Hi, i'm an office administrator at a real estate company in MI. Were having lots of problems for the last 2 days, people have cracked into our lines or extenstions, from other countries (Ethiopia, Pakistan, etc..) and using our lines for international calling. SBC is our provider and they can't do anything about this, they won't even block international calls. HELP! our phone bill is going to be sky rocketed at the end of the month, anyone ever hear of this??!? I have tried everything!
2006-12-10 03:49:04 · 3 answers · asked by Lindsay 2 in Consumer Electronics ➔ Land Phones
Without knowing what type of system you have, I can only offer a few general tips.
Does your phone system have the capability for accessing internal extensions from an outside number? (For example, one of your agents can call into a normal 7 digit phone number and then once connected, dial the extension of the party they want to speak with.) If so, and the system was not programmed correctly, someone may be able to access your phone system from a local number, and then dial 8 or 9 (or whatever code your system uses to access the pool of outbound lines) to gain control of one of your outbound lines. This way they can dial out and use your system (and your bill) as a relay.
The other possibility is that the lines have been tapped between your location and the phone company's switch. To determine this, you will have to temporarily disconnect your phone system from their lines and do what is called "on hook monitoring". What this means is that you are listening to the lines without "picking up" on the lines. If the line is tapped somewhere along the way, you will be able to hear the conversation at your end. Since your equipment is disconnected, the phone company would be responsible for determining where the line was tapped, as it would be on their end of the circuit, not yours. You may want to consult a private telephone technician for assistance with this.
2006-12-10 09:31:02 · answer #1 · answered by Jason 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
If you have a digital phone system check with the company that installed it. I don't quite understand why the phone company can't solve the problem if it is their system.
2006-12-10 11:57:58 · answer #2 · answered by Barkley Hound 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
SBC will take care of any unwanted phone calls (by law, they are REQUIRED TO!), as long as you alert them to it right away. Tell them you are having problems, just to cover yourself, and you will be fine when you let them know which calls are yours, and which ones are not. They have investigators and lawyers who take care of fraud, for both business and private customers. Best of luck.
2006-12-10 11:55:14 · answer #3 · answered by Rebooted 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