# Why The Random Phone Calls From USA That Hang Up When I Answer?



## player99 (Sep 5, 2019)

Lately I'm getting up to 10 a day. Why?


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

You don't have a little black book with your poems in it do you?


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

Hmmm...around here it's the reverse: I hang up when* they* answer. I usually get the phone after one ring (it's a landline), say "Hello...HELLO?" and if there is no answer within a second or two,I hang up; usually hearing a person starting to speak as I'm placing the handset back in its cradle.

But yeah, after a pleasing few months without any such calls, they started up again about a month or two back.


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

Computer generated scams for the most part. Some are probably the "Is your fridge running?" type or the knock on the door and run away type, some are probably genuine wrong numbers and some just register that the phone was answered and will call back later to connect to your phone and put your number on a call list. A lot of the time if they go to voicemail they do leave a message for you to call back.....don't. Best thing is not too answer, especially if you don't know the number, and let the call go to voicemail. Somewhere in the not too distant past you answered a 'wrong number' and your phone number was put into a machine and possibly sold. You can block them but the machines just generate any number they want. I get the occasional one from Ont. and Quebec about a survey. Caller ID comes up different numbers but the message is always the same including the call back number. You call back and they have you.


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## tomee2 (Feb 27, 2017)

We get weird phone calls all the time. Many on the home land line, but now on the cell phones too. Some hang up, many don't talk, some play an obvious text to voice scam message.
I ignore them, and now started to not answer the phone at all. Sometimes the I'd number is local, but it's not. We had people call us once asking why we kept calling them, and hanging up, so they obviously use caller ID spoofing too.
Once one of the most trusted industries in the world has basically turned into a shit show free for all that allows scam artists from around the world to target us.


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

tomee2 said:


> We get weird phone calls all the time. Many on the home land line, but now on the cell phones too. Some hang up, many don't talk, some play an obvious text to voice scam message.
> I ignore them, and now started to not answer the phone at all. Sometimes the I'd number is local, but it's not. We had people call us once asking why we kept calling them, and hanging up, so they obviously use caller ID spoofing too.
> Once one of the most trusted industries in the world has basically turned into a shit show free for all that allows scam artists from around the world to target us.


When I was still with my last ex the caller id on the house phone would occasionally show the house phone number.


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## knight_yyz (Mar 14, 2015)

I'm getting the scam phone calls (about 10 a day). You know the one about SIN and if you don't answer the phone the RCMP or the police will come arrest you. The worst part is they are also spoofing all the numbers, so if you do block a number there is a good chance you are blocking a legitimate government telephone number.


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## butterknucket (Feb 5, 2006)

They're recording the times you pick up, so the software knows when to to load it for the actual call centre person.


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## tomee2 (Feb 27, 2017)

butterknucket said:


> They're recording the times you pick up, so the software knows when to to load it for the actual call centre person.


That's what I thought too. 

A friend of sorts also realized he got random calls only when driving... never at home. He thought they were testing to see if you'll answer while driving and then be distracted enough to start giving up passwords etc. I asked how they knew he was driving..he figured they did somehow. It's a bizarre world I'm slowly beginning to really hate.


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## laristotle (Aug 29, 2019)

'We offer duct cleaning services'
'Sure, come on over. I have pigs and chickens that need it too.'


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## Frenchy99 (Oct 15, 2016)

I was just calling to say Hi ... but changed my mind...


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## Diablo (Dec 20, 2007)

It’s scammers...but they realize too late that you’re a musician and have no money and are afraid you will hit them up for a loan “...until payday...”.


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## spacebard (Aug 1, 2009)

Once you answer, they"ll call you several times with different numbers. A message often starts the moment you say: "Hello?", and if you don't say anything, it ends the call. Now when I don't know recognize the number, fuck them, I don't answer.


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## Wardo (Feb 5, 2010)

If I do not recognize the number or name I don’t answer the phone.


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## Eric Reesor (Jan 26, 2020)

A great many new phone scams are there to try to pad your bill by minute charging your phone account. If they have a disguised 1 900- 1 999 complex prefix somewhere in the routing. I have seen hop calls with number references as long as 20 digits. Some of them are the same ones that do the phone sex and party line crap that prey upon the lonely crowds of so called singles. Some even aggressively advertise their pay per minute services on TV.

We have allowed communication methods that if misused simply become money grubbing con scams. The same bullshit as the endless "my clean pc" style bullshit scams with phoney tech calls from "Microsoft internet security services" telling you that your computer is causing damage to the internet because it is "infected" with a virus, then getting you to go to a web site open up root access to them and let them use what amounts to gobbldy **** and snake oil with shifty scripts to "fix the problem with your Windows PC" and thus drain your wallet of some cash in the process! 

The new phone scams have the twist that all you have to do is allow the time to mount up on the phone to the number calling for a few minutes and you will be charged for an imaginary 1 900 service that you did not agree to receive. Most of the hang up quick calls are just being done to confirm that there is indeed another sucker who will answer the phone at the other end.

Just because the calls seem to originate from the US does not mean that they came from a US origin in the first place. Some phone systems cause foreign origin calls to disconnect thus the hang up but by then the scammer knows that the number is current and active. By and large most of the scam calls come routed from the EU over the internet and then hop on an open phone socket locally. The line between internet and telecom traffic is blurred and it is getting worse as international organised crime ramps up their tech crimes. Canada is a prime target.

Unfortunately we all must begin to ignore all robo calls these days, even if from a legitimate source like a hospital or legally registered charity. The problem is that many hospitals and important charitable organisations are using automated software to confirm appointments and raise funds.

