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Strange Numbers on Caller ID?
boohiss asks: "I've been getting a lot of calls on my cell phone from '+001819'. I haven't answered them, of course. But what is this number? I've found some various explanations here and there, but nothing conclusive. There's also the story on Snopes about the famed 809 long distance scam, which may or may not be what this is. Could it be some form of cell phone spam that isn't compatible with my phone? Does anyone else get these calls, and has anyone figured out what they are?" If anyone is unfortunate enough to fall for one of these, what options do they have in terms of damage control?
Office pboxes. I just got a call from my aunt who called form 973-000-0001 (973 is a New Jersey area code). If they have their caller ID tags screwed up, or even spoofed, it'll show up that way. Here's a service which does it for a fee... http://www.covertcall.com/
-Christopher Wu
http://www.christopherwu.net/
I get calls from 0-000-000-0000, how is that possible?
I'll Find You Peer, If It's The Last Thing I Do!!!!
...I get calls from 415-000-0000. Strangely, every time I try to call them back, I can't get through.
... and ask them?
Or you could of course ask 100,000 other people who have no real idea what you're talking about, of course.
Meep meep
Anecdotal evidence:
A friend sometimes calls my cell from Korea using a long distance calling card and the number displayed on my Caller Id is very similar to the one you posted.
Just a guessing:
Strange caller id numbers also originate from a poorly configured (or intentionally screwed up) Voice Over IP phone.
Basically your cell phone provider isn't stripping the right digits from the number being presented to it, and as such the number being presented to your phone is strange...
...
All that number means is
+ (international dial)
00 (in some countries this is also international)
819 (area code)
I saw this same problem when traveling through the midwest a few months ago.
`find / -name "*your_base*" -exec chown us:us {} \;`
When my sister was working at the district attorney office, if she called out house from there, the caller ID showed up as "out of area", but if she called our cell phones it showed up as ( I think ) 0393.
Always the same number, so we knew who it was, but it was odd.
Perhaps your carrier isn't receiving the caller ID info, and your carrier is just sticking some number on there to indicate that.
The caller's probably from the US, where they have this bizarre system were the recipient of a mobile phone call pays.
+ in a phone number usually indicates an international number (you're supposed to dial your international call prefix plus the number, you see) but there are no country codes beginning with 0. Assuming that, again, he's in the US and the + is in fact erroneous, 001819 would dial a number in Sherbooke, Quebec, Canada.
What you are experiencing is someone calling you through a carrier that does not properly populate the CLI and ANI fields in the SS7 (or ISDN) message to the terminating carrier.
This isn't anything scamy at all, and nothing for you to worry about. All this means is that someone is using some cheap ass long distance to call you... maybe from a prepaid phone card or a VoIP-to-POTS service. Its very easy to not set this up correctly if you are using some crap switching platform like NACT STX, and if the carrier is small enough to be under the radar, they probably aren't filing the PIU forms anyway so they don't give a shit about the tax penalities for not sending ANI.
Your cell phone provider will treat this call the same way it treats all incoming calls. Most likely that means it will just charge you at your normal airtime rate.
I've been watching you, Ne^H^H Boohiss, and I want to meet you. I don't know if you're ready to see what I want to show you, but unfortunately, we have run out of time. They're coming for you, Boohiss. And I'm not sure what they're going to do.
</snark>
According to http://decoder.americom.com/cgi-bin/decoder.cgi it might be:
Did you see this one?
Breaking down the number,
+ = Standard phone number convention outside the US
00 = International Dialing
1 = North America / Caribbean
819 = Quebec City, Quebec
Unless you know someone in Quebec, I'd recommend you not answer it. Even if they can't rip you off, why let them waste your time and your air time?
Finally, you do realize that even this number may be a complete fake. Thanks to VoIP you can now setup your own inexpensive PBX and manipulate the caller id numbers as you see fit. There are even companies popping up, like this one, that offer faked caller id as a service.
Anyone who posted an answer, thanks. I've never seen a number like that on my cell before, and I was just curious.
As far as answering goes, why should I waste minutes or risk a scam? Why even post a reply like that? A wise man once told me the only stupid question is the one not asked. And apparently the slashdot mods though it worthy of a green light, so plllbbttt
Earn a free iRiver
Telemarketers? They seem to be allowed to use predictive dialers so long as they answer within a few seconds, otherwise they must terminate the call.
I used up all my sick days, so I'm calling in dead.
Spoofing ANI and CLI only requires that you have an oob signaling link to your upstream carrier. Every upstream carrier is going to populate whatever the one before them had in the message for ANI and CLI. You can probably do that with any old ISDN or T1 without much trouble.
If you just have a regular DS0 land line, its a bit different. ANI and CLI are transmitted out of band, so you can't reall effect that. The terminating switch will have the same ANI and CLI that your originating switch trasmitted in the SS7 message. However, the "caller id" information (taken from the CLI field) is transmitted in band from the terminating switch to the receiving party's handset... and this is very easy to spoof. Once you are connected, you can send your own in band "caller id" signal which will be picked up by the receiving part's handset. You can probably do it with sound card.
