Glitch gives Virgin Mobile users access to strangers' voicemail

A glitch with Virgin Mobile's voicemail services is giving its customers access to the messages of complete strangers.

In attempting to access their voicemail through the 212 number provided by the carrier, customers this morning reported hearing voicemail messages belonging to others, rather than their own.

In other cases users also said they were directed to leave messages on someone's else voicemail. 

The messages are not protected by PINs. Virgin Mobile's customers have taken to social media to complain about the apparent privacy breach.

"I tried to access my voicemail and I keep on getting other peoples. Not happy if other people are listening to my voicemails," one user wrote on Facebook.

"When trying to retrieve a voicemail message this morning, I continuously kept reaching other people's voicemail inboxes. Four attempts, four different people's voicemail messages - 2 of them phone contacts, 2 of them complete strangers," another customer wrote.

Virgin Mobile confirmed the issue and said it was working on a fix.

"We take the privacy and security of our customers very seriously and all hands are on deck to investigate and resolve the issue," it advised.

Update: Virgin appears to have shut down the voicemail service at around midday: when dialing 212 customers are now greeted with the message "Optus advises that the number you have dialled has been disconnected”. The company is a wholesale partner of the Optus network.

Virgin has been approached for detail.

Update 3:30pm: Virgin Mobile said it had resolved the issue. It did not provide any further detail.

"When we became aware of the issue, we deactivated our voicemail service whilst our team investigated and reactivated this when we were confident the issue was resolved," it said in a statement.

"We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused. Any customers still experiencing difficulties may need to turn their phone off and on again."