They learned that the number had been re-allocated by Sure and people thought they were messaging its former holder.
The company has apologised after the girl’s angry father reported the issue.
But although another number was provided, with assurances that it would not happen again, the problem did not go away.
‘Then she was getting messages from people asking if they can fix their hip again or work on various parts of the body,’ the father, who asked to remain anonymous, said.
‘So she now seems to have a physiotherapist’s old number.’
Mobile phone numbers are reused after a period of dormancy set by the provider.
A survey of 15,000 people in the UK by consumer website Which? last year found that 7% of people had experienced problems caused by the deactivation or reallocation of a landline or mobile phone number. This included nuisance calls and texts and being deactivated without consent.
In the UK, a quarter of children aged between five and seven have a smartphone.
The man said he bought a phone for his daughter because he travels a lot and he wanted her to be able to call him, to keep him up to date with her school life and other news.
He had not realised that mobile numbers were recycled and said that this should be only after several years out of use.
‘There’s recently been that situation of an 18-year-old soliciting young children and I’m now having to explain to my eight-year-old why people do this kind of thing,’ said the man.
He accepted the argument that children of a certain age should not have a smartphone.
‘But you would expect Sure to be more diligent when they’re explicitly told it’s for a young child.’
Sure’s acting chief commercial officer Mike Fawkner-Corbett said the company was sorry about what had happened.
‘Mobile numbers that have not been used are reassigned after a minimum of 12 months of inactivity,’ he said.
‘In rare cases, services from a former user – not linked to Sure – may still be active. This isn’t something we expect to happen often, and we completely understand how unsettling it can be to receive messages meant for someone else, especially if the content is inappropriate.’
In such circumstances a new number would be issued, he said.
‘We’re truly sorry for any distress this has caused.’
The company’s number management approach was in line with operators in the UK, he added, and that ensured effective management and availability of phone numbers to residents.
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