Yes. Cellular works a bit differently in the US. You are charged for both incoming and outcoming calls.
On the other hand, the calling party does -NOT- pay more for calling a cellular than a landline. In most other countries, cellular has a special city code that is billed at a higher rate. Here in the US you can port any number to cell or landline, so its not usually possible for the calling party to know he is calling a cell.
Thank you for helping me understand what I sound like when I try to explain a RAID setup to my uncle.
In-band = information transmitted the same way your data (or voice in this case) is. In an analog phone network, in-band signalling and control is done with things like audible tones and voltage changes.
Out-of-band = signalling and control that happens by some other means outside your data (voice) link. For instance with an ISDN line, the out-of-band signalling is on the D channel, whereas the voice/data are on the B channels.
CLI/ANI info, posted from the first hit of a google search:
CLI , ANI
Calling Line Identification , Automatic Number Identification
CLI = ANI
A service available on digital phone networks that tells the person being called which number is calling them.
The central office equipment identifies the phone number of the caller, enabling information about the caller to be sent along with the call itself. (Osicom)
The providing of the Directory Number from which a terminating call has originated ( NI )
A service available on digital phone networks that tells the person being called which number is calling them.
The central office equipment identifies the phone number of the caller, enabling information about the caller to be sent along with the call itself. ( WorldCom )
At a minimum, the calling line identification includes a single calling party number; it may also include a second calling party number, a calling party subaddress, and redirecting number information.
Calling line identification may not include any calling party number due to interworking, or because of an interaction with the CLIR supplementary service. ( TG )
11*43+456^2
Don't ignore the possibility that it's your own equipment malfunctioning. I was getting the weirdest junk on caller ID a couple months ago, until I figured out that the batteries in my caller ID display had died...
Of course. This is very smart of you. If you had gotten the notion to pick up the phone and, well, ask who they are, control of your brain would have automatically been siezed by the worldwide deadly Communist Gangster Frankenstein Computer God, who controls all of the brain-bank-brains on the far side of the moon that we never see.
Consider yourself lucky.
This is true for the most part, but it can't be relied upon for billing purposes. Every NPANXX is associated with an OCN, but the OCN no longer owns the number. The biggest problem here is not cellular, which as the parent said is usually all together in one area code. What is much merkier is trying to identify if you are calling a number attached to a RBOC or a CLEC. Its very common now to change your local service provider for your landline. LNP for cellular is a new development.
Back in the old days you could just do a lookup of the NPANXX in the LERG to determine who the final terminating carrier is. But now, even though a NPANXX is associated with an OCN, you can't rely on that.
However, thanks to SS7's national roll out in '92, you can now dip the NPAC database to determine which LEC you are sending the call to.
Reference Guide for non-telecom nerds:
NPANXX ~ The area code and exchange. i.e. from 617-333-3456, the NPANXX is 617/333.
OCN ~ Operating Company Number. This is a reference number that identifies a particular local service provider. For instance, Pacific Bell (I believe) is 9147. Cellular providers and CLECs have their own OCN numbers as well.
LERG ~ Local Exchange Routing Guide. This is a database published in monthly updates by Telcordia
on a CD-ROM that shows (amoung other things) which OCN is associated with which NPANXX. It also shows the geographical coordinates of each NPANXX (for those who bill calls by mile), ratecenters (local calling areas), and about 2 dozen other things.
LEC ~ Local Exchange Carrier. This is the company who's switch is connected via copper wire to your handset. This can also be a cellular company. In the United States, a LEC originates and terminates every call, though there may be 1 or more Interexchange carriers (IXCs) in the middle.
CLEC ~ Competitive Local Exchange Carrier. This is a LEC that wasn't part of the Bell Breakup, but uses parts of the local bell company's network and systems to get to that last mile customer. For instance, your cable company is a CLEC if it offers local phone service.
RBOC ~ Regional Bell Operating Company. This is a company born out of the Bell Breakup. i.e. Verizon, Qwest, BellSouth, SBC, etc.
LNP ~ Local Number Portability. This is taking a local phone number (whether it originally belong to a cell phone or a landline is now irrelevant), and PORTING it to another local exchange carrier's network. This allows a customer to keep his phone number but change providers.
SS7 ~ A very reliable and complex out of band signaling system now used in the United States, Canada, Western Europe, and other developed parts of the world. SS7 has redundancies all over the place, allows for dipping external databases (for instance to identify a ported local number or where to route an 800 number), and most importantly, provides a continuous stream of data between every switch along the call path. This means that the terminating switch at the end of the last call leg has the call setup information before it gets the call (faster call setup = connect to your party faster), and it also means that the first switch in route will know that the 6th switch in route is having problems before it sends the call there, so it can reroute the call somewhere else.
NPAC ~ World Zone 1's database of what number belongs to what LEC-- i.e. to identify ported numbers.
World Zone 1 ~ All the countries you dial 1+area code+number for. US, Canada, Guam, some carribean islands.