Weird event at work - should I do anything?

[Beanzmeanz]

Just that really. So last week I received a call on my personal mobile asking for someone else I didn’t catch what they were saying so asked them to repeat it. It wasn’t a name of anyone in our house - think Harry Jones so I said sorry wrong number.
Just as I was about to hang up I thought the name sounded a bit like someone I work with so I said did you say Barry Stones to which they said yes.
So I said well I work with them but I don’t know how you would get this number. They confirmed who they were (genuine) and that they 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.
He doesn’t have my mobile, I’ve never given it to him and we have work mobiles

Very very very odd.

Difficult to believe it was completely random.

You need to ask him and see if he starts flirting with you.

Email to HR complaining your personal number is used in someone else’s email.
and I’d probably change my number asap

Originally I said ask him or report to IT/Hr. Now I personally see this as more a nasty move than one out of fancying her. I’d report it to HR and IT. Let them get to the bottom of why he has done it and discipline him. Then he can’t come at you as you can simply say you assumed HR had given IT the wrong info as he shouldn’t know your personal number to change the forwarding calls to.

Have you only recently got your phone number? I've had mine for over 20 years and even the thought of changing it is a little overwhelming with all the people I'd have to notify, all the apps that need 2FA, all the trouble with people not updating their records. I can't imagine ever doing that

Perhaps there is a simple rather than fishy explanation.

Maybe he intended to divert to a number that is coincidentally similar to your number and just mis-typed it.

It can happen quite easily.

Just let him know, he may not have noticed he made an error and be a bit embarrassed at his lack of attention to detail but grateful to be able to sort it out quickly.

Let him know as soon as possible to avoid further unwanted calls to you and him missing important work calls.

Literally this. It’s potentially very unprofessional on his part, and would weird me out a bit.

Kindly OP, think you need to overcome your weirdness feeling, and go and ask him directly and see what he says, gauge his reaction.

Maybe even flag to HR to look into it?

Even if harmless in the end, I’m not sure it’s ok…

While unlikely coincidences do happen, the chances of accidentally mistyping a phone number, and it somehow being the number of your colleague (who you spoke to the evening before) are so low as to be almost impossible.

OP already spoke to IT who have changed it for her.

it won't let me edit my post as I've become one of those annoying people that clearly can't read the original post accurately!!

Do you think he did it as some weird kind of joke?

What's the tech set-up here? Is it a hard-wired desk phone which has been set up to forward to another (OP's) number? (I don't see where voicemail comes into it.)

If so, the forward could have been set by anyone with access to his office, as well as anyone with remote access, such as PAs in his department or IT (although IT seem to be denying responsibility).

That opens up the number of people who could already have OP's number for some reason, and used it by accident.

So, I'm imagining Barry calling in from home and asking his PA to forward his calls to his personal mobile (lets say he dropped his work mobile down the toilet!), and it turns out she's got OP's number scribbled down somewhere because she got it from OP's sister's florist's auntie, and means to give her a call...

Please do come back and tell us if you find out.

Did Barry just give them your mobile number or actually divert it ? Because I'm puzzled about how Barry could actually divert a call from the business lime to a completely separate number.

This seems fishy. Are you sure the caller did actually ring Barry first and hasn't somehow got hold of your number themselves and is just using Barry's name because they don't want you to know

IT has confirmed the phone divert.

If he's high up in the company I hardly think he would deliberately set his voicemail to your personal phone as messages may contain confidential information. Just bring it to his attention and ask for it to be corrected asap. If he doesn't do that, THEN you have reason to go to HR.
Does he have a PA? maybe they made the mistake..

Have you ever set up a divert on a work desk phone to your personal mobile? Could it be that Barry’s desk phone or desk phone number was previously allocated to OP and it still has the divert applied?

OP has a work phone, and doesn’t use her personal number for work.

IT have already dealt with it.
OP has said only 2 out of 200 people at the company have her personal number (and I’m sure she’d have mentioned if either of them worked closely with Barry)

It’s possible she has at some point though

I'm amazed at how many people are trying to find convoluted excuses for something that looks very much like Barry's dubious behaviour. OP, I hope he takes the hint and backs off.

May be to start a conversation?

How can someone set up a call transfer to a colleague personal number randomly?

Yeah to start a conversation. To bung up her voicemail with calls and then have a laugh about it. Very far fetched idea i know but not impossible.

How would that conversation go?

Hey, silly old me I illegally found out your personal phone number and, haha, somehow fat fingered it onto my work phone divert. Fancy a coffee some time?

Instead of making a flimsy excuse to email you, I decided to divert my phone to you so that if you did actually answer a call from an unknown number, thought it was strange and bothered to investigate then IT/HR would contact me and you would think I was a weirdo and avoid me in future.

😂😂or alternatively I thought unilaterally adding my secretarial services to your job description would give us some common ground to chat about on my return to work

Maybe read the OP again.

The number on Barry's email sig is his work mobile.
His work mobile was diverted to OP's personal mobile.
She found out when she received a call for him.

Gutted there’s no update