Posted by HisHughness on 4/16/13 12:43pm
Msg #465903

What do scammers achieve when they call me ...

... but when I answer, there is never any response on the other end of the line. Several times a week, I will receive such calls from numbers that are no good. I can understand a scammer who is actually pursuing a scam who hides his phone number, but there is <never> anybody on the other end of the line on any of these phone calls. It's almost as baffling as it is irritating.

Does anybody else get calls of this nature?

Reply by GOLDGIRL/CA on 4/16/13 12:58pm
Msg #465907

Hugh - it's all those heart-broken women you've left strewn in the path of past romances. They just want to hear your voice one more time!

Reply by GOLDGIRL/CA on 4/16/13 1:22pm
Msg #465911

Actually ...

I don't know if this would apply in your case or not, but occasionally I get these "recorded" calls. When you answer, it's total silence on the other end. However, if you wait it out like 15-20 seconds (and who does that? You've hung up by now) on comes this stupid recorded messsage about something or another.

Reply by Buddy Young on 4/16/13 2:11pm
Msg #465916

Re: Actually ...

I believe it's marketing people who auto dial several numbers at the same time and they talk to the first to answer. Hugh, you are taking too long to answer the phone.

Reply by HisHughness on 4/16/13 5:05pm
Msg #465944

***Hugh - it's all those heart-broken women you've left strewn in the path of past romances. They just want to hear your voice one more time!***

Actually, it's more likely one of my exes, calling to see how happy I am after receiving the latest restraining order.

Reply by JENNY/TX on 4/16/13 2:10pm
Msg #465915

Hugh, I have been getting these for at least 3 weeks. No one on the line and after several seconds a recording says "Good Bye".

Irritating as all heck.

Reply by 101livescan on 4/16/13 2:36pm
Msg #465918

Are they waiting to see if someone answers, if no answer, they show up with a moving truck to empty the house of all your treasures...makes ya wonder, huh?

Reply by jba/fl on 4/16/13 3:20pm
Msg #465924

Possibly.

Reply by JPH13/MO on 4/16/13 5:44pm
Msg #465949

This is what I heard from a telemarketer about these calls

She said they have a system that auto calls tons of numbers a day, and if someone picks up it makes a note of the time of day it was. No-one will be on the other end of that call, but later on your number and the time of day you answered your phone will show up on a list for a telemarketer to use. This way they spend less time calling when no-one is home. Aargh.

Reply by HisHughness on 4/16/13 6:00pm
Msg #465950

Re: This is what I heard from a telemarketer about these calls

That makes sense, except why would I keep getting the same type of call from the same numbers every day?

Reply by BobtheElder on 4/16/13 6:22pm
Msg #465954

I remember a while back reading about an automated calling system that dials looking to leave a voicemail marketing call. If you answer it just hangs up. Still get occassional calls like that...

Reply by MikeC/TX on 4/16/13 6:50pm
Msg #465963

I was getting calls like this, and it's very annoying. As others have said, if you wait 15-20 seconds, you'll get an automated message - there's never a live person on the other end.

What I've done is to take advantage of the selective call blocking that my home phone service offers, and have also installed a call blocker on my Android cell phone. Once I determine that the caller is this type of nuisance, I just black-list them - these calls don't even register anymore.

If your home phone service doesn't provide selective call blocking, there are devices you can buy that will do the same thing (Amazon has a number of them). For my Android cell phone, I have a free app called Blacklist+, which will not only allow you to block specific numbers, but also numbers within a specific range - for instance, I discovered that one spammer kept changing their Caller ID by a digit or two to get around the blocks, so I created a filter that was similar to "8664592??". Any number that comes in with those first 7 digits does not get through to me. I highly recommend it...

Reply by Sha/CA on 4/16/13 9:53pm
Msg #465986

Great info. Thank you, Mike. n/m