The postman... er, phone... always rings twice

[Dan Hintz]

Here's a scam (?) that I can't figure out the gain, not can I find any detail on it at work...

I have received a LOT of calls on my work line as of late. I can almost guarantee it's because I did a fresh round of updates for all of the magazines I get (business and tech mags, not woodworking), and this time (for the first time) I included my actual business number. the calls come in at any hour of the day (and the ones that come in between 11pm and 6am are absolute JOYS!

The phone rings twice, and only twice. No one is ever at the other end. No message is ever left. I block every one as soon as I get up in the morning. They're obviously spoofing the number as they come in from all over the country, some from valid #s, some not. A couple of numbers are even sequential (what are the odds, right?).

Weird.

[Scott Shepherd]

Dan, search for the "One Ring Scam". It's targeted towards hitting people with cell phones. It calls repeatedly and hangs up to make you want to call the number back and see who's call you missed. When you do, it charges your cell phone bill with some international rates and can also add additional charges on your phone bill.

If they are calling a land line, I don't think it works.

[Larry Frank]

You just can not get away from them.

Maybe it was Rachel from cardmaster services....

[Ed Aumiller]

What Scott said does apply to land lines also as many folks now use caller id... the get you to call back scam started right after caller id was made available...
before that they would leave a message on your answering machine to call them....

[Steve Peterson]

I don't see how they can get that much of a result. I never call back any number from a stranger even if they leave a message. We get around 4-5 per day on the home phone with no message. Every day or two there is a message to "call back for an important message".

And then there is the 2-3 messages per day from credit companies trying to collect a debt from the previous owner of this number, but that is another story.

Steve

[Bert Kemp]

I never answer the phone unless its an Identified caller and I know them. and I never ever call back to see who it was.

[Dan Hintz]

Dan, search for the "One Ring Scam". It's targeted towards hitting people with cell phones. It calls repeatedly and hangs up to make you want to call the number back and see who's call you missed. When you do, it charges your cell phone bill with some international rates and can also add additional charges on your phone bill.

If they are calling a land line, I don't think it works.


What Scott said does apply to land lines also as many folks now use caller id... the get you to call back scam started right after caller id was made available...
before that they would leave a message on your answering machine to call them....

I'm dubious about this being the scam, at least in my case. If you're going to provide a caller ID #, it should go to a number that actually exists (and you can get charged for it). Half of the numbers coming up go to actual businesses (some people) in the U.S. I can't see them making any money off of that.

Either way, they're not making anything from me... I'm using VoIP, I pay by the year, and there are no extra charges for anything. I can call to Germany for 24 hours and see no rate change, so good luck with these guys collecting ;)

[Val Kosmider]

"Some" of this has to do with "bulk" dialing...the computer calls a bunch of numbers all at the same time. The first call to get answered cuts off the balance of the other calls. If you happen to be the "lucky" person who answered, a machine will give you "please strand by for an important message which will change your life forever" message and then a human gets on the line to sell you whatever it is that they are huckstering.

Certainly not all of the "two rings" calls are of this ilk, but it is one of many PIA practices that these dirt bags have in their arsenal of annoying behaviors.

[Dan Hintz]

"Some" of this has to do with "bulk" dialing...the computer calls a bunch of numbers all at the same time. The first call to get answered cuts off the balance of the other calls. If you happen to be the "lucky" person who answered, a machine will give you "please strand by for an important message which will change your life forever" message and then a human gets on the line to sell you whatever it is that they are huckstering.

Certainly not all of the "two rings" calls are of this ilk, but it is one of many PIA practices that these dirt bags have in their arsenal of annoying behaviors.

That would be standard fair for robo-dialing, but every call is two rings. Standard robo MO is to always ring the specified number of rings or until the person picks up, but if all operators are busy, the callee just gets an earful of silence.

Last night was the first in many that we had zero calls. Hopefully that means I have blocked enough of their numbers to essentially appear dead to them. Of course, I think I'm still waking up around that time out of habit, so that's not good.

[Curt Harms]

We've used nomorobo for a few weeks now. It works VERY well. The phone does ring one time though so that wouldn't help with middle-of-the-night stuff and right now only works with 10 digit caller ID numbers. We've gotten a few crap calls with 4 character caller IDs but we know those are not legit.

nomorobo.com

[John Coloccia]

That would be standard fair for robo-dialing, but every call is two rings.

Skynet's just practicing.

[Jerry Thompson]

I really liked one Telemarketer call. The phone rang and I thought I will tell them to put me on the do not call list. I answered and a recorded voice asked me to wait as a very nice person would soon be talking to me. A male voice came one line and started his spiel. I interrupted and told him to put me on the do not call list. He instructed me to do something impossible to myself and hung up. I giggled all day about that one.

[Larry Edgerton]

With few exceptions, I lie about my phone number...........

