Several times a day I get a call that Caller ID says is from either an 888 area code, or “Unavailable” - and if I pick up I get nothing - no sounds, tones, nor hangup. (They’re never from people with unpublished numbers.)
Between these calls and charities I try not to answer any call from a number I am not somewhat familar with. (Some of my phones in remote corners of the house don’t have caller ID so I end up answering.)
But what on earth is the purpose of these “blank” calls? The only thing I can think of are robo-calls trying to identify “real” numbers where people do answer, but the number seems excessive.
Usually they are telemarketers. In order to save money, they have a robot dialing numbers, so that they aren’t wasting a human’s time with people who don’t answer or hang up immediately and that sort of thing. When the robot connects to a real person, it switches over to a human operator. This saves them money because they don’t have to pay a salary to the robot dialer.
The problem is, sometimes there isn’t a human operator ready to take the call since they are all busy handling other calls. When this happens, you get a blank call.
And when I get a call from someone who then “puts me on hold” I consider it rude, and if they had any chance of making a sell they just gave it up.
Everyone has a job to do, I may not like their job but I try and be considerate of them. But when they are rude to me all bets are off and I can have fun with them if I want.
The other things that happens with these robo calls is that when I pick up, I say who I am, “Hello, this is Giles here.” I then wait a couple of seconds for the human at the other end to pick up, and say, “Can I speak to Giles, please.” (And often get the pronunciation wrong.) At that point I tell them that I’ve just told them who I am, and mentally note that I’m going to be very unwilling to do business with people who value their time more highly than mine.
An alternate ploy is to answer, and when you get a live voice on the line, play him for a sucker. String him along with question about his product/service etc. till he catches on to what you are doing. Then wish him a nice day or some such and hang up or tell him you are on state and national no-call lists and that his number is being reported.
I really would worry about that a bit because if they get pissed at you they have your landline number and your address. You might wind up getting signed up and invoiced for things that you don’t want.
also those “no one there” calls are “fishing” to see if you will answer the phone. So, as an example, a computer dials your number multiple times, so one answers, your number goes down listed as “not likely to answer”. But if you do pick up, the computer logs you as “answered” and your number gets bumped up the priority list for future calls to sell you something, because now they think you are more likely to answer, so you are a better risk.
That assumes I’m willing to waste my time doing this.
And the do-not-call lists don’t matter much. They don’t apply to political calls (thought that’s mostly over by now), and they don’t apply to any company you have ever done business with. And that last loophole can really be stretched – it applies to any subsidiaries or ‘partners’ of such businesses. So my bank can ‘partner’ with an insurance company, and then the insurance company can call me.
No cite, but my informative, knowledgeable son has previously told me that these blank calls are the result of the telemarketer taking a bathroom break. They are not allowed to stop the endless dialing, so they just let it ride and take a break. I recall he was told this by a telemarketing friend in a foreign land, for what that’s worth.
