# Phatom Phone Calls on a Cheap cellphone

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phatom-phone-calls-on-a-cheap-cellphone/721525>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 3, 2015, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phatom-phone-calls-on-a-cheap-cellphone/721525 "2015-06-03T13:28:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\
**Post date:** [June 3, 2015, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phatom-phone-calls-on-a-cheap-cellphone/721525/1 "2015-06-03T13:28:07Z")

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I bought a pay by month 3rd Generation cellphone. I don’t use it for anything beyond receiving and making a few calls per week. That is OK with me, because I don’t want the expense of a a full 4th Generation phone. Now i am getting calls from numbers I don’t recognize, that go directly into voicemail. When Ii dial back, most of these numbers are not in service. So what is going on? Why do i get such calls? Also, some calls I get from valid numbers still go directly to VM-why?

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**Author:** ![cantara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6f9a4e/32.png) [@cantara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cantara)\
**Post date:** [June 3, 2015, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phatom-phone-calls-on-a-cheap-cellphone/721525/2 "2015-06-03T15:57:01Z")

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Here are a couple of guesses:

1. you may have your voicemail settings set to go to voicemail after X number of rings. When I call my cell from landline, I can hear 2-3 rings before the cell actually starts making noise. If the VM system is set to 3 rings the phone may go to VM before you get a chance to pick it up. This setting is probably in the settings when you dial in.

2. Phone scammers (probably those annoying ones [from Cancun ‘selling’ vacation time and cruises](http://scam-detector.com/telephone-scams/hilton/marriott-hotels-vacation-call/item_limitstart/page-125)). The unknown numbers are likely spoofed from some sort of war-dialler. We keep getting calls where the area code and exchange are the same as our numbers, but the final 4 digits are made up. My wife got a call from an irate lady who accused her of calling and hanging up. She hadn’t called out on the phone all day.