Not to trust a 14 digit mobile number.

[HotSince82]

Posting here for traffic;
DD has been invited to a sleepover by somebody in her class, she is almost eleven and in year 6.
She has had a fractious relationship with this girl, they seemingly oscillate between best friends and worst enemies, currently in a best friends phase.
The girl lives with her Dad, no particular issue with this, I've met him a few times at athletics events/school events and he seems perfectly pleasant, if a little eager to come across as a 'nice guy/good dad'
Anyway I have agreed to the sleepover but his mobile number is fourteen digits long and won't accept my text messages. I can call the number and he will pick up but it makes me uneasy.....
Reading this back I feel barking mad but I have never coma across this before. When I mentioned it to him he said 'oh thats strange' and asked me just to call him instead.
I should add that I don't know where they live, apparently he is staying at his brother's home whilst sorting out his divorce and he has given me an address to collect DD from tomorrow but he wasn't precisely sure of it until he double checked it on a letter which again makes me uneasy.

Make that eleven digits because you'll need to include the zero!

Just tried to call missing off the last three digits and that number isnt recognised.
I may call my mobile provider actually.

No, we are both in the UK and yes when he texts and/or rings it shows the 14 digit number.

I get a lot of 12 digit cold calls. Think it might have something to do with this;

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caller_ID_spoofing

Oh dear, that doesn't sound too good.
Unless its something he has put in place since his divorce? I don't know if it was particularly acrimonious, but perhaps.

Dh has a 14 digit mobile number. His office is in Ireland but he lives here, and the phone is on a contract with an Irish network (I assume).

kenstechtips.com/index.php/uk-telephone-numbering-cost-from-mobile

Maybe try this. At least you'll know if it's a premium rate deal.

TowerRingInferno
And is it just a normal mobile number in every other respect, ie; 07 beginning?

I don't know about the number but otherwise it sounds like a dad trying to give his daughter a good birthday. It's hard for separated parents, not helped by other parents being suspicious because they are sleeping on someone's sofa, that would be us if it wasn't for incomes high enough to pay for 2 separate homes without benefits etc

No it starts 00353 which I think is the Irish dialling code

Could you try WhatsApping him if texts don’t work?

stucknoue
I know, thats precisely why I have let her go. I really didn't want to go with my prejudices and upset DD and her friend and potentially offend her friend's dad.
Other than this bizarre mobile number issue I don't think I'd be unduly worried.

Oh he doesn't show up on wattsapp either.

I wouldn't be happy with this. Particularly with the love hate friendship with the girls. I'd offer to have them instead.

Yes I would have offered but I am working this weekend, long shifts 8-8. I didn't want to disappoint them unnessecarily.
DD has just wattsapped me a photo of her and the friend at lazerquest.
I'm probably worrying over nothing. I have to say that if it was the girls mum hosting the sleepover, I probably wouldn't have given it a passing thought as to the bizarre number....

I bought a second mobile number online for business use once, it was "virtual" so had no sim - that had 13 numbers. It looked weird and I never used it for that reason, but maybe it's a virtual number? Although I don't know why...

If you've called him and it all seems legit, I don't think it's a major concern... a bit weird, but you have a usable contact number.

You barely know him, don't know where he lives (child lives with dad but dad lives with his brother?), he's vague on details, there are a number of spidey sense provokers like the ph number and his obsequiousness at school.

I'd say no on this occasion.

It seems a bit weird to me. The fact that he didn’t know his address seemed more unusual though

It is an international number OP.

I'm not too concerned about the child living with her dad, she has a younger sister, aged five who also stays with him, I think he has been deemed to be the better parent/the girl doesnt have the best relationship with her mother.
Yes the address thing threw me a bit too.

DD has been keeping me up to date on whats going on, sending me photos of them in the ice cream parlour etc.

Treesthemovie he's in the UK though, is it still possible that the number isn't a UK one?

Treesthemovie he's in the UK though, is it still possible that the number isn't a UK one?

Of course. Your mobile works abroad, right? So does his.

There may be other issues but you're making an awful lot out of a phone number!

Your spidey senses are obviously tingling. I wouldn't let her stay over with people who I don't know well, who are unsure of their own address and live with other strangers who I also don't know.