Caller ID

[Darkbob]

Sometimes my caller ID works just fine but I've been having lots of issues with the number being displayed in a weird format.

The problem is only with long distance calls.  I'll give some examples in the exact format I received them (except I'll change the last 2 digits for privacy).

0113065026899  - a call from a SaskTel Mobile customer

0113067571699 from a SaskTel land line. 

I'm a bit nervous about hitting "call back" on my phone... that looks like the international dialing pattern and I'd hate to generate a huge bill.

But other calls are fine like (403) 243-6699 for an Albert land line or  1 480-274-5599 for a US cell phone.

At first I thought it was because I had a US Tmobile Note 8 running on a US Sim card.  I just upgraded to a Telus Note 9 using a Telus SIM and the problem persists.  It really looks like it's a Telus network issue.

I called Telus support to ask.  OMG... gave up after 30 min on hold.  Wow.  That's something I'm not used to... terrible service.  So I'm turning to the forums for hopes of an answer.  Are your long distance caller ID numbers sometimes messed up?  Is there a fix?

[NFtoBC]

No, but no one calls me from Saskatchewan!

[Upcraft]

This occurs most often when the call is from a VOIP provider and the endpoint is using an overseas IP address.

99/100 times it's a telemarketer who bought VOIP minutes and is trying to use a Canada phone number to spoof their identity but is running a foreign call centre.  

The overseas number pattern can alert you to these fakes but it may be a false positive if the caller is travelling or their data is routed through offshore servers.  They could have their VPN client running because they wanted to watch region locked streaming services for example and forgot to turn it off before calling on their internet phone. Their VOIP provider possibly has not configured one of their servers properly and it's passing on this caller ID info.  They likely do not even know it's happening unless a trouble ticket is issued on their end but they usually only take a report of problems from their customer not from you.

I believe it's simply sending the digits as they have been handed over during call setup.  The misconfiguration is likely on the callers end of things.  I have personally been able to create this effect on my own VOIP providers when using VPN connections to servers in europe.  It reverted to normal when I turned off my VPN client, but that's only one example.

[Darkbob]

Thats what I thought at first.  Nope.   No VOIP or overseas or scammers or anything unusual. These are all legit people.  Customers - mostly doctors offices, businesses or friends/family.  Landlines or cell phones.  Its Telus thats putting the 011 on the front of the number.

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@Upcraft wrote:

This occurs most often when the call is from a VOIP provider and the endpoint is using an overseas IP address.

99/100 times it's a telemarketer who bought VOIP minutes and is trying to use a Canada phone number to spoof their identity but is running a foreign call centre.  

The overseas number pattern can alert you to these fakes but it may be a false positive if the caller is travelling or their data is routed through offshore servers.  They could have their VPN client running because they wanted to watch region locked streaming services for example and forgot to turn it off before calling on their internet phone. Their VOIP provider possibly has not configured one of their servers properly and it's passing on this caller ID info.  They likely do not even know it's happening unless a trouble ticket is issued on their end but they usually only take a report of problems from their customer not from you.

I believe it's simply sending the digits as they have been handed over during call setup.  The misconfiguration is likely on the callers end of things.  I have personally been able to create this effect on my own VOIP providers when using VPN connections to servers in europe.  It reverted to normal when I turned off my VPN client, but that's only one example.

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[NFtoBC · Accepted solution]

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@Darkbob wrote:

Its Telus thats putting the 011 on the front of the number. 

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More likely the outgoing carrier. 

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@Darkbob wrote:

 - mostly doctors offices, businesses or friends/family. 

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Possibly some of these are using carriers other than the local telco (business services) and are sending the number as @Upcraft suggests.