And such rubbish all day: who and why calls from unfamiliar numbers and drops
Almost everyone faced this situation - an unknown number rings a couple of seconds and resets. Who was that? Do I need to call back? Let's consider the possible options.
Who is calling and why
There are several situations in which you can receive an incoming call from an unknown number.
Fraud
The most unpleasant thing is, of course, fraud. The scheme is quite old, but still working - scammers conclude an agreement with a telecom operator, according to which incoming calls to their number will be paid, and the proceeds will not be in favor of the operator, but in favor of crooks. The calculation is that the subscriber will call them back and lose all the money from the account. Unfortunately, this calculation often works.
Sometimes such scammers have Russian numbers starting at +7. But it happens that their organization calls through other countries - from Algeria, Congo, Estonia, Cyprus and others. In this case, the first digit will be unusual (+2, +3, +6 or others) - pay attention to this and never call back to such numbers!
Advertising
Sometimes it’s not scammers that call and drop, but just obsessive advertisers. They also expect you to call back. But instead of writing off money, a message written by the announcer is waiting for you - you will be clearly advertised with a new taxi, medical center, cosmetic services or something else. The calculation here is that, having spent a little time and effort to call back an unfamiliar number, you better remember the advertisement.
Special attention deserves advertising not with the clip recorded by the announcer, but with a living person on the other end of the line who is very intrusively inviting you to provide services. For example, such cases are very frequent in St. Petersburg, where under the guise of an invitation to a medical examination you will be invited to apply for a loan for services you do not need. However, they rarely discard and wait for a call back.
Their main goal is people of advanced or pre-advanced age. As a rule, they have a quiet life, they have accumulated little money and are full of sores caused by inactive life. According to the policy, these sores cannot be cured. It is necessary to change the lifestyle, massages, etc. These ***** food and invoke gullible freebies. And then they sit down firmly on the ears that a person cannot leave.
Call Center Error
Modern call centers operate through computer telephony, and software can sometimes fail. Hence the dropped calls that end before you can pick up the phone.
If you still managed to pick it up, and there is silence on the other end of the wire, it could also be a malfunction in the call center — the employee may have muted the microphone.
Where did they get my number
If you are suddenly lucky enough to talk with any of these “dialers”, then you can try to ask this question directly to your forehead - however, you will not hear a sensible answer to it. Usually the interlocutor evasively answers about the “base”, but what kind of base is it and what did it form from?
It is believed that scammers, advertising call centers and other organizations that deal with such cold calling often buy phone bases from cybercriminals. There is an assumption that when committing attacks on a network of an organization, a criminal, in addition to financial revenue, also receives a “by-product” - a database of customers. As a rule, full names and telephones are stored there, and sometimes additional information: e-mail, loan purposes and other details. Having received such value, the offender can put it up for sale in Darknet, where it will certainly be bought by another fraudulent organization.
When transferring your data to even the most reliable organizations, you cannot be completely sure of their safety.
What to do
If unfamiliar numbers have already started calling you, then your personal data has already been put up for sale and purchased. Removing your number from this sold database will fail.
What to do? Here are some suggestions:
- If possible, get two phones. One will be your personal and always on, and the second for organizations. As the "organizational" leave the one to which you have already begun to receive calls. Personal do not leave anywhere except the phone books of friends and relatives;
- never call back immediately to unfamiliar numbers. If you see a missed call and are waiting for a call from, for example, your bank or clinic, then first break down the phone number on Google. Browse the first search results so you can find out exactly who called you. If the name of the organization from which you are waiting for a call is not on these sites, then you definitely do not need to call back;
- blocking such numbers will not lead to anything - most scammers and advertisers use dynamic numbers, so blocking them forever will not work - they will get through from another number. But there are applications that allow you to block calls from any numbers except those that are in your address book. But keep in mind - in this case, any subscriber not added to your phone book will not be able to reach you. But there are a lot of emergency and important situations in which an unknown number may call you;
In the application settings, you can specify that you do not want to receive calls from unknown or hidden numbers
- if you still managed to answer the call or called back yourself, and they begin to offer you a product or service, spit on politeness and immediately hang up. Such operators are specially trained so that they can put pressure on the emotions of the interlocutor and breathe in the goods that are unnecessary to him. Even the most sane person can claim such a provocation if he allowed himself to be drawn into the conversation.
Telephone advertising and fraud are annoying and very annoying. Unfortunately, it seems unlikely to protect your data in the modern world - you still have to leave your number somewhere. But knowing simple security measures, you can protect yourself from serious financial losses.
