A friend and I have both received calls that show up on caller ID as coming from our own phones. I didn’t pick up, figuring it was a scam. She did, and it was a man with an accent telling her her credit card was overdue. She hasn’t had a credit card in many years.
Well at least I know it wasn’t a killer in my house, or future me calling to tell me something important, as another friend suggested. Just another scam.
😀
I'm Not In, Take A Message For Me
I have a vague recollection of being able to call a number (perhaps one’s own?) when I was young, then if you hung up it would ring at your own house. Maybe it was a secret phone company code we learned. Anyone else do this?
In any case, it made for a few juvenile laughs to make the phone ring with no one there.
This is clearly very different, and does indeed sound like a scam.
Calling Yourself
Yes, Chris, the code I remember was called the Verification Code. It was not intended to be used by the public & was a secret.
Backstory: As a kid I had a telephone hobby; used to buy cheap really old ones by mail order, & ended up with a cool collection, in fact still have some of it (useful for theatrical props on occasion.) Anyway, my dad at one point had a new phone system installed at the small manufacturing company he ran, & it was school summer vacation & my dad, knowing my interest, asked if I wanted to come hang out & watch the phone company guy install the new system — “Call Directors” which were those phones with a box with rows of buttons, several lines, a hold, & buttons to push to beep another person’s phone for an intercom.
The guy, Ken I think, doing it was a lot of fun & seemed to enjoy that someone was interested in what he did. I learned various things, such as red & green are the ring & tip of line one, yellow & black for line 2, and other tech stuff. And particularly 2 secret things: One was how to remove the plastic dial from a dial phone (it was the 60’s & they were clear plastic. You turned it all the way past zero & held it there & put the end of an unbent paper clip in a tiny hole which released a mechanism & the dial popped off. You can imagine that was a useful skill to have.)
The other secret thing was he told be the Verification Code, a series of a few numbers you dialed, & then when you hung up the phone would ring. Telephone installers obviously had a use for that. From then on it was handy as a way to call someone on one of the extension phones in our house. And of course it was useful if one needed to have a fake phone call come in. I used it for a few years, but eventually it was obsolete. Wonder if there still IS one!?
Calling Yourself
I have also seen incoming calls from my own name/number on my caller ID. I have assumed it was a scam and not answered it.
I used to assume things like caller ID were accurate, but alas, these days it seems to be far from trustable.
The other day I tried to call eBay, as someone had apparently created a new account with my Gmail account, and I wanted them to stop the emails, but didn’t want to give them info about who I was. I used *67 before dialing, and verified by calling my house from my cell, and vice versa, in both cases, I was able to show up as UNKNOWN on the other end. Then tried to call eBay, first thing they do is list the number I am calling from and ask if that is the account I am calling about. I was appalled. Apparently, caller ID blocking doesn’t apply to them. This was a trivial setting, but caller ID blocking is VERY important when folks are trying to avoid stalkers. Chalk up another instance where the phone network is limited for us mere mortals, but apparently can work however you want if you spend the money on programming, switching, etc.
As to ringback numbers, try this, at least if you are a Fairpoint 802 customer…
If your number is 257-1234, dial 987-1234, if your number is 257-4321, dial 987-4321, i.e., dial 987-xxxx, replacing last four digits with your last four digits, you should hear a new dial tone. Flash the reciever, hanging up for about 1/2 second, you should now hear a high pitched tone. Hang up and your phone will ring back. Flash again and hang up again and it will do it again. Repeat until bored, then hang up for real (a few seconds or longer) and you will be back to normal. Nothing showed up on my caller ID.
When I was a kid in NYC, I seem to recall the RingBack number was just 4321, then hanging up.
I remember the days of party lines (not in NYC) where if you wanted to call someone on your same party line, you would call them, then hang up, and wait until it stopped ringing (showing they had picked up) then pick up your end.
Another fun type of number is ANAC numbers, (Automatic number announcement circuit), which tells you the number you are dialing from. I used to try to remember local ones, like 200-2222 here in Fairpoint 802, but these days I just use (800)444-4444, which is MCI. (I troubleshoot phone lines often and use this frequently)
Other interesting ones are 1-700-555-4141 or 1-802-700-4141, which tell you who handles your out of state or in state LD calls, at least from land lines. Haven’t bothered even trying this on cell, as it isn’t relevant.
Alan
*67
I’m not 100 percent sure, but I think *67 does not work on 1-800 numbers. Perhaps the ebay number you called was tollfree? I have long felt that companies should be mandated to offer a toll number precisely so people can avoid identification. But they’d probably come up with some way o convince congress not to pass it.
the number you are calling from
Sometimes I have to wonder… I’ve noticed for several years now that a number of companies (including those which provide telephone services) greet a call with a recording that asks you to verify that xxx-xxx-xxxx is the phone number from which you are calling. Then you get transferred to an account representative who asks for your phone number. When speaking with a rep, I often preemptively ask “did my number transfer to you?”, usually to be told that it did not. Sometimes, in response, a rep will ask me to confirm my number without offering any hint whether or not they see it. If there is a problem to be resolved, there seems to be quite a few employees who can’t transfer a phone call without “mistakenly” disconnecting it. I’ve had people ask me for my number (for a third time in one call) so they can call me back if we get disconnected. Even though this scenario has has played out several times, I have had someone call back after disconnection exactly once – from Vermont Health Care Connect (or whatever it is called).
Fruitless loops
I’ve been caught in those loops, too. Comcast had me give my full account info multiple times.
I suppose the good thing is that they have multiple people verifying that it is really me, but one would think that the info could be passed along after the first collection point.
Another
I didn’t get to pick up the phone before they hung up. I’ve a string of profanity waiting just for my own calling number.
machines calling machines
Some of the political calls coming in have been from odd looking “local” numbers. A tape recording of Ben and Jerry called me yesterday, but it wasn’t listed as coming from them, a machine, or VT Dems. Just a name in VT.
I’ve evolved a couple of phone rules for myself:
1. Don’t pick up before you are awake and able to make clear decisions. (Learned this one answering calls from my first boss who would call really early to tell me he wouldn’t be in, then give me a long list of things to do. I’d agree, then realize later I agreed to things just because I was half asleep).
2. Just because the phone rings doesn’t mean it has to be answered that moment. Answering machines work!
These two usually keep me out of trouble. Also, cutting off salespeople and saying “No thank you,” then hanging up. No need to listen to the script.