Suspicious Phone no/ phone technical question

[PhoneNumberQuestion]

I've name changed for this.. If this isn't the right thread please direct me elsewhere.

Can someone tell me if this is possible and if so how you do it (other than by an operator patching you through):

Person A (abroad) calls Person B (in the UK).
Person's B Caller ID shows Person A's number as a UK land line [Company X].

I completely get that if A calls company X and asks them topatch through/ connect to Person be it would show as Company X.

But assuming this wasn't done (call was on a weekend when Company X is closed), is this possible in some way? Can you dial into a mail box or something? Can you yourself route a call via Company X's line from your line abroad? How do you do this - so that the caller ID shows up as Company X and not your own foreign number?

Or is the bottom line that Person A while claiming to be abroad was in fact in the UK?

Any technical wizards able to help here?

[AnchorDownDeepBreath]

Did the caller ID show as a random UK landline, or Person As landline number?

[NotTheFordType]

Yes, this is possible, depending on the company's telephony provider.

[PhoneNumberQuestion]

Not a random number. It was Company X's landline number which is where Person A works.

I've had Person A patched through to me by Company X before (which shows Company X's number even if Person A is calling on a mobile) but because this was a weekend - I'm suspicous that Person A was actually present in the offices of Company X in the UK and calling Person B (who is me if you haven't guessed) and not abroad as Person A claimed.

Is it possible to do this landline routing yourself (Rather than via an operator patching you through) if so how do you do it?

[PhoneNumberQuestion]

NotTheFordType

How do you do it then? How is it set up?

[Bomb]

HERE is the Wiki page on caller ID spoofing

[PhoneNumberQuestion]

Bomb - nothing linked there says "wikipedia does not have an article with this name."

[Doublemint]

When I lived in Australia the family I stayed with set something up so I could call from there to the uk and it would come up and be charged as a local landline number- if that helps? Can't remember the name of the company right now though!

[AnchorDownDeepBreath]

This is the Wikipedia - en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caller_ID_spoofing

Technically it's possible. Whether it's likely is another question entirely. I'd say not, if you're sure that her company manually patches people through rather than having an automated system.

[MadeForThis]

Call person A's mobile. If it's outside the uk the ringtone will be different

[ImperialBlether]

You can pay a small fee to make it look as though your call is from a different number - eg I could pay to make a call look as though it's from my friend's number. That's call spoofing.

However, that's not happened here because he's pretending he's NOT in the office.

I think he's in the office and is lying through his teeth.

[Missgraeme]

Cue - drive to the office. Take pics of car.
Cue - big row!

[Morasssassafras]

You ring the office number. The office number has call forwarding switched on to redirect all calls to the person's chosen number/mobile so your call gets forwarded. You are only ringing (and paying) for the call to the office in the UK and person A's company is paying for the call to the mobile abroad so you won't actually see that it's being forwarded.

This has been possible for at least the last 25 years that I'm aware of.

[NameSake]

Yes, it is possibly my DH works in Germany and routes his calls via a UK number - it's just setting up a divert.

Still rings as an international dial tone if I call him back however.

[HerOtherHalf]

Very easy. My company and an awful lot of others use IP telephony nowadays. Basically, I have an app on my laptop that emulates a telephone but goes over the internet via my employer's telephony provider to whoever I'm calling. I can make a call from anywhere in the world as long as I have an internet connection but my number will show as my office phone number to the recipient. Likewise, anyone calling what they think is my office landline will be routed to the phone app on my laptop no matter where in the world I happen to be.

Does that fit your scenario?

[HeathOnTheRight]

I'm not a tech wizard so can't explain the ins & outs but for my company, yes you can have several mobiles/other numbers diverted at any one time so it shows as office number dialling out. So if my director was in Spain but needed to make a business call he could do so from his mobile with it still showing office number. Happens throughout our company regularly

[Funko]

Company I work for his a global company. Offices uk, Europe, US and Asia. We are all on the same phone system (not necessarily provider) and have the ability to log out own desk phones in wherever we are in the world. So if logged my desk phone in the us and dialled out it would show my uk number.

[Funko]

Log in... Log in ffs!

[NotAnotherHarlot]

Any work VOIP set up would do that.

If you rang their mobile though the ring is different if out of the U.K.

[Funko]

At the risk of being massively patronising but for the avoidance of doubt (sorry!)

U.K. Ring ... Short quick double bursts as you know ring ring, ring ring

Overseas... Generally a gap for initial connection then long singular bursts

Riiiiiiiiiinnnnnng. Riiiiiiinnnngg.

Happy to be flamed for stating the possible bleeding obvious 😁

[PhoneNumberQuestion]

Funko

Yes I know that - I'm not talking about me calling Person A but Person A calling me.

And for the record, if you don't turn your mobile phone on when you go abroad at all (ie. the last contact between your phone and a mast was in the UK) you never get the overseas ring tone.

My concern is Person A calling me and not me calling Person A.

[Funko]

Sorry I was adding in response to someone suggesting you call their mobile to check the ring tone. But yes, if the phone is off not gonna work.

Doesn't sound good does it. Who turns their phones off these days? Unless on a plane and in airplane mode, switching to silent is generally more than sufficient for most scenarios.

Unless battery dead of course.

[Scrowy]

It's absolutely possible. I could be sat on a beach in Spain using my work phone/laptop and could ring home and it would show up as ' British local area code my work number'

You obviously have reason to believe that's not the case though which is another matter.

[PhoneNumberQuestion]

scrowy - how does this work though?

say I wanted to set this up myself (to call from a personal mobile and get it routed through a work number) can someone talk me through how to do it please?

I'm pretty sure that Person A (if abroad) would be calling from either a landline (Abroad allegedly) or a mobile and that this is not a case of laptop/computer Skype telephony apps.

How would I go about doing it?

[bluecashmere]

Clearly you have reason to be suspicious otherwise you wouldn't be looking into this. Is there not some other way you can find out the truth? Sounds like you are getting yourself wound up by this and catching this person out when your energy would be better spent looking at the bigger picture. If you have good reason to have trust issues maybe that's enough to call it a day.

[NameSake]

You can have your mobile on aeroplane mode, so it doesn't ring etc and still connect to wifi and use something like Microsoft Lync which will re route through your office landline - it's entirely possibly, most large companies use it to save money.

However, reading your replies it would seem that's not the answer you're looking for, and you want confirmation of your doubt. Perhaps that in it's self tells you something.