Texted by my landline

[#1]

Received a text on my (giffgaff) mobile this morning supposedly originating from my (Plusnet) landline mumber. The text said I had missed a message and had to call 22201 to retrieve it. Stupidly I tried on my mobile, but fortunately was told I didn't have enough credit - it's apparently a premium number. I've checked my phone which has BT Call Blocker but records all missed calls as well, but nothing shows. Also checked my Plusnet unbilled calls but nothing is showing there yet.

Is it likely that my landline number is being spoofed?

[#2]

Hi @deefield, Welcome to the Forum.

This is a scam and you are not be the only victim, lucky you were short of credit or it would have all been spent on the call.

[#3]

Hi @deefield,

Thanks for getting in touch.

I'm sorry to hear that and appreciate your concern.

I can't validate the number however a quick search online suggests it may be an EE number. I would go with @Anonymous and assume it being a scam although it could be that someone has sent a text message to your landline in error? I would suggest ignoring it either way, if it's a scam responding to it is not a good idea and if someone genuinely wants to contact you I'm sure they'll try again.

Let us know if you have any further queries.

Thanks - LF

[#4]

That's interesting if it's an EE number. I've just left EE mobile for giffgaff. I wonder what they're up to! I'll keep an eye on this for now and see if it happens again. Thanks for the reply.

[#5]

Nice to be on the forum! Yes, I was very relieved when I heard the 'not enough credit' message - I'm not usually that careless.

[#6]

No worries, @deefield. Glad to have been of help.

Let us know if you need anything further.

Thanks – Tahir

[#7]

What I find disturbing here is the third party association of your land line number with your mobile number.

If I were in your shoes, I would be thinking about those parties who hold both your landline and mobile number ... and asking which one has had a data breach?

Being able to send a text to a mobile phone and make it appear to be from a number you recognise ... inviting you to phone a premium phone number is a ‘sweet’ social engineering scam. This cannot though be achieved without access to conjoined information.

[#8]

As @Townman indicates, there is likely to be some kind of data breach here, and/or some scammers have a decent portfolio of data on you. You can report this to the ICO, and/or you can report it via Action Fraud. While you are unlikely to get a personal response from either, it does help these organisations to build a better picture of live scams, and help track down the perpetrators.

As others have indicated, it is not difficult, with the right knowledge, to spoof the sender of a text (or even the caller ID for an incoming call) - you will see this with various service providers giving their name, rather than a number to respond to (ie GiffGaff, NHS, HMRC…). Although I have never come across software that does this, I expect that it is as simple as adding some text to the message, and formatting it in a certain way (eg <sender>MySpoofName</sender><message>Hello world!</message>).