It's totally unusual to have your personal phone number publically available as part of your job unless maybe you're self employed and that's how you get business

Do you really think we all have work phone calls to our personal phones 24/7?

😂

This is more ‘cancel the cheque’ than the original cancel the cheque

When I wanted to set all my details in my footer of the email I couldn't get it the size and font I wanted . I copied a colleague's you had it similar to how I wanted and then changed the details to my name,number, email et cetera. He might have done something similar but it didn't change your number or it somehow defaulted back to yours.
I would email him and copy in IT/his manager and say I received a telephone call asking for you and said they got my number from the footer in your email. i've checked with IT and they've confirmed that you've got it set as my number can you change it to your own number please Is there a reason that you've used mine?

Even if he fancied you there is no rationale that would lead to him putting your number at the bottom of his email signature or having his calls forwarded to you when he could easily just email or call you himself. There is clearly some glitch in the matrix, human error from the admin/HR team, or the people who called sales cold callers were randomly calling in the hope of getting someone with a name common enough or close enough to get someone to plausibly think it was someone they knew - a bit like clairvoyants who go ‘I’m looking for Bob Jones…Bob Bones…Cob Nones…until eventually someone recognizes a name that was vaguely like their uncle Nob Fones who died in 1986.

Ahh okay. I work in healthcare and so have my work and personal numbers on my email profile for weekends. Was contacted on my personal number today. I guess I didn't realise it was unusual in other industries as husband does the same.

Very weird. This would bother me. I’d go with the email suggested by @Namechangerage

had called the number of this person’s email footer.
I am bamboozled so I report it to our IT bod.
They ask me if my no. is 07xxx etc which it is and tell me this guy has set his v/m to forward to my mobile.

Maybe read the original post again. @Beanzmeanz asked her company IT department to look into this. They verified that the co-worker's work email footer was changed to the OP's personal mobile number. She couldn't have done it; it was his work email account.

The person who called OP was trying to reach her co-worker, not a random name. They got the number from his email.

Why would you think there's a conspiracy theory here? These are facts, not speculation.

As far as speculation goes,@Beanzmeanz, could it be that he wanted your personal number? That he might have used the autofill option in his email account to somehow access your info, and then neglected to change it back? Or maybe he was the person who called you? That's the only thing I can think of that would benefit him. Maybe he can now revert between your number and his in this way, and call you from an unidentified number?

As a former accountant, I cannot tell you how unlikely this is.

The caller didn't know OP's number, they had called Barry's number and it had been forwarded to OP.

IT confirmed that Barry's v/m was set up to divert to OP's personal mobile number.

It was IT that could identify OP's number in Barry's settings, not the caller.

I don't think you got a genuine call.

First you thought it was a different name - then you said the name and they said "that's it".
They probably did say the actual name, and if you had said any name then they'd have agreed that was the one.

And how would they know which number it was being forwarded to? Let's say there was a message saying "Barry's phone is being forwarded to 079876543221" they'd never remember it, and they're not going to write it down are they?

Block the number that called and stop worrying.

Is it definitely him who set it? We've got standard email signatures at work that IT set up. Or asked someone for someone else's number and been given the wrong information? Could be someone with a similar name to you. It's vastly more likely to be a mistake than anything sinister involving him accessing your personal data.

This, factual straight forward. Done.

Is he on leave or something, asked someone to arrange the call forwarding to someone in his team or his PA and someone has ballsed up and given him the wrong number?

Ah got ya @Booyaka619 @AprilShowers25

I'd actually report it to HR.

IT already changed it, so there won’t be any more.

IT will have knocked it off

Just the one call. So far.

Not been in the workplace for a while now but if we forgot to divert our desk phone when we were off, we would ask a colleague to do it.

Barry’s number is in Barry’s email signature.
Barry’s calls are being forwarded to OPs personal phone number.

I was wondering that to, is it possible for a third party to alter a divert on a mobile?

Can you even tell if a call is being diverted if you are the caller?

I was picturing it being his desk phone that was diverted to her mobile, I’m not sure IT would be able to check his diverts on a mobile without having the device (other than calling it and checking it goes through to OP).

OP's number is not in the email signature.