I remember an old “In Living Color” sketch that was a spoof of those “psychic hotline” ads. The guy says something like “Call 1-900-RufusKnowsTheFuture… but quit dialing after the first seven letters.” 
Why–are you in the Witness Protection Program or something? Why wouldn’t someone from the area where you used to live call you now?
I think you overlooked the “unknown number” part in what I said.
Well, no, I didn’t. An unknown number is an unknown number, regardless of the area code. If I move to a new area code, I’m just as likely to get a call–from, let’s say, a friend who has changed their phone number–from the old area code as the new one, (unless I have broken off ties with everyone from that old area). But I get your overall point: Living in a different area code does provide one data point about an unknown number. For me, though–in that situation–I just wouldn’t be able to say with such absolute certainty that it couldn’t be a person with whom I actually do want to communicate.
Ages ago, before ten-digit dialing, the local paper’s want ad department number was 444-4444 The radio ads had a jingle that ended with, “Dial four, four, four; four four, four four,” then the announcer broke in with, “If that’s too difficult to remember, just keep punching four until somebody answers.”
I once (possibly twice) got a call where the caller ID was my own name and number. Since anyone with caller ID would (one hopes) know this is not a legit ID, I figured they thought the novelty factor might have people answering.
Is anybody getting daily calls from a variety of countries, all of which were formerly in Yugoslavia? Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia…
I’ve never answered one. Anybody know what these are all about?
That’s a common scammer technique, and I get that all the time. I’m not sure what the intention is; perhaps they think you will notice only the first few digits, but not the last four. This is called a “neighborhood spoof.”
I think you are referring to the Hayes modem code for the comma. This was an instruction used by the Hayes command set. It was not transmitted to the phone line, but would cause the modem to pause for a (configurable) time between commands. Whether modern cellphones implement this command set, I don’t know, but I doubt it. What would be the point?
Not in my experience. Extra digits would be ignored, as the phone exchange isn’t listening for anything after the significant digits had been processed.
Well, that’s not my experience. For me, by far the most frequent unknown numbers that are genuine callers are people who I have some local business relationship with - a nurse from the doctor’s office calls; a plumber I have booked calls to say he’s on the way over. Often the caller id in these cases is not the main office number. I think this is true for most people, and this is exactly why the spam callers spoof numbers from your local area code.
My previous landline phone had this capability built into the phone. I programmed it similar to the other poster with preloading my VM numbers with the appropriate pauses. My new one might also but I never bothered to set it up if it does.
I agree with this. I’ve used redial after I’ve been into the labyrinth of selections at banks or other businesses and get dropped or lost so that I need to start over. I always have to start at the beginning.