latest cell phone scam

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E_SolSi

Member of the 20 nut club
Moderator
VIP
just a heads up

http://www.wbir.com/story/news/nation/2014/02/03/one-ring-phone-scam-sweeps-the-country/5189161/


Scammers overseas buy or steal lists of US cell phone numbers and use computers to mass dial. Your phone will ring just once-- long enough to generate a missed call. When you call back, the scammers charge you $20 for the call and another $9 for every minute you spend on the line.
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The BBB said the calls usually come from numbers with area codes 268, 809, 876, 284 and 473. One thing to look out for is where the call is coming from. Many victims say the call location was Antigua.
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TL;DR = don't return calls to numbers you don't recognize or it could cost you a bunch of $$$
 
got a few one ring hang ups last week... i dont call back shit if i dont recognize the number
none of them were from the area codes listed

:shrug2:
 
I got a call Saturday and Sunday from two different numbers with a 268 area code. I figured it was something along these lines. Telemarketers do not normally call and hang up after one ring.
 
Telemarketers call and hang up after one ring ALL the time. Try opening up a business and listing a phone number, you'll get at LEAST 2 or 3 dead calls a day. I looked into this a while back, and apparently what's going on is there's some sort of automated system that calls numbers and sees which ones have a live person pick them up and which ones are disconnected or out of service. Those 'live' numbers are then passed on to the next 'level' of their marketing, which is someone calling and asking for the owner or the person in charge of decisions or whatever.

Totally normal.
 
I kept getting hangups from a 914 area code (NY) on my Google Voice number today- it's the one I post out to Craigslist for sales. Easy solution... just log into the Voice panel and BAN!
 
I'll pick up for numbers I don't recognize (job searching and what not), but I don't even call my friends back. If its important, they'll call again or actually leave a message.
 
Haven't gotten any yet. The phone scam I hate is the one to my home phone with a recorded message from some guy who talks for several minutes asking how much I would be willing to pay for him to do various services around the house. The one time I caught the call during the day in the summer one time, and I hit 9 to talk to the guy. From the background noise I could tell he was sitting at home. He hung up on me when I asked him how his ads were doing because he couldn't be doing that well to be sitting on his ass at home in the middle of the busy season.
 
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