I have seen messages on my caller ID like “Privite User” or “Blocked Call” and the telemarketers “Unknown Caller.” Today for the first time I got a call “Unknown Name” and the number 00-1416. I have never seen that before.
Anyone know what this is? Is it just another fancy way of saying “unknown name”?
My guess is that the caller ID data was garbled / incomplete. The number looks like it is just didn’t get through completely.
It’s also possible that this is garbage being sent by a telemarketer. My understanding is that those who have a direct digital connection to the phone system (T1, Primary Rate ISDN - the sorts of things used by companies with lots of phone lines) can send whatever caller ID data they want and make just about anything appear on that display.
Just got another one “Unknown Name” 00-1204.
I’m not sure if this is how it works everywhere, but this is my understanding of call display in Ontario:
You can choose to block your name and number from appearing on another person’s call display by dialing *67 before placing a call. This appears on the screen as “Private” or “Private name/Private number”.
“Unknown name/Unknown number” appears if the caller isn’t transmitting caller ID information – this used to happen frequently with long-distance calls. There’s also separate “long distance” rings with some phones, and “Long distance” appears on the screen".
Telemarketers are supposedly required to reveal their company name and number with caller ID. This, obviously, allows people to screen out telemarketers. So, in practice, a lot of telemarketers appear as “Unknown name/Unknown number”.
It’s apparently possible to subscribe to “number replacement” which allows a multi-line service to display a single number for all its lines, or to permanently block one’s number. This is supposedly for security reasons, but it probably ends up being used mostly by telemarketers.