419 SCAM?
 

I keep getting phone calls to my cell where the caller ID only shows "419". I don't answer, and I don't think there has ever been a voice mail.

I googled it and found this, so I think it's a scam. I keep getting recordings about my Chase account which I don't have so that must belong to the girl who had this number before (I've also gotten some hilarious drunken dials intended for her.)

Has anyone else heard about this 419 bullshit?

Can I block it from even coming through?

I HATE cell phones, btw.

It is illegal for telemarketers to call personal cell phones.

For the longest time we got calls for this woman named Carmen Something. She didn't pay her bills, and her kids were bastards in school. For YEARS we heard about this woman's life thru our answering machine....

Not "419", but I've had 123456 or something close. It was simply a known associate calling me via Skype. I wouldn't pick up the 419 until the originator is identified and you feel like talking, though. Numbers can be blocked, but last I checked, it was at a cost.

Here, on regular phone lines, you can punch in a code (shown in the phone book) to block your number from being shown. You can also punch in a code to block calls from any phone with a blocked number.

I haven't checked to see if you can do that with FIOS or Comcast, but with caller ID, I just don't answer calls that don't identify the caller.

I get texts from pre-pubescents, chiding me for my choice in boyfriend and calling me Sonny. It does no good to tell them I am not her, either. They try to make friends with me.

Well that's handy, if you get the urge to make pre-pubescent stew. :yum:

<ChrisHansen>
Why don't you have a seat over there.
</ChrisHansen>

System Signal 7 is the international standard for interconnecting calls via phone systems. (AT&T fought it all the way because it was not invented in AT&). The calling phone company is responsible for attaching the caller's phone number to the data packet. This worked because all phone companies did this cooperatively.

But something new is being attached to the system. Internet calling. Calls that originate on the internet can be missing that information because the call originator telco does not provide that code. Some internet companies are being setup just to service phone scammers and unsolicited sales calls.

I submitted one such violator to he authorities. They traced the call to one of those internet sources that originate overseas. Expect more sales scammers to use these internet call services until international standards (or Federal law) do something.

419 could represent numerous sources such as Telecordia (the CLLI), a connection through an Ohio code, a mobile code from Kuwait, a network identifying code for Qualitynet, or a called originating in Switzerland.

Calls I get from people using the Frontier phone company, out in Lancaster County, PA, never have the caller ID information available.

TW,

There have been spoofcard services for years, and there are many unscrupulous VOIP providers that will let you pick your caller ID number. The second that places like Boca Raton, Moscow, or Las Vegas got the Internet and VOIP, it was bound to happen.

The Internet only adds to it because scammers in Nigeria can now afford to get a US phone number and caller ID spoofing for next to nothing.

So what is the payoff for them... just free calls ? or $ if you return the call ?

the payoff is disguise and getting people to reveal information they normally would not by gaining false confidence.

Then they should just join The Cellar

419 is the Nigerian penal code that prosecutes those Nigerian 'princes' and 'finance ministers' for scams.