Phone scam or hoax? whats to be gained?

[wildone63]

Theres been many occasions this year when ive noticed that ive had a missed call to my mobile from another mobile number,when i ring the number to find out who called me i either just get a recorded message saying that ive dialled an incorrect number or if a person answers they deny phoning me in the first place.
Ive also had several people call me to ask why i called them earlier when i have definetley not made a call to them.
Is it some sort of scam,or a hoax or what?
What does anyone stand to gain from it?

[MitchT]

I've had loads of these missed calls. Never call back as I assume I'll be connected to a scammer or a premium rate line. If someone who has a legitimate reason to contact me calls they'll leave a voicemail or follow up with a text.

As an aside, I had a text the other day saying "Hello! Hope I'm not interrupting. Do you have a minute to talk today?" Ignored that too. Why wouldn't someone identify themself if they had a good reason to talk to me?

[Big Nanas]

It's probably just scammers using phone number 'spoofing' to cover their tracks. It's possible to fake the number sent from, so in some cases that if you call them back on that number, a real person who legitimately owns that number knows nothing of calling you.

[Dog Biscuit]

I get these calls multiple times on a daily basis.

So infuriating.

I wonder if its just some AI thing randomly calling made up numbers to try and verify its a legit one to pass on to scam callers or something?

[the-norseman]

They are spoofed numbers, if you answer its a recorded message that says something like "NHS calling to confirm your doctor details" and then asks you to press 1 for chinese and 2 for English, I pressed 2 last time and when the bloke answered told him to F O.

another one is "HM Gov ringing to confirm your tax details"

[wildone63]

the-norseman said:

They are spoofed numbers, if you answer its a recorded message that says something like "NHS calling to confirm your doctor details" and then asks you to press 1 for chinese and 2 for English, I pressed 2 last time and when the bloke answered told him to F O.

another one is "HM Gov ringing to confirm your tax details"

I have answered these calls a few times and gotten the chinese message without even pressing any number,ive also had calls with a recorded message enquiring about my "immigration status",and calls with a recorded message saying "we have tried contacting you several times but have had no respose from you",but they never say who "we" are
F-----g cretins.

[AB]

This has started happening to me the last week or so, missed calls at weird times. 2am, 5am etc.

I do have screen calling switched on but there's never a message left.

I call them back just in case and they answer and deny calling. Strange.

[Terminator X]

Don't ring back. An important caller will always call again.

TX.

[MattsCar]

I had been getting a lot of these as well. So looked in to it.

As others have mentioned, they are simply spoofing numbers. The numbers they are actually ringing from are international numbers, so to make themselves look convincing, they basically have some sort of system that takes genuine UK numbers, off some sort of list they have got and then when they ring you, these are displayed. If people are calling you back it means they are using your number, however, don't worry, they haven't hijacked your phone etc.

If you do answer them and press 2 for Chinese there is a random Chinese person waiting on the phone to talk to you.

Very odd. No idea what the scam is.

Kind of annoying when you are running a business.