Broadband Tech → Security → Scam and Phishbusters > Phone calls from nowhere

Phone calls from nowhere

I'm posting this, in case other folk are seeing the same thing.

I rarely get phone calls on my cell phone, except from family. When I provide a phone number to a business, I normally give the home phone number, not the cell phone.

So, yesterday, I received 6 cell phone calls:

259-282-9626 19:38
736-778-1669 19:45
549-736-7617 19:47
391-686-0812 19:47
635-986-2612 19:53
932-275-8302 20:26

and today, I have received 6 thus far:

569-675-7549 10:09
655-809-9926 10:36
592-226-6592 10:50
987-788-7976 11:06
589-504-9664 11:25
888-637-2967 13:42

all times are CST (US/Central).

The cell phone identifies the last number as from "United States" and the others as from "unknown".

I am not sure what is going on. The last of those is an 888 number. The others are mostly from area codes that do not show up in area code lists.

Note that I rejected (did not answer) all of those calls. My guess is that they all, or all but the last, are from the same caller, and probably a scammer.

A google search for the last number says that it is a job placement service that makes unsolicited phone calls to people.

Is anyone else seeing similar behavior?
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AT&T Uverse; Buffalo WHR-300HP router (behind the 2wire gateway); openSuSE 12.3; firefox 22.0

I too have been receiving calls like this. Two or three from your list match a couple of several I received today. The calls started around 11:04 this morning and have continued thought the day. I answered a couple out of curiosity and immediately the phone rings as if I was calling out. Some foreign person always answers and asks for some random person.

Thanks.

It is probably automated. So "the phone rings as if I was calling out" is when their automatic equipment recognizes an answer, and transfers to one of their agents (probably a scam).

I accidentally answered one today (not on my list), and it sounded like the start of a sales pitch. So I just hung up.
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AT&T Uverse; Buffalo WHR-300HP router (behind the 2wire gateway); openSuSE 12.3; firefox 22.0

Hope this ends soon!! I received two more calls since my last post. Getting old fast!

The last one [888 number] is from a known phone spammer called 'Career Advisors'.
File a complaint at donotcall.gov for that one.

The others are spoofed, because the area codes are unassigned.

It would be interesting if you could forward your phone to a toll-free number for a few hours, since incoming calls to WATS show ANI and not Caller ID [ANI can't be spoofed]. Hopefully, one of these days the FCC will wake up long enough to deal with them.

An update on this.

I am still getting dubious calls, though the rate has reduced.

There were none over the weekend. On other days, there is at least one call from 888-637-2967 and at least one call from a probably bogus number in my own area code.
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AT&T Uverse; Buffalo WHR-300HP router (behind the 2wire gateway); openSuSE 12.3; firefox 23.0

Put you phone on the Do Not Call List,and that should stop the calls after 30 days.

I've been on that list since it began, and still get three or four such calls every day. I'm shocked to find that criminals ignore laws!
--
Jim Kyle

I have an address book entry where i dump numbers like this and then I block them. It got so out of hand that I now block entire exchanges and area codes.They never give up. You may be on a list that is being sold to all takers.

I also got calls from 391-686-0635 and they told me that my recent application for financing of a new car was accepted. I told her that I had never applied and that I wanted proof of who filled out this application. I then asked to speak to someone with better english and or a manager and she hung up on me.... what the heck is going on here?

Good idea in theory, but the Do Not Call list is only for companies that play by the rules. Most of these scammers don't.

I'm thinking of trying the Albine "MaskMe phones", although it costs $5/month. Their free MaskMe email is wonderful for alllllllllllll those websites that demand an email addy.

»www.abine.com/maskme/faq/#aliasphone

The worst part of these telemarketing calls is that CompanyA sells your number to "B", who sells it to "C", etc.

If you are using an Android, I would suggest this : »play.google.com/store/apps/detai···lcontrol

It works really well. I'm sure it's available for the IPhone as well.

Get a voip account with Voip.Ms, which has an 'IVR' - a way to prompt a caller to enter a number. Make a recording that tells callers: 'Enter 1 to ring through'.

If the caller enters the 1, your phone rings; if he (or it) does not, your phone hangs up.

Since most telemarketer dialing programs hang up if they hear an answering machine answer (I do not know how they can tell, but they do), your phone will not ring unless it is a human calling.

I literally suffered with this problem this past Spring and early Summer, but this was on our home phone, through our ISP. I've changed numbers 3 times now, and I think the third time has been the charm, but before, it was a real circus. ADT, siding companies, FirstAlert gadget companies, you name it, we got it.
It was funny, as on the second number change that was unlisted, it took all of 20 minutes to receive the first call.
I didn't know one could block with voice mail, although I do have the ability to block specific and anonymous calls. We've received a very few of these type calls on our cell phones, but thankfully, it's been rare. But, no one, no business, period, has my home number, at least not by my hand. Just family and friends. These people are worse than spammers ! And with my answering machine, they would let it pick up, then hang up, and I'd come home and the phone would be "off the hook"; I'm not sure how this was accomplished. I was reading about spam and spoofs on the Sophos site yesterday, and all of the things that can be done now would keep a genius busy for a while just attemting to defeat a lot of the tricks used on the 'net. It was SO much nicer back in the '90's !!! So many things were free back then, but I guess "they" were just letting us get comfortable before the storm !!!

Although it costs around $100, the "CallerID with Ring Control" lets you block virtually any number even an entire area code. There's another device that does the same (sorry, forgot the name). 'Tis great since these spam callers seem to have unlimited resources of numbers to bombard us with.

FWIW, my mentioning this device is by NO means an "advertisement" for it. I abhor telemarketers more than liver/onions.