Voice mail hacked

BrianD

I've noticed that the voice mail on an O2 Speakeasy phone that I have has been 'hacked'. The phone is rarely used and its purpose is for emergency use in case the land line goes down. I was checking it the other day and the voicemail message has been changed to a message saying that "we own your phone" (english sounding accent). The PIN (which was not the default PIN) bo longer functions. I was dialling into the mailbox so I have not had an opportunity to try accessing the mailbox directly from the hand set.

Has this happened to anybody else?

smemon

its actually pretty easy to do. if you dont change your voicemail pin

[edit]this bit you didn't have to share though[/edit]

i reckon more people DONT change the pin than do.

Mr E

The PIN (which was not the default PIN) bo longer functions.

Looks like Brian didn't have the 0000 default password. So how does this hacking happen, then?

- Dave.

jesus_thats_gre

It doesnt happen, the only person that should/would be able to change your voicemail password is your operator.

I dont see hackers/criminals infiltrating an operators network just to get their voicemail password...

Celticwarrior

AFAIK if u dial in from your handset you can change it, at least you could with vodafone iirc.

BrianD

Well this voice mail had a PIN and the greeting has been replaced by a person unknown saying "We are taking over your phone line now. We have it and you can't stop us". The PIN has been changed. I am just amazed that anyone would be bothered!

Adrian

Not calling anyone stupid, but i thought everyone knew this trick. It's been out since time began or at least since mobiles were out. I think the person that gave the directions for this **** should be banned anyway because if everybody didnt know already they do now.

BrianD

Would you care to enlighten us then please?

I have heard of friends/relatives/spouses trying to hack peoples voice mail. I am aware that many people don't change their PIN from the default making it an easy process.

What struck me as odd with my case is that somebody went to the trouble of hacking a relatively unused SIM that was "protected" by a PIN.

seamus

If you don't have easy access to the phone BrianD, perhaps the bill payer can ring up and have O2 change it for them (or reset it).
I dunno if any of the operators will do this for you though.

jesus_thats_gre

Originally posted by seamus

I dunno if any of the operators will do this for you though.

They can and will do it for you...

If someone went to the effort of infiltrating an operators network, they could and would do a lot more than change your voicemail password.

You were saying that the phone is just used for emergency purposes. This would suggest that the phone is rarely used, if ever. If a prepaid phone is not used for a specific period of time on any operator, the account may be disabled or the line disconnected. This may also disable the Voicemail. When the account is then re-activated, the Voicemail service is restored to its default settings. Thus the password will now be 0000 again.

Did this possibly happen?

BrianD

I am sure the O2 will reset it. It is a possibility that it may have "expired" as you said.

What concerned me is that there is obviously individuals out there who may be randomly targeting phones for malicious purposes. This costs somebody money to do this and there must be some benefit to the perpetrators (other than irritating the owner of the voice mail). I was raising the issue to see if anybody else had a similar experience.

Genghis

Brian,

had you checked your voicemail using a landline with a number display. Perhaps someone at work could 'press redial' and see the number come up - your voicemail phone number, followed by the PIN?

Also, is it not likely to be someone you know - like you say there doesn't appear to be anything in it for the hacker unless they want to take the piss out of you, I certainly can't see any benefit to a stranger in doing this.