Hi there (love your screen name, BTW... seer, wise woman in Gaelic!)
I am sure this was from some shady telemarkter. However, it seems that different areas in North America have different dialing rules. For example, where I live, we have an area code overlay which means that even to dial my neighbor next door I have to put in 1-area code-number. I can't call any number at all without the 1 + area code. Then where my relatives live, they can dial just the 7 digits on a local call; they don't have to dial the 1, but do have to dial the area code first, if the number is out of the area, but not so many miles away as to be long distance. It's kind of crazy that there are all these different dialing conventions, but in any event the call you got was certainly from an unsolicited telemarketer.
Weird call, when they called I didn't answer because I wasn't familiar with the number but allowed it to go to voice mail to see if they'd leave a message which they didn't. I decided to call the number back & after ringing for a long time (I was just about to hang-up because there was no answer) a woman answers the call & tells me she just dialed a wrong number claiming she was trying to make a long distance call but forgot to add the '1' before the number.
This is where it gets interesting. First of all it's not necessary to dial the area code when both parties are calling within the same area code. When she said she'd reached a wrong number because she forgot to dial the '1' before the area code is BS because it's no longer necessary to dial '1' when making a long distance call!
When I called & told her I'd just received a call from this number I could hear people talking in the background along with the kind of sounds you will hear in an office. She also started to call to someone else when she didn't seem to know what to say. But a few seconds later it seemed like she changed her mind & this is when she was BS'ing me with her wrong number excuse. She had that tone in her voice which made her sound like she wasn't comfortable with the job (in the same way as telemarketers do when they are aware they are shoveling '[***]' with the only goal being to 'dupe' the customer!
Put it all together & it seems pretty 'seedy' to me & knowing what to look for can really protect you in ways no other method ever could since an automated system can only go with it's programming & is unable to 'read between the lines' so to speak & certainly lacking in intuitive nature meaning the automated system is unable to catch the subtle signs that something just isn't right but we can't put our finger on it!
Everyone in our family has gotten similar calls from callers in Allentown, Atlantic City & Plainsboro as the calls were all in the same area code, although they had different area exchanges all three different exchanges were listed as coming from Allentown, Atlantic City & Plainsboro.
Slainte'
&
Stay Safe,
Maegi
Hi there (love your screen name, BTW... seer, wise woman in Gaelic!)
I am sure this was from some shady telemarkter. However, it seems that different areas in North America have different dialing rules. For example, where I live, we have an area code overlay which means that even to dial my neighbor next door I have to put in 1-area code-number. I can't call any number at all without the 1 + area code. Then where my relatives live, they can dial just the 7 digits on a local call; they don't have to dial the 1, but do have to dial the area code first, if the number is out of the area, but not so many miles away as to be long distance. It's kind of crazy that there are all these different dialing conventions, but in any event the call you got was certainly from an unsolicited telemarketer.