Trying to help a friend, maybe someone will recognise number/pattern. Repeated short calls showing on a Sky bill. I guessed alarm monitoring but they don’t have it. They’ve tried Sky a few times but heard nothing back and since there’s no charge on them.
18 comments
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Really old sky boxes used to dial out (internal modern) sometimes. I think as a way to verify the sky card or update EPG. Does your friend have an older sky satellite box still?
Do you have any electric gates or anything? I know a lot of those devices use sin cards. I wouldn’t go straight away to saying you’ve been hacked
Is this the lad that was ringing the airport?
Although there’s no cost, at the moment, I would keep on at Sky until this stops happening. It could be genuine fault with the box or it could actually be there physical phone. Is it connected to the net? I used to one of those fandangle internet connected phones and got stung with massive bills, it turns out the phone would automatically dial out multiple times a night, always after 1am.
Pattern is the same every night, something is phoning home (pun intended). Plug out any devices that are connected to the broadband/landline for one night and see if it stops. If it does then just keep one device plugged out every night until he finds the one that’s doing it.
€191 a month? I can see the €30 for landline and €20 discounted price for Sky Sports but where is the other €141? First time installation?
The AT-5000 autodialler strikes again
The gap in time between the calls to the 422 number and the 294 number is always 36 seconds or thereabouts. Indicates something automated. But the other gap is less regular. So whatever is doing this it seems like it’s following a cycle. One number first, then the second number a predetermined amount of time later.
I know this is vague but it’s the only pattern I can see so far.
Looks like an autodialer, like someone else mentioned line might have been hacked. If your friend isn’t to attached to their phone number would recommend getting it changed if they are unplugg it at night maybe?…
Just tried calling the first number on that list – it’s answered by a machine and then a couple of audio tones are played. That’s really, really suggestive of an old fashioned analogue modem or a fax machine or similar sending a signal to the calling party to start a negotiation for supported speeds and capabilities. I think this further supports the theory that this is automation of some sort that is trying to do something for the alarm or the broadband or the sky TV subscription.
Is there a name of an alarm installer on the bellbox you could ring and ask? Could be an old alarm dialing out? On boards.ie they have a sub forum for alarms and the lads are very knowledgeable and supportive and helped me with a different issue with an old alarm system. You could post on there with the numbers they might recognize them or the tone when it’s rang.
Based on the second number called and the fact that alarm companies tend to buy batches of numbers, I’d give https://www.topsecurity.ie/ a call. They own 409 5200, might own everything between 5200 and 5300.
Just a random idea, speak with the company that own the line, not the provider, as they may be able to run a line test or be able to tell what is connected to the line
Why pay for sport when you can stream?
Looks like an old phone watch alarm on the line or similar, they may not use it and sensors may be removed but if the main board still has a feed to the line it will try dial home. Happened my sister when it’s battery went low it was dialing home just like that and massive bill to boot. Check for an old main board somewhere. Or a feed from the back of your phone socket.
Two ways of approaching this, assuming it is a building alarm, which I agree it probably is.
1) The alarm control panel probably has a fused connection unit next to it supplying its power. Older alarms in particular often use a transformer-based power supply that is always on wasting potentially 20W of electricity 24/7 powering this alarm that’s never enabled. If they don’t use it, they have nothing to lose by taking the fuse out of this.
2) Locate the master socket for the phone line, open it up and disconnect the phone extension that they don’t seem to know they have. Unless their house wiring is absolutely ancient or has been dicked around by someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing, then it should be possible to disconnect all extensions from this socket. There are two pairs of terminals – one for the incoming line, one for the extensions. It’s not a complicated job.
What puzzles me about this is if they have been in the house for 20 years (i.e. before the broadband era) and they get their internet access over DSL (phone line) rather than a cable modem (only available from Virgin Media, formerly UPC/NTL/Cablelink), then at some point in the past someone should have fitted filters to every phone line extension they have or it would cause their broadband to stop working every time this thing phones home and I would have thought they would remember this.
Good luck with it. Posting photos of any of the above should clarify the situation considerably.
You have 386 in the house ringing out to a 1980’s bulletin board.