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I am receiving a number of phone calls on both my land line and cell from anonymous callers that either hang up quickly or say nothing.
Invariably the numbers are out of my area code and the number on my caller ID does not pick up / is blocked when I call.
Just wondering wtf is going on this all this tomfoolery?
It sounds like skullduggery to me, not tomfoolery.
It's probably telemarketer robo dialers. The recordings take a while to happen which is why you hear nothing.
When I'm not traveling I'm at home mostly and sometimes I get these calls all damn day. It's annoying.
Don't try to call them back but if you are wondering about who it is google the number, as there are several reporting websites for these so you can at least see who it was supposed to be.
Related but a little off topic.
Got a text the other day from my credit card company asking if I tried to buy some $800+ thing or whatever. It said reply with no if not. So I replied no. Got a follow up message to call this number. I figure sure, I'll call them, and while I'm on hold I'll google the number to make sure it's legit. I don't find the number on google anywhere. Went to their main website and searched for it. Still nothing.
Finally I'm connected and asked for my name and phone number. They already have my phone # and my first name, so whatever. I give them that. She asks for last name and address. I tell the lady I got a text and I'm following up, but I'd like to verify this is the real number and not a scam or spam. Lady's like nah, I can't do that, call the number on back of your card.
I find my card, call the number, and it's all good. Checked my online transactions through my account and some fishy shit showed up, so yeah. Got the card cancelled, new one coming, they dropped the charges and doing a fraud investigation (supposedly).
But how stupid can these companies be, IMO? I mean, this is exactly how people get scammed all the time, why wouldn't they want to verify who they are on the phone? I'd think with at least me giving them my phone number, first name, and perhaps another bit of information (like zip code, or I tell them a recent charge on my card), they'd be able to verify and say something like "your most recent charge is $63.89, another is $12.36, another is $273.17". At least for me that'd be enough of a verification.....or hell, better yet, HAVE THE DAMN PHONE NUMBER ON YOUR SITE and it should be the same number on the back of my credit card! (They weren't the same #.)
Even worse is getting calls from someone asking who I am. Like bi***, I ain't telling you who da f*** I am, who are you?
Just imagine how easy it'd be to setup a number to cold-call (text) a bunch of random cell phones, say there is suspicious activity or an attempt at a large purchase, on their XYZ card (something popular like American Express, Shell card, etc.). Many/most won't have that card so they'll disregard it. Those who do may call the phone number it says to call. Robot says to enter your credit card information, hell it can even ask to say your full legal name, zip code, and something else. Robot asks if you attempted a charge for $1207.89 at Amazon.com, person says no, robot says okay & thank you & charge will be removed and reported to fraud services. And people will do it. And now you have hundreds if not thousands of credit card numbers. Any person who doesn't figure out it's a scam won't be the wiser and won't notice. Some will report it, but what does the scammer care---he's already got people's CC numbers who aren't gonna get their card replaced because they don't realize they got scammed. And you can bet AmEx or Shell aren't going to replace millions of people's credits cards because a few hundred or thousand got scammed.