None the less there are new ways of blocking all new numbers that call your number: with a simple primary answer phone that requests the return of a randomised single digit number to be pressed by the calling party before allowing the phone to ring.

Soon we will be expected to press a number or even type in a short pass number that the primary answer phone gives out in a digital voice to actually talk to a real person or get the answer phone to record the in coming call. Things are getting that bad and the crooks are at it with a vengeance now that they know people are at home and will answer their phone without even looking at who the incoming call is coming from.


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## TVvoodoo (Feb 17, 2010)

Got the robotic "You have suspect charges on your CC" call this morning "press three talk to an agent"... I pressed 3. 

Lady comes on, "Credit card fraud centre, did you make the following credit card purchases in the last 24 hours?"

She lists three bogus purchases totaling about $1,700. 

I said "Yes ma'am, I totally made those purchases, are there any others?"

Dead silence on the line for about seven seconds as she computes this. Finally, "No."

"Thank God" says I, "You had me quite concerned. You guys are doing a great job by the way. I am so grateful for your service."

"You're welcome..."

"Before we end this call, please accept my sincere hopes and wishes for you, your kids, your entire family. May you all begin suffering painful genital warts and drippy open sores on your faces as long as you work this criminal job. You should start seeing them in about four days, good luck!" 

Click.


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

One of the things drifting around here is the CPS non-emergency phone call which shows up as the real police number. If you dial that number you get the Calgary Police Service. If you do a re-dial from your recent calls it connects you to the actual number that made the call and then they have you.


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## Hammerhands (Dec 19, 2016)

A call centre will phone dozens of targets at the same time and connect an operator to the first one that picks up. 

When you answer there is no worker to take your call, so it hangs up.


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## High/Deaf (Aug 19, 2009)

That's an ACD system.

I recorded an outgoing message on my answering machine: "Hello ..... {8 second pause}......I can't take your call etc."

That long pause after Hello is recognized by the system as a real person and the call is then routed to 'an agent standing by'. I let my answering machine waste a few dozen agents' time and voila, I was off the list for a while. Haven't changed the message because all the people I want to talk to are used to it now.


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## butterknucket (Feb 5, 2006)

I won't go into detail, but many years ago I took a telemarketing job and realized a few minutes after starting I was working for a scam operation that was tricking people into giving up their credit card and banking information. I called the police about the place after my first day and they weren't interested. I called them again two days later and got someone who was much more receptive. I quit the next day. 

About a month later the cop I spoke to called me back after their investigation and explained how bad the place I was working for was. I'm glossing over a lot, but about six months later he called me again after it had been shut down and asked me to be a witness in court. I agreed, but I didn't hear from him again. Shortly after there was an article in the paper on the place, what it was doing, and how the police had shut it down.


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

The systems they use are a probably more complicated than these but it's the same idea.




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## player99 (Sep 5, 2019)

butterknucket said:


> I won't go into detail, but many years ago I took a telemarketing job and realized a few minutes after starting I was working for a scam operation that was tricking people into giving up their credit card and banking information. I called the police about the place after my first day and they weren't interested. I called them again two days later and got someone who was much more receptive. I quit the next day.
> 
> About a month later the cop I spoke to called me back after their investigation and explained how bad the place I was working for was. I'm glossing over a lot, but about six months later he called me again after it had been shut down and asked me to be a witness in court. I agreed, but I didn't hear from him again. Shortly after there was an article in the paper on the place, what it was doing, and how the police had shut it down.


Hard working people sent to jail because of you.


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## butterknucket (Feb 5, 2006)

player99 said:


> Hard working people sent to jail because of you.


I know, I'll have to find a way to repay society. I really don't know if all the people working there were that clueless or just didn't care. Anyone with half a brain and some critical thinking skills could have understood what the script was really saying.


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

butterknucket said:


> I know, I'll have to find a way to repay society. I really don't know if all the people working there were that clueless or just didn't care. Anyone with half a brain and some critical thinking skills could have understood what the script was really saying.


Years back they opened telemarketing/call center like that in the South Okanagan. It would get shut down on occasion and the company would move everything including most of the employees to another spot and then start up again. Sometimes under the same name, sometimes under a different one. I knew a few people who worked there and for most of them it was just another job. If you kept up your quota the pay was OK and you could set your own hours. As far as I know no one ever went to jail. The company got fined and that's about it.


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## butterknucket (Feb 5, 2006)

Electraglide said:


> Years back they opened telemarketing/call center like that in the South Okanagan. It would get shut down on occasion and the company would move everything including most of the employees to another spot and then start up again. Sometimes under the same name, sometimes under a different one. I knew a few people who worked there and for most of them it was just another job. If you kept up your quota the pay was OK and you could set your own hours. As far as I know no one ever went to jail. The company got fined and that's about it.


Oh they definitely went to jail where I was.


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## Permanent Waves (Jun 2, 2020)

The automatic dialers used by the scam centers make sure a real person answers (rather than a long answering machine message) before connecting you to a live operator. If no operator (scammer) is available, they hang up and try again several times a day. That's how you knw when it takes time for someone to answer, it's a scam. I used to precede my answering machine greeting with the 3-tone signal you get when reaching an out-of-service phone number to trick the auto-dialer into deleting my number form the database. Seemed to work for a while. The Do Not Call list was supposed to help since Canadian companies could be fined for calling those numbers, but foreign companies are actually using it as a source list.


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