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

[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 callswhere's the scam.
Maybe someone is trying to communicate with me but is too shy!maybe its Adriana 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.