I use my old shop number that I no longer have. I no longer have that number because of these kind of calls. The number rang at my house and my shop and they would always call in the middle of the night and wake me. New house phone is programed not to ring from 11PM to 4AM.

[Myk Rian]

I never release my number, unless it's a friend, or trusted business.
If my number is insisted on, it's 000-000-0000

Can you block area codes instead of just full numbers?

[Dan Hintz]

Can you block area codes instead of just full numbers?

I'm asking for that feature to be added, as well as the ability to block any calls during a certain block of hours.

I have "solved" the problem... I muted the ringer for the business phone in the bedroom. Ideally, the calls wouldn't come in, but if they're going to continue to do so, might as well still get a peaceful night out of it.

[Phil Thien]

Here's a scam (?) that I can't figure out the gain, not can I find any detail on it at work...

I have received a LOT of calls on my work line as of late. I can almost guarantee it's because I did a fresh round of updates for all of the magazines I get (business and tech mags, not woodworking), and this time (for the first time) I included my actual business number. the calls come in at any hour of the day (and the ones that come in between 11pm and 6am are absolute JOYS!

The phone rings twice, and only twice. No one is ever at the other end. No message is ever left. I block every one as soon as I get up in the morning. They're obviously spoofing the number as they come in from all over the country, some from valid #s, some not. A couple of numbers are even sequential (what are the odds, right?).

Weird.

We've seen an uptick in the same thing. Middle of the night the business line is ringing.

I have access to a database that allows me to lookup the providers and underlying carriers, which turn out to be Broadvox and L3 (Level 3), more often than not. Broadvox is a Google Voice partner, and L3 is a Broadvox underlying carrier.

Pretty annoying.

[Dan Hintz]

We've seen an uptick in the same thing. Middle of the night the business line is ringing.

I have access to a database that allows me to lookup the providers and underlying carriers, which turn out to be Broadvox and L3 (Level 3), more often than not. Broadvox is a Google Voice partner, and L3 is a Broadvox underlying carrier.

Pretty annoying.

I'm seeing a lot of L3, as well.

[Phil Thien]

I'm seeing a lot of L3, as well.

So who and why? I don't even care about who that much, the why is a curiosity.

If I had to guess, I'd imagine they've figured out some new vulnerability in some type of VOIP phone systems and they're trying to boomerang overseas calls from unpatched systems.

Edit to add: Nah, that doesn't even make sense. Well maybe it does. Maybe they're looking for voicemail pilot #'s in order to launch an attack.

I have no idea.

[mike mcilroy]

Any chance its just some kids figured out a new way to annoy massive amounts of people for their own entertainment no financial gain wanted?

[Dan Hintz]

So who and why? I don't even care about who that much, the why is a curiosity.

If I had to guess, I'd imagine they've figured out some new vulnerability in some type of VOIP phone systems and they're trying to boomerang overseas calls from unpatched systems.

Edit to add: Nah, that doesn't even make sense. Well maybe it does. Maybe they're looking for voicemail pilot #'s in order to launch an attack.

I have no idea.

Starting at midnight, I have received 4 calls on my business line from unknown numbers. Two rings each. One was in TX, one in NJ (the lion's share seems to be from there), on from right here in MD, and I forget the fourth. All are now blocked.

I still cannot grasp the potential scam here.

[Ted Calver]

Because they are business numbers, is it possible they are being checked for a fax tone so they can send advertising via fax? This used to happen to my business line all the time, although it was a few years ago.

[ken masoumi]

Dan, search for the "One Ring Scam". It's targeted towards hitting people with cell phones. It calls repeatedly and hangs up to make you want to call the number back and see who's call you missed. When you do, it charges your cell phone bill with some international rates and can also add additional charges on your phone bill.

If they are calling a land line, I don't think it works.
Now that I know about these silent,2- ring calls I'm thinking is that what has been happening to me?I have been getting these calls with two ring lately,when I answer,I get silence,it sounds like no one is on the other side,so far I have not tried to call the number back to find out who it was which is a good thing but I'd like to know what is the point of these calls:confused:where's the scam.
Maybe someone is trying to communicate with me but is too shy!maybe its Adriana (http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/forums/1/tech-helproom/4225107/spam-emails-from-quotadrianaquot/);) who is tired of sending those "hey you" emails and now she wants to hear my voice,lol.

[Myk Rian]

Many years ago, 2 rings meant the phone company was checking the current draw for the ring.
They were checking to see if you had more phones than you were renting from them.

[Dick Strauss]

IIRC there was a news story here where businesses were charged thousands of dollars for phone calls never placed. Hackers would call and try to break into the phone networks or area businesses. If they were successful in breaking in, the buiness owner's phone system were used to make calls to a 900 types of numbers while the businesses were closed. A month or so later, the businesses would get a bill for several thousand dollars. The businesses were on the hook for the charges because of poor phone network security, the hackers/crooks would get a portion of the money generated by the bogus calls, and the phone company gets their 40% cut for collecting the money.