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Ringless voice mails from telemarketers

nytimes.com

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Re: Ringless voice mails from telemarketers

#41

Post by extrapickles »

tomjen3 wrote: post #25
extrapickles wrote: post #4

The article doesn't describe how the technology works. Due to the slow speed (100 voicemail/min) its likely what they are doing is initiating a call far enough for the phone system to busy out your phone, then very quickly placing a second call that the phone system sends straight to voicemail as your phone is busy. Once this call starts to hit voicemail, the original call is dropped. I doubt phone companies let peop…

How would this work when my phone declines their call? I assume it would hang up on the first call, then be available to hand up on the second call? Because if not, I need to disable my voicemail.

This entire process occurs before your phone is even aware of the call to decline it. They are taking advantage of the fact that it takes at minimum a few dozen milliseconds to route a call to your phone.

If you have one of the carriers others have mentioned, they are calling your voicemail directly, completely bypassing your phone.

Re: Ringless voice mails from telemarketers

#42

Post by kaslai »

Sir_Substance wrote: post #35
semi-extrinsic wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As long as it's a fairly consistently timed window (and I assume it is), it doesn't matter if it's just a few milliseconds. On a related note, I'm still surprised to find that telephone operators haven't fixed the scenario "someone calls me and I just miss it, I call them back while they're trying to call me for the second time, and we both get a busy signal". As a naive outsider, seems like it wouldn't take much to…

>As a naive outsider, seems like it wouldn't take much to just connect those two calls. Who would you charge for the call?

All phones services I've used charge for total usage, regardless of the initiator. If someone calls me, I still get dinged for every minute I'm on the line, same as if I placed an outgoing call. (Granted, I've only used pay-as-you-go type services, so perhaps other services are different.)

Re: Ringless voice mails from telemarketers

#43

Post by SimbaOnSteroids »

thejosh wrote: post #11
tjoff wrote: post #10

People still use voice mail? I don't believe I've encountered one in at least a decade...

Where abouts are you? Here in AU, it seems everyone uses voicemail for their mobiles.

The question you're looking for is how old are you, for my generation(later mellenial) it's a minor faux paux to leave a voicemail instead of a text.

Re: Ringless voice mails from telemarketers

#44

Post by yusyusyus »

Overtonwindow wrote: post #2

But HOW does it work? It's not clear by the article precisely how this is done. Possibly a triple call system. Three calls to that same number at once, each a millisecond after the other, and when the third hits the voicemail the other two disconnect immediately.

Another way of doing this is looking at LRN database and hitting the voicemail access numbers for the carrier. Often times the pilot number will let you dial a mailbox directly.

Re: Ringless voice mails from telemarketers

#46

Post by sillysaurus3 »

Anyone else in a situation where you're receiving robocalls ten times a day? Hard to believe, but I can show screenshots as proof.

I just counted. It's four times per day, like clockwork. Then there are various other robocalls that come in every couple days. So sometimes it's 4 per day, sometimes it's up to 7.

It's mildly annoying, but is there any other option than to just ignore it or keep blocking the endless new numbers that pop up?

Re: Ringless voice mails from telemarketers

#47

Post by kaybe »

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #46

Anyone else in a situation where you're receiving robocalls ten times a day? Hard to believe, but I can show screenshots as proof. I just counted. It's four times per day, like clockwork. Then there are various other robocalls that come in every couple days. So sometimes it's 4 per day, sometimes it's up to 7. It's mildly annoying, but is there any other option than to just ignore it or keep blocking the endless new…

Is getting a new number a bad option for you?

Re: Ringless voice mails from telemarketers

#48

Post by derefr »

semi-extrinsic wrote: post #28
smacktoward wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is fascinating. It never occurred to me until now that there might be a window in the call process between "line is flagged as busy" and "phone rings." I assume we're talking about a very narrow window here, right? How narrow? Is it something that has always existed, or something that crept in because of the transition from phone-as-mechanical-device to phone-as-software?

As long as it's a fairly consistently timed window (and I assume it is), it doesn't matter if it's just a few milliseconds. On a related note, I'm still surprised to find that telephone operators haven't fixed the scenario "someone calls me and I just miss it, I call them back while they're trying to call me for the second time, and we both get a busy signal". As a naive outsider, seems like it wouldn't take much to…

Under that scheme, if I called my own line by dialing my own DID, I'd end up with a completed loopback call rather than a connection to my voicemail inbox.

Re: Ringless voice mails from telemarketers

#49

Post by edoceo »

rgj wrote: post #21
edoceo wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You really only need a double call. It's quite easy. I wrote this ages ago http://edoceo.com/exemplar/call-to-voicemail Oddly, my number gets blown up by these things.

How about call waiting?

It's a far from perfect system. But it hits right like 90+% of the time. YMMV

Re: Ringless voice mails from telemarketers

#50

Post by gech »

>They have been hearing from ringless voice mail providers and pro-business groups, which argue that these messages should not qualify as calls and, therefore, should be exempt from consumer protection laws that ban similar types of telephone marketing.

There's no limit to how low pro-business thinking can go.

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