Reused phone numbers are leaving people exposed to scams, hacking and nuisance calls

A caller probe by user watchdog Which? has recovered that mobile telephone users are besides being contacted by cause dealers and indebtedness collectors arsenic telecoms firms recycle numbers

Reused phone numbers are leaving Britons exposed to hacking, nuisance calls oregon being chopped off.

An probe by user watchdog Which? has uncovered assorted risks posed by existing telephone numbers that get reused by different consumers – from societal media and online accounts getting hacked to older people losing entree to their exigency telephone lifeline. Which? has besides had reports of radical being bombarded with calls and messages from indebtedness collectors arsenic good arsenic trying to bargain drugs from them.

The occupation exists due to the fact that galore of the ‘new’ numbers fixed retired by telecoms firms successful the UK are recycled from erstwhile owners, Which? said. There is simply a fixed excavation of 11-digit combinations that statesman with an 07 prefix, truthful telecoms providers indispensable recycle mobile numbers to conscionable lawsuit demand.

A 3rd of radical said they did not cognize that telephone companies tin reallocate landline and mobile telephone numbers which are nary longer successful use. One successful 10 radical told Which? they had changed their mobile fig wrong the past decade.

Of those that had done so, lone fractional had updated their fig with each applicable accounts and organisations. A 4th had lone updated with immoderate of their accounts, portion 10% admitted they had not updated their fig anywhere.

Which? is acrophobic that accounts and online identities are successful information from hackers if radical bash not update the telephone fig they person registered. Meanwhile, mobile numbers are recycled erstwhile erstwhile users person their fig deactivated for “non-use”. To radical who usage their telephone each day, being deactivated for debased usage is simply a precise improbable prospect. The shortest timescale for losing a number, 70 days of non-use according to Ofcom, mightiness look tenable astatine archetypal glance.

However, immoderate radical bash not usage their mobile phones successful this way, and alternatively support them for emergencies only. For example, radical enduring home maltreatment whitethorn support a ‘safe phone’ hidden distant without their abuser’s cognition and respective radical told Which? astir older relatives who had been chopped disconnected without their consent owed to infrequent usage of their phone.

Several networks told Which? they either bash not pass customers they are astir to beryllium disconnected oregon pass them by texting the precise numbers that are not successful regular use. Which? believes providers should besides beryllium utilizing immoderate different agreed interaction methods, specified arsenic emails listed connected the customer's relationship to alert them.

Which? are present calling connected Ofcom to look into deactivation communications, alongside the issues that recycled numbers are causing consumers.

Lisa Barber, Which? Tech editor, said: “Our probe shows that recycled telephone numbers tin origin important problems for some the erstwhile proprietor of the fig and the caller recipient – from the hazard of being hacked to losing an exigency telephone enactment oregon receiving worrying unsolicited messages. Ofcom should purpose to amended the mode providers pass that a fig is astatine hazard of deactivation and look into the issues that recycled numbers are causing consumers.”

Which? counsel that it makes consciousness for radical to debar changing their telephone fig wherever possible. If consumers are changing provider, for illustration successful bid to question amended lawsuit work oregon a money-saving deal, they tin inactive easy clasp their existing number.