IS IT A SCAM

"When you do, the line is held open, so he can send you the recording of a dial tone, then ringing, and then he's back. Works because most people don't know how the phone system works, have hazy notions of banking methods in general, and probably no experience of bank security processes. Wait 10 minutes and then call someone else before dialling"

Dave, I stand to be corrected because I have been out of the telecoms industry for a few years now, but it is my recollection that forward call holding, which was a throwback to the old electro-mechanical exchanges, was eliminated several years ago. I think I know this because, although I had taken a voluntary redundancy from my employer of 38 years, I was requested to assist with the loading of a new build of software on to the exchanges of some OLO's (other licensed operators). I can't comment on the BT build uplift because I was not involved with that program. Although I was not privy to all the details of the uplift, it was my understanding that one of the issues the new build dealt with was that of the bank scam that relied, as you rightly point out, the line being held open by the caller for fake dial tone to be sent to the called party. I don't think this was ever any longer than 20 seconds in the case of System X switches but in any event it was eliminated around 6 or 7 years ago. As I say, I do stand to be corrected on this if someone is still in the industry and if the old narrow-band digital switches even exist anymore.

I always stand to be corrected too! However, a quick check on the web shows Age Concern give the same warning (mentioned under number spoofing). Haven't tried it though and out of date advice on the internet is a problem. Might try the experiment next time I ring my tech savvy nephew; he's always game for a laugh.

As usual I missed out the main point of my post, which is victims shouldn't beat themselves up if they get caught by one of these b*st*rds. Bad enough to be robbed without being left feeling one was a dimwit as well!

Dave

Dave, If your nephew is game for a laugh try this on him. I did it to a friend many years ago and he fell for it.

Phone your nephew and tell him you are writing out a new contacts directory and could he give you his number, you can't find it. It might work, but be ready for a great deal of swearing!

Seems to be a lot of prejudice about AliExpress, possibly from people who have never bought anything from them. I built a laser CNC last year using parts sourced almost entirely from there. I think in total I placed around 50 separate orders for various components, ranging from bags of machine screws for next to nothing to a 100watt Cloudray CO2 laser tube for around £500. I can’t recall a problem with any of the orders, apart from a few of them taking a couple of months to arrive. There is actually a system for dealing with orders that go wrong, as AliExpress clearly rely on their suppliers being reliable and trustworthy.

As for quality, I have no complaints with what I have purchased, and it’s as least as good as any of the Chinese stuff that U.K. sellers supply. Of course you can buy rubbish from AliExpress, especially if you can’t be bothered to do a bit of research. Equally you can buy rubbish from U.K. suppliers - it just costs more.

I just checked and I've bought from them 8 times in the last 5 years (I keep good records). None of the orders has been a problem delivery-wise and the goods have been what I expected them to be. I'd have no qualms about ordering from (through) them again.

My only gripe is, as I mentioned before, the daily spam which continues to this day .... although it all gets spam-trapped at gmail.

Similarly with Amazon.

I don't normally order thru them but after a recent purchase have received a lot of spam, requesting updates/payments, etc to Amazon Prime and Masrtercard, neither of which I use. The goods did arrive on time from the USA.

My extensive experience with Aliexpress is that it is as reliable as eBay and Amazon.

But those steam engine and boiler adverts are the first I have seen that appear to be somewhat deceptive, offering a small component price alongside a main picture of the full engine. Bit naughty.

Edited By Hopper on 26/08/2022 04:31:19

It does indeed date back to the days of clockwork, however you could drop out the receiving end AC9 relay set on trunk calls if you could whistle exactly 2280hz

Make up a small oscillator set to 2280Hz do just that?

With my very meagre knowledge, I would imagine a battery, two transistors, (or a 555? ) a small speaker and a handful of resistors should suffice (The experts will tell what values to use.

Howard

Scam had Whatsapp message today asking if I was Kevin's landlord don't know a Kevin, not a landlord so blocked number and deleted chat

H

Can't rally get too worked up about that .... it's a fairly common practice on ebay where they have several options and list the lowest priced one - usually something very cheap - defaulting the opening page to that. Chinese sellers do it a lot but I've seen it from others. Pushy marketing but anyone who can't cope with it shouldn't really be shopping in that environment without his Dad.

Some noisy git on a motorbike woke me up completely at 4AM this morning so I had a think about how a digital system might hold a line open in the same sort of way as clockwork telephony.

Mr Strowger was a clever chap!

Although dopey theorising in bed must be worse than Armchair Engineering, here goes.

1. Though I was unable to find a detailed explanation, the digital telephone system uses much the same packet switching technology as the internet. Similar rather than identical but the bearer is Internet Protocol with UDP between nodes and TCP/IP everywhere else.
2. In the distant past, dialling a telephone number physically connected copper wires together. Later, connections between exchanges were multiplexed over point to point connections, a mix of balanced lines, coaxial cables and microwave links. Copper connections were used locally, but long distance connected via black boxes responsible for providing a 'line', that is temporary access to a plex, not a physical line.
3. Later, the multiplexers were replaced by digital black boxes. These use a mesh of networked connections rather than point-to-point links, with considerable benefits in noise reduction, reliability, sharing, and reduced maintenance costs. Extra wonderful when fibre-optics replace copper.
4. Slow progress, but BT are moving to replace copper between exchanges and subscribers, so the whole UK network will be digital end-to-end. In this system, voice is encoded and decoded at the handset, phone numbers converted to network addresses in the same way as email and web addresses, and the sending phone breaks the conversations into packets, which are routed across the network. The same network provides broadband internet and other communications services. Originally computer communications were carried slowly and unreliably over the voice network, there's been a complete revolution and voice is now carried fast and reliably over a data network. Couldn't find any up-to-date figures, but voice traffic is the junior partner. (Watching TV on the internet transfers far more data than ringing mum.)

Two technