder's service correctly and they are still making Vonage calls.

The third alternative is that someone else's legitimate service is misconfigured and using the number Vonage assigned to you.

Have you tried calling the people the calls were made to and ask them to have the people that called them at that time get in touch with you? You may find out that they are having problems as well or you may find out that they are telemarketers, either would be useful information.

Is this a number Vonage assigned or one you ported in? Would you consider having your number changed to resolve the issue?

Posts: 9 · New Forum Member Joined: Feb 10, 2007 Posts: 9

scerruti wrote:

I suspect that it is more likely that Vonage has recycled your number and didn't close out the previous account holder's service correctly and they are still making Vonage calls.

If that were the case, and if the person whose account wasn't closed properly was still making calls, the result would be completed calls, not hangups. In this case, the OP is experiencing precisely what I was - calls originating from the OP's number, but resulting in simple dial-ups and immediate hangups when answered. What I did determine in my particular case was that all calls seemed to be to phone numbers in my immediate area/city.

Quote:

The third alternative is that someone else's legitimate service is misconfigured and using the number Vonage assigned to you.

Again, this would result in fully completed calls and a usable service on that misconfigured person's end. Not so, in this case.

Quote:

Have you tried calling the people the calls were made to and ask them to have the people that called them at that time get in touch with you? You may find out that they are having problems as well or you may find out that they are telemarketers, either would be useful information.

You can't be serious! To solve a "crossed-wires" issue, you are asking the end user to do the investigative work instead of the service provider? And in the process bother a whole bunch of other already irate people? Wow! Why pay for phone service at all then? Why don't we just run our own lines and take care of everything ourselves? Oh wait...

It is clear that the only viable solution if this continues is to have Vonage assign the OP a new number at their (Vonage's) own expense. Furthermore, if anyone is to be calling those other people, it should be Vonage, to apologise profusely for their "crossed-wires".

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Feb 22, 2007 Posts: 1

By any chance to you have your Vonage adapter hard wired into your house's phone wiring? If so, it is possible that someone is plugging in a basic phone to the jack in your service box outside and making calls from there. It's the only explanation I can think of.

Posts: 414 · Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 9:42 pm Post subject: Re: how is your system wired?

jpils54 wrote:

By any chance to you have your Vonage adapter hard wired into your house's phone wiring? If so, it is possible that someone is plugging in a basic phone to the jack in your service box outside and making calls from there. It's the only explanation I can think of.

Not possible, and if you read the thread you would see that. They disconnected their adapter and took it to work with them and the calls persisted. This is not a local issue, this is a Vonage issue that only Vonage can fix.

Posts: 11 · Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 11:07 pm Post subject:

The only other possibility is that someone has discovered the MAC address of the Vonage device (Perhaps a recycled device) and is using it to clone the device. This would provide the authentications one would need to at least get some information about the account, and or to use it..

I'd ask for a Vonage device with a different MAC address.

Posts: 8 · New Forum Member Joined: Feb 14, 2007 Posts: 8

These placed-calls-that-I-didn't-make only started appearing on my account in the last 3 weeks. I have been a Vonage customer for about 6 months now so I don't think it is an 'unfinished' account closure. Also, I did not port my number, I just took a number they gave me.

I'm leaning towards the theory that someone has cloned the MAC address in my PAP and is running their device pretending to be me. The last level-3 support technician I spoke to said that the logs showed calls being placed from IP addresses that were not mine. I have had the same static IP number at my house for years now so knowing exactly which calls were mine was easy. It does seem strange that the Vonage servers don't create some kind of an alert for two boxes with the same MAC on at the same time though.

It is rather silly that I had to go to the level of disconnecting and carrying around my PAP for a day to convince them of the issue. Someone breaking into my house and making calls was an acceptable explanation for Vonage before I did that.

Today is 1 week since I did the take-your-PAP-to-work-day fun and got Vonage to admit the problem. Placed calls are still showing up on my account though.

Nick

Posts: 533 · Posted: Fri Feb 23, 2007 11:54 am Post subject:

Hmm, I believe it's more than just the MAC address used for authentication. Also, when the MAC is used as part of your credentials, it's within the SIP part of the packet, not in the packet header. Your ATA's mac address get stripped from the original header as soon as it hits the next upstream router. So, it would take a lot to spoof your ATA. However, someone using a softphone would be more logical.

Posts: 1424 · Posted: Fri Feb 23, 2007 12:20 pm Post subject:

zander wrote:

scerruti wrote:

I suspect that it is more likely that Vonage has recycled your number and didn't close out the previous account holder's service correctly and they are still making Vonage calls.

If that were the case, and if the person whose account wasn't closed properly was still making calls, the result would be completed calls, not hangups.

nullmn wrote:

at 4:35PM that day a 3 minute call was placed

zander wrote:

You can't be serious! To solve a "crossed-wires" issue, you are asking the end user to do the investigative work instead of the service provider?

I am quite serious. The success of this forum is directly the result of Vonage's inadequate customer support. It is a source for self help, not a trouble ticketing system for Vonage. If someone comes here to post a question then they are asking "What can I do to resolve this issue?"

zander wrote:

It is clear that the only viable solution if this continues is to have Vonage assign the OP a new number at their (Vonage's) own expense. Furthermore, if anyone is to be calling those other people, it should be Vonage, to apologise profusely for their "crossed-wires".

This is not clear to me. If the problem is from a cloned MAC address then, since the Vonage account information is delivered to the ATA based on its MAC address, the problem will follow the user. In that case replacing the ATA would be the solution.

However, regardless of whether the problem is intentional or unintentional it could be easily corrected through the non-technical mechanism of contacting the person making these calls.

It may even be possible to disconnect the adapter and keeping and eye on activity, attempt to call the number when it appears to be online.

Posts: 8 · New Forum Member Joined: Feb 14, 2007 Posts: 8

scerruti wrote:

It may even be possible to disconnect the adapter and keeping and eye on activity, attempt to call the number when it appears to be online.

I like that suggestion! Disconnect my PAP and then call my Vonage number, see if someone answers! Smile

Thanks! I'll try that!

The other suggestion of calling one of the placed numbers and asking who called them previously from my number would be a stange call but perhaps I'll try that too.

Nick