Recycled SIM Card Number Sparks a Year-Long Ordeal

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A woman in Korat experienced a year-long ordeal with strange phone calls after purchasing a SIM card from a shopping mall, leading her to ultimately cancel the number. The calls were traced back to a number written on a school desk.

 

A story shared by the Facebook fan page ผู้บริโภค recounts the troubles faced by a woman who received numerous nuisance calls from unknown numbers over the course of a year. After buying a SIM card from a mobile service provider’s outlet within a shopping mall, she began to experience these disturbances.

 

“This is what is known as a recycled number. This case became unbearable for the owner, who eventually had to cancel it.”

 

The woman posted a photo of the phone number written on a school desk and shared her frustration: “Hello, this post isn’t about food, but I need help finding an answer to my problem. I bought a SIM card from a certain mobile operator’s centre in a mall. I have used it for a very long time, over a year.

 

 

Throughout this period, I have received many strange calls. Some callers said they were trying to reach their mothers but somehow connected to my number. Others were looking for friends who had given them this number a long time ago. Some said they were trying to contact relatives but were redirected to my number.

 

“Recently, a student prank-called me, and when I asked where they got my number, they said it was written on a desk. This is very puzzling. I must emphasise that I bought the SIM card along with the phone from a mall and have never shared my number with anyone except delivery services when ordering through apps.”

 

The woman, based in Korat, was particularly perplexed as the student who prank-called her saw the number written on a desk in Saraburi, a different province altogether.

 

The incident has highlighted potential privacy and logistical issues associated with recycled numbers, urging providers to consider stricter policies for reissuing used numbers.

 

Picture courtesy: Bouncenationkenya

 

-- 2024-05-20

 

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[thrilled]

I believe when you cancel your number another person buys it. Then they can get phone calls or texts from the 1st person. Part of life

[ChaiyaTH]

Funny, I mentioned exactly this in yesterday's post about sim cards and the scam calls.

 

They re-use old numbers here too fast without a cool down period. Has nothing to do with a random shop she bought it for. It has everything to do with how thailand manages their SIM cards + how they enforce illegal callcenters spamming / scamming people. Basically, like everything else, they mess it up.

 

I broke a phone last year while abroad, with a less important but still many years used SIM card for me (its mainly about the data for me), so when I came back to Thailand to get a new ESIM for my new phone, to replace it, I got told the number is now owned by someone else. He likely get calls of my contacts. All this was like 2-3 months only too.

[KhunBENQ]

10 minutes ago, ChaiyaTH said:

They re-use old numbers here too fast without a cool down period

Maybe operators become short of numbers. Short like Bangkok car sign plates 😁 (what will happen after prefix 9).

Just look at the policy of selling internet SIM cards often thrown away after a year.

Shops are full with preconfigured SIM cards for internet from all operators.

You can buy a 200 Baht SIM card for a month (test) and if you are not satisfied just throw it in the bin.

[Maitdjai]

2 hours ago, thrilled said:

I believe when you cancel your number another person buys it. Then they can get phone calls or texts from the 1st person. Part of life

That's the logical explanation for the issue.

A canceled number should be locked a decent amount of time before resale, marked as "Recycled" for a certain timeframe, and sold with a discount. Then, it would be up to the customer to take that risk, or not.

"Part of life" is, that this is "Lalaland" 5G, where everybody is infallible, and nobody cares.

 

[Korat Kiwi]

What else was written on the desk? 

 

For a good time call 099 *******? 

Could have been a good little side hussle 😉