Strange things happening with my housephone, any ideas what this could be ??

[SayersIsBetterThanGreggs]

Hi, i've re posted from chat.

Whenever I try to use it I get an automated message with an American voice saying 'number not in use'.

Also keep getting phonecalls off numbers I don't recognise, no one answers, just silence. Tried phoning one back and got the automated message.

What the chuff's going on ?? Have I had my phoneline hacked into ??

Could you run a test on the line?

Is the line rented from BT (if so, 17070 is a test number you can try - it should identify your line by announcing "This circuit is defined as " ).

NB Other tests which used to be available now need some sort of pass number, because one of them was to measure the distance to the exchange, and when ADSL (broadband) was starting up, too many customers were using 17070 to get the line length and legitimate users (BT engineers) were finding it more difficult to get through...

If you have a mobile, can you receive calls or do you get any error messages?

I remember once having some major problems on voice calls because of a change at the exchange concerning my broadband. After reporting the fault, an engineer reset something at the exchange and everything went back to normal.

There's a *> BT web page