Got a call from "HOSTGATOR" on my CELL phone at 10AM today

1-713-574-5287

Anyone know why they are calling, or how they even got my cell number?


I found this on the Hostgator Forum:
As far as your question about the relationship between HostGator and VOIPo... HostGator and VOIPo are completely different companies. We do have a close relationship and promote each other's services because I'm a former HostGator executive, but we're entirely different companies. VOIPo isn't owned, operated or managed by HostGator.

So how the heck did they get my cell number at all as I have never dealt with them before? The only people that I have given my cell number to at VOIPO was the tech support folks.

We don't share any info with HostGator so it wouldn't be related to us and they wouldn't have gotten your info from us.

I'm not sure why they'd be calling as they're a different company. Your best bet is to call them and see.

What was really strange was that it was my cell phone number. No one has that as a contact number.

That's not as strange though as when I got a call from myself: http://forums.voipo.com/showthread.p...elf-on-my-cell!

I got a call from the same number on 13-Nov-2011. I'm a customer of both Hostgator and VOIPo. Though I missed the call, I called back later on the same number and got connected to Hostgator customer support, which didn't find any reason why I would have been called nor any trace of the call being placed.

Received a call this afternoon from them on my mobile phone. I generally don't get many robo or sales calls on my mobile phone so it's weird.

http://forums.voipo.com/showthread.p...r-713-574-5287

Same here. Received a call from 713-574-5287 this afternoon. Sorry didn't see this thread and started a new one.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MisterEd

1-713-574-5287
Anyone know why they are calling, or how they even got my cell number?
So how the heck did they get my cell number at all as I have never dealt with them before? The only people that I have given my cell number to at VOIPO was the tech support folks.

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Check your Vpanel under the Billing tab and see what you have there for your Contact Number. My mobile number is listed there.

Hello,

Please private message me the phone numbers that you received these calls on in order that I can further investigate. HostGator and VOIPo are completely different companies - so I assure you that we are not sharing customers data and HostGator would not have any access to such information. If you can provide me with more information I will be able to further look into this and see if potentially there is any kind of routing issue causing this. Look forward to hearing back from you guys. Thanks!

PM sent. Thanks!

PM Sent

10 char

Hmmm, I wonder: My FALLOVER number is my cell phone. I wonder if there is any connection there?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by VOIPoBrandon

Hello,

Please private message me the phone numbers that you received these calls on in order that I can further investigate. HostGator and VOIPo are completely different companies - so I assure you that we are not sharing customers data and HostGator would not have any access to such information. If you can provide me with more information I will be able to further look into this and see if potentially there is any kind of routing issue causing this. Look forward to hearing back from you guys. Thanks!

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My cell phone is my fallover number. I wonder if that has anything to do with this mystery?


Why does a moderator have to approve my last message for posting but not the one before it?

OK this message got posted immediately but the one before this did not but the one before that one did get posted.

Thank you all - I am continuing investigation and will update you all shortly. Thanks.

Ever find out any more information about this? Still wondering how they got my cell phone number.

Let's see if this innocuous message gets marked for "moderation" as many others have. <nope> :)

Hello,

Sorry for the delayed update.

Essentially what happened is the few of you that received these calls - the calls were never actually destined to you or your phone number.

The HostGator system routes through our network in a rather unique way over the rest of our traffic - so it avoids some of our general checks and balances of traffic routing over our network.

There is an issue where some of the calls are overlapping identities that we are working on resolving with HostGator.

This is pretty rare and has only happened a handful of times out of millions of calls per month.

Once again we assure you that these calls are not for telemarketing purposes and VOIPo has not and will not release any of our clients information.

I have absolutely no idea what you said however it still doesn't explain how they got my CELL PHONE NUMBER which virtually no one except my family and 3 or 4 friends here in NJ has (but is used as my VOIPO fall-over number and was given to VOIPO tech support to call me back). Had it been my VOIPO numbers that was called it might make a little sense how whatever you said happened but it was my private cell phone number with no connection to the VOIPO network in any way :) UNLESS VOIPO just happened to be down when they called and it came to my cell number as fall-over but then I would have seen it in my call log .... I think.

Edit: Nope. No calls from HOSTGATOR to either of my VOIPO lines on or around that date or time. It was a direct call to my cell number. I don't care what TYPE of call it was (telemarketing or otherwise) only how they got my cell number.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MisterEd

I have absolutely no idea what you said however it still doesn't explain how they got my CELL PHONE NUMBER which virtually no one except my family and 3 or 4 friends here in NJ has (but is used as my VOIPO fall-over number and was given to VOIPO tech support to call me back). Had it been my VOIPO numbers that was called it might make a little sense how whatever you said happened but it was my private cell phone number with no connection to the VOIPO network in any way :) UNLESS VOIPO just happened to be down when they called and it came to my cell number as fall-over but then I would have seen it in my call log .... I think.

Edit: Nope. No calls from HOSTGATOR to either of my VOIPO lines on or around that date or time. It was a direct call to my cell number. I don't care what TYPE of call it was (telemarketing or otherwise) only how they got my cell number.

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Again - HostGator did not call your phone number directly, one of their calls had an overlapping ID on our network with one of your calls that caused this issue in which routed to your failover phone number.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by VOIPoBrandon

Again - HostGator did not call your phone number directly, one of their calls had an overlapping ID on our network with one of your calls that caused this issue in which routed to your failover phone number.

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Again, maybe you want to explain what that means before the snow shovel or the pooper scooper has to come out? :)

In the most simple terms - our system normally generates Call-ID's for all calls - HostGator bypasses portions of our system to inject calls directly into our network and they generate their own Call-ID's - because they have a high volume of calls. In this case the Call-ID that they generated happened to match one of your Call-ID's - the system then new that the call was not a valid call and so it used a failure route - so on your account used a failover route which happened to be your cell phone number. So essentially HostGator's call was actually TO someone else but they were misrouted to you - because their Call-ID matched a Call-ID that was already in our system and the two calls got mixed up as all Call-ID's must be unique. The only reason this happened is because HostGator bypasses part of our network to route them directly. Typically with all of our customers we generate the Call-ID's ourselves - since HostGator bypasses our regular system and goes directly into our core system - they generate their own and in this case it happened to overlap.

I've looked for cases of this in our logs and I've only see it a handful of times out of millions and millions of calls.

We are going to work with HostGator to make sure that all Call-ID's are unique so it does not happen again.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by VOIPoBrandon

I've looked for cases of this in our logs and I've only see it a handful of times out of millions and millions of calls.

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Just my luck .... I get in on this "1 in millions and millions" chance yet I can't even win $50 in the lottery.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MisterEd

Just my luck .... I get in on this "1 in millions and millions" chance yet I can't even win $50 in the lottery.

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well at least now you know you have a chance at the lottery :)

I think HG is even more aggressive for this year. They seem to get phone numbers from potential customers from any source possible. Just be careful when signing up online on any products with your contact number given out. https://imagicon.info/cat/6-4/1.gif