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.