Three UK telco bug has customers receiving and making random calls

Customers of the Three UK telco company are panicking as they receive a series of random phone calls due to an ongoing issue.

Likewise, outbound calls from customers are being routed to random strangers.

Three is the fourth-largest British telecom giant and Internet Service Provider (ISP) with 13.3 million subscribers as of 2020.

Three telecom customers flooded with random calls

As of a few hours ago, complaints of Three UK customers receiving a series of calls from random numbers have surfaced the internet:   

Another Three customer tweeted:

"My phone isn't connecting with others and then had a very random number ring. My son tried to ring my husband and, after ending the call, it connected 30 seconds later... hope you sort the gremlins soon," said Hilary.

When trying to phone a specific person, such as their partner, calls are being routed to random people or failing altogether.

Consequently, Three UK customers are receiving calls from random numbers in a series.

On top, some customers are conflating this ongoing issue with a "data breach," as their phone number is being exposed to random strangers, and vice versa:

"Serious data breach rerouting my number 2 strangers my partner has had about 30 numbers call her, 3 told us 2 not answer but we waiting results from doctors. I was calling my partner as school said sons inhaler expired and to contact Dr's," tweeted customer Matthew.

In response, Three UK denied this to be a data breach to all such customers:

"We understand your concern and apologise for the inconvenience, but this isn’t a data breach. Please end the call if this happens," said a Three representative.

Although many are convinced that it's a data breach:

Of course it’s a data breach as you’re routing calls to random people showing them our numbers

What’s going on with three network? Had loads of random people call me in the space of 5 mins? Data breach???? @ThreeUK

Three UK has acknowledged the technical issue and is working towards remediation:

We’re currently experiencing technical issues with some calls. Please accept our apologies if you’ve been affected by this, our engineers are working hard to fix it. Check back here for updates.

This is a developing story.