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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/
... 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 {} \;`
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.
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
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.
I was walking down the street today and I happened across a shop downtown. The sign above the door read "XjfdiIXo-8"
Amulet, Xorn, jelly, feline, dog, incubus, uhh... Xorn, orc, wall, uhh... and amulet.
Actually, what are I and 8? Damn, I should know.
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