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

This is probably just a scam and they've latched onto the name you offered up to them.

The responses on this thread suggest that only a couple of people have read and understood the OP.

The number on the email belonged to Barry.
IT have confirmed that Barry has set his v/m to be forwarded to OP's personal number.
She has never given Barry her personal mobile number.
They have work mobiles.
Barry's and OP's numbers are very different.
They work in different offices.
They have recently had contact through a work event but otherwise do not work closely.

OP it's hard to guess at a motive if it isn't the weirdest of coincidences. I can understand why people are suggesting just speaking to him but the fact that he has your personal number and you know neither how he came by it or why he would need it, and he has either mistakenly or deliberately diverted his calls to it is too strange. Hopefully there is an innocent explanation but I would speak to HR to ask for advice. I wouldn't want to give him a heads up if he's obtained your number through unauthorised methods. Make some notes about the sequence of events now whilst it's all still fresh just in case you need it later.

Also, if he is senior, does he have a PA with access to his emails? It may not even be him who changed it. After all, you already discovered IT can.

@Azandme its also highly unlikely that he constantly uses a number that is one digit away from the OP’s private number.
And it would be very weird someone who has been in a company in a while would actually not know his tel number perfectly.

So I fully agree about not accusing anyone.
But the problem with this situation is that EVERYTHING is highly unusual.

Oh it's definitely odd, but luckily with digital records things are generally traceable. There will be an audit trail of who accessed her HR file, when, and what they looked at/did.

Until that is done everything is speculation.

Or maybe shes ignoring ones that clearly haven't read her OP

IT have confirmed hes diverted his voicemail to her phone

People can be highly inappropriate. When I was 17 and very new in my first proper job (retail), some guy who I was very briefly introduced to as evening shift ended and night shift began, took my number from our emergency contact book and called me when I emerged from the underground the same night... He wanted to chat and ask me out

I was completely thrown off.

Had to report him to my (thankfully proactive) female manager.

It seems odd. But people can be odd.

Yes . Good advice. If it is something weird you dont want to start up contact with him.

Most likely a tech glitch. Don't blame the guy.

Do you think maybe he fancied you so looked up your mobile number? Then somewhere along the line messed up and diverted his calls to you by mistake?

What kind of tech glitch would swap someone’s in a different departments PRIVATE mobile number into someone else’s footer and divert their calls to her phone?

Maybe it was Barry who called the OP.

The call was on her private mobile!

Could he have got your number from anywhere else OP? I think I would have to ask him to get to the bottom of it.

Are you friends with any of Barry’s colleagues? Perhaps he forgot to set his voicemail up and asked a colleague to do it, your number is next to Barry in their contacts and they’ve put your number in by mistake.

Barry's number is in his footer. It is his phone that has been diverted to OPs. I wonder if he copied and pasted it from somewhere and then pasted it in by mistake when diverting.

OP's number is not in his footer! His own number is in his email footer but his phone has been set to forward HIS calls to HER number

EDIT Sorry misread OP

If Barry uses a work mobile is it possible that you or someone else has used the same mobile or the same number and previously set your mobile number as the forwarding number for VM?

Could the mistake be with someone in HR if they perhaps set the VM forwarding numbers for higher ups such as Barry?

Could a mutual colleague have set your number as Barry's forwarding number as some kind of joke?

Either that or Barry has obtained your number for some purpose and accidentally set it as his VM forwarding number... But I can't help but feel this doesn't make sense. Surely if he had gone to the effort to obtain your number for inappropriate reasons, he would have actually used it at some point?

This seems the likeliest explanation. But still not OK for him to have done this.

It is a tricky one as if he has looked at HR file that is bad. And although technically he has done nothing with it as he has not contacted OP he has come unstuck by putting it in his calls forwarded to 😅 You mentioned drink was involved so this does sound feasible.

I have to say, that crossed my mind….

But then why changing the forwarding tel number??

It's not in his frigging email!!!

So it could be implied anyone else could have phoned her, maybe? (I don’t know, I’m here due to boredom 😁).

Hard to know what to do really. Do you like Barry, do you want to get him in trouble? Or is it sufficient to confront him so he knows you are on to him?

He fancied you at the social event. He’s looked your number up, copied it. Then when he’s set his phone to divert he’s accidentally pasted your number in.