Music when you dial

[Bouleversee]

I've just had a call from someone who wanted to tell me about an Emergency Response Service being offered to people between 50 and 90, which I think he said was being co-ordinated by the council, involving ambulance, police and fire services. He said they had planned to have a mtg. but that's out of the question now because of Covid 19 so the police were going round homes to discuss the service tomorrow and would I like to make an appointment and what time. Then the line went dead and I expected him to ring again but he didn't so I rang 1471 and got a number which I dialled but just got music, no ring tone or engaged signal. Is that a sign of a made-up number? I googled the number (01733 798836) but there were no matches. It would appear to be yet another scam attempt.

I remember that something similar cropped up a while ago but can no longer remember the details.

[mc2fool]

Then the line went dead and I expected him to ring again but he didn't so I rang 1471 and got a number which I dialled but just got music, no ring tone or engaged signal. Is that a sign of a made-up number?

No, it's potentially a sign that they never hung up and are, hence, keeping your line open. Try calling your phone from your mobile to see if it rings.

[Bouleversee]

I checked with the local police and the council and they don't know anything about house calls in this connection tomorrow, or indeed any initiative in this connection. 01733 is apparently a Peterborough no. but acc. to Google doesn't exist. I did dial it from my mobile and still got the music. Def. a scam methinks. I wish I could remember the topic of the earlier scam which a Fool discovered emanated from Norfolk IIRC. I stupidly mentioned that I would be out tomorrow afternoon for once; perhaps I should cancel that cup of tea with my neighbours, all social distancing rules observed and in my bubble, I hasten to add.

[Bouleversee]

Incidentally, the police told me to ring Action Fraud but the number written in large bold letters on their website is not recognised when you dial it and the other one to report a crime just holds you on for ever. The online chat doesn't seem to work, ditto the registration to be advise of scams in your area. Another shambles. I can't waste any more time on this.

[Bouleversee]

Then the line went dead and I expected him to ring again but he didn't so I rang 1471 and got a number which I dialled but just got music, no ring tone or engaged signal. Is that a sign of a made-up number?

No, it's potentially a sign that they never hung up and are, hence, keeping your line open. Try calling your phone from your mobile to see if it rings.

Why would they want to keep my line open? Are they making money if I call the number?

[dealtn]

I checked with the local police and the council and they don't know anything about house calls in this connection tomorrow, or indeed any initiative in this connection. 01733 is apparently a Peterborough no. but acc. to Google doesn't exist. I did dial it from my mobile and still got the music. Def. a scam methinks. I wish I could remember the topic of the earlier scam which a Fool discovered emanated from Norfolk IIRC. I stupidly mentioned that I would be out tomorrow afternoon for once; perhaps I should cancel that cup of tea with my neighbours, all social distancing rules observed and in my bubble, I hasten to add.

The advice was to dial your home phone (assuming that's the one they called you on) using your mobile, not the 01733 number. Is your home phone "engaged"? If so, they may be keeping it so by not hanging up having rang you originally.

[Bouleversee]

Apologies. I read your message too quickly. I have now dialled my number from my mobile and it rang on my home line.

[swill453]

The advice was to dial your home phone (assuming that's the one they called you on) using your mobile, not the 01733 number. Is your home phone "engaged"? If so, they may be keeping it so by not hanging up having rang you originally.

It would be a pretty sophisticated scam line that could respond to a 1471 call by reporting a number, then respond to that number with music, at the same time behaving correctly with dial tone etc.

I think it's a bit unlikely.

Scott.

[Bouleversee]

There wasn't a dial tone, just the music. I have often got a number from l471 after a spam type call or if I didn't get to the phone in time and usually one gets "No. not recognised" but once before I got music but didn't pursue. These people find it easy to insert fake numbers when making a call.

[mc2fool]

Then the line went dead and I expected him to ring again but he didn't so I rang 1471 and got a number which I dialled but just got music, no ring tone or engaged signal. Is that a sign of a made-up number?

No, it's potentially a sign that they never hung up and are, hence, keeping your line open. Try calling your phone from your mobile to see if it rings.

Why would they want to keep my line open?

It's so that while you think you have hung up and then are making a new phone call, the line is still actually open to the scammer, who can play you a dial tone and then pretend to be the system or person you think you are calling.

So they can pull the wool over your eyes by calling you and saying, "there's a problem with your account, you'll need to go through normal security to sort it out so please call the number on the back of your debit card and respond to the automated questions". Sounds good, you're calling your actual bank on their real number, right? ... Well, except the scammer keeps the line open, plays you a dial tone and then a recording of what your bank would say, but is, of course, gathering the security details you enter themselves in order to rip you off.

Quite what they might have done in your case I dunno, but as it's dead easy to check, by calling yourself from another phone and seeing if it rings or is engaged, it's worth doing so if you have any suspicions at all.

[Bouleversee]

Thanks, Mc2. I'll do that in future. However, I am suspicious in this case but it doesn't look as though my line was left open and they were planning to try to sell me something rather than pretend to be my bank. I do know about that scam and wouldn't fall for it but it's not clear what their plan was here. If one can't ring back the caller and a fake number has been put on the line, one is not likely to do business with them.

[gryffron]

It's not a fake number, it's real. But it goes to a call centre that's only used for outgoing calls. Hence any incoming calls are instantly routed to hold music, and nowhere else. An easy feature to setup on even the cheapest call centre system. If they don't setup a route OUT of the hold queue, then you'll just listen to the music forever.

Gryff

[Bouleversee]

So that's how it works. I wonder what their aim was and why they ended the call. I wasn't being particularly discouraging. On the contrary, I was quite interested as I really ought to have something like this, particularly in the garden. I did have a pendant at one time but found it a pain in the neck.

Do I need to cancel my tea date?

[Bouleversee]

I asked other elderly people in my road whether they had received a similar call and the answer was "no". I wonder why they picked me and how they got my number. Or was it just a random call like the Amazon Prime ones?

[didds]

secquential number dialling I suspect.

I'd wager your neighbours would only get calls also if their number was in a very similar range to yours

eg
020 456 1231
020 456 1232 <-- yours
020 456 1233
020 456 1234
...