Caller ID = "CALL", answer causes dialing

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Marty - 25 Mar 2006 01:45 GMT

A friend with a fairly old Nokia phone sometimes gets a call where the
caller ID simply says "CALL". Today, he answered, and heard tones like it
was dialing out, so he hung up right away. We're wondering what it might
be, whether it's some scam or some sort of callback service.

Anyone know what this is?

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Marty - public.forums (at) gmail (dot) com
"Those are my principles, and if you don't like them...
well, I have others." - Groucho Marx

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DecaturTxCowboy - 25 Mar 2006 04:04 GMT

> A friend with a fairly old Nokia phone sometimes gets a call where the
> caller ID simply says "CALL". Today, he answered, and heard tones like it
> was dialing out, so he hung up right away.

It could be a incorrectly set up predictive dialer that telemarketers
use. It detects you answered the call and then dials a string of digits
to connect to an agent. Normally those digits are muted.

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Marty Fried - 25 Mar 2006 05:32 GMT

Back on Sat, 25 Mar 2006 03:04:28 GMT, while hiding out in
alt.cellular.cingular,DecaturTxCowboy <forgetit@bummer.com> surprised
everyone by saying:

>> A friend with a fairly old Nokia phone sometimes gets a call where the
>> caller ID simply says "CALL". Today, he answered, and heard tones like it
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
>use. It detects you answered the call and then dials a string of digits
>to connect to an agent. Normally those digits are muted.

Interesting. Does that count as a call for the receiver if he allows
it to connect? I wonder also if it could be some scam where it would
cost a lot of money to somehow do a callback of some sort. I have no
idea what I'm talking about, so if that's totally impossible, let me
know.

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Marty public.forums at gmail.com
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DecaturTxCowboy - 25 Mar 2006 06:03 GMT

> Interesting. Does that count as a call for the receiver if he allows
> it to connect?

Since he answered the call, he connected as far as his cellphone carrier
is concerned. It doesn't matter to him how the call routes from that
point on.

> I wonder also if it could be some scam where it would
> cost a lot of money to somehow do a callback of some sort.

You're thinking of when companies outside the U.S would page people to
call them back and have them pay for the international call. Whole
different thing.

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