# phone scams



## cami (Aug 11, 2010)

so i've been getting these calls for two hours now. same number, just ringing and hanging up. for two hours. *+923 319 144 970*. 

etisalat can't block the number because it's international. the police can't do anything unless i go and fill out a complain to a police station. i can't block the [email protected]#$%^ number because i don't have a post paid on my bb. to get the service, i need to apply to an etisalat branch, with passport copy, salary letter, and/or bank statement on the last three months.

meanwhile, the phone is ringing...

would be cheaper and less stressful to get a new sim card, but even then, who knows....


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## Moe78 (Oct 29, 2010)

hmmmm you could answer the phone next time, not actually say anything but just answer it and let their money go to waste. I receive a lot of these phone calls, I sometimes answer and let the other side lose money that way, I don't talk to them, just silence


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## cami (Aug 11, 2010)

Moe78 said:


> hmmmm you could answer the phone next time, not actually say anything but just answer it and let their money go to waste. I receive a lot of these phone calls, I sometimes answer and let the other side lose money that way, I don't talk to them, just silence


it's just one ring. it (i refuse to use he/she) doesn't wait for me to pick the call. then nothing. you really think i haven't thought of this...

one ring. then 5 minutes. then another ring. and so on. for two hours.


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## Moe78 (Oct 29, 2010)

You could obsess over this, keep looking at your phone waiting for the ring to automatically hit the answer key.


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## sabfrance (Sep 9, 2010)

Maybe its a fax programmed to keep dialing.


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## cami (Aug 11, 2010)

Moe78 said:


> You could obsess over this, keep looking at your phone waiting for the ring to automatically hit the answer key.


nah. i'm too old to obsess over anything. 

the only reason i posted this story here is that i know there are a number of phone scams at work, and identity theft is a serious threat here. now, how they could steal my identity via the phone is not entirely clear to me, but since the phone is connected to the net, i could suspect anything. i refuse to believe anyone is that stupid to make 15 calls in two hours just by mistake...

so beware of phone scams.

now, another aspect that made me post this is the "useful" response of the service provider, and the police here. if i have to drive, fight the traffic, get to a police station only to be laughed at and considered another hysterical female westerner complaining over trivial matters, made to fill out a compalin form that's written in broken english, and told to follow up as they will give me an answer in 48 hours, f%& it. let them ring.


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## Moe78 (Oct 29, 2010)

There was this idiot who used to ring me over and over. First two times I answered and spoke, he hung up but the times after that I would press answer and hear say hello but not get a response from me. This happened for several days until it stopped.

I also used to get calls from the Philippines but that's stopped too. Come to think of it I haven't received a single "wrong number" call in a very long time now where I would get one every week at the least!


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## zin (Oct 28, 2010)

Change your ring tone to one which doesn't kick in until the 2nd ring. I get +22 numbers calling every now and again and don't notice until I see the missed call. Unfortunately there's a percentage of people who will call back, making it a profitable scam.


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## hubbly_bubbly (Oct 17, 2010)

Seems it's happened to whole bunch of people over the last few years. There's a thought that +923 is the country code for Tajikistan, which is incorrect as the correct country code is +992. (+92 is Pakistan).

+923 is _not_ an internationally allocated number, to/for any country.

Couldn't find any solutions either, Cami and Moe, in my brief moments searching in the underworld that is Google.


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## Maestro (Dec 20, 2010)

That sucks...

I get calls too... except its for the person that owned the number before I bought it from Etisalat. Apparently the guy that had my number before I did ran away with some money and I keep getting calls from banks and collection agencies .. lol. and when I tell them I'm not the guy they are looking for they get all suspicious but eventually understand and stop calling. Although banks can't officially delete my no. from the system.. They've asked me to send proof of purchase before they can do that! been two months now.. I get about a call every 2-3 days... just have to deal with. Etisalat as usual cannot do anything.


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## Moe78 (Oct 29, 2010)

every 2-3 days? for how long exactly? Just get a new number in that case!


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## Nightshadow (Sep 21, 2010)

I do exactly what Moe does... I dont get calls here in Dubai, but in the US Id get calls all the time... it was so darned annoying, so I would do the same thing... pick up and just not say anything, leave the phone off the hook.... hope for them to lose money and patience when their auto-dialer keeps getting stuck on the one person that did pick up...or I'd send it to my fax at my home office, I figured maybe if they kept getting a fax tone they'd stop. 

Oh well.


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## Maestro (Dec 20, 2010)

for about 2 months. I didn't bother to get a new number because I'm going back to my old number next month. (long story short - Etisalat could not put me on one of their special plans for the Samsung Galaxy S on my old number cause their system would not support it.. I had to get a new number for the offer).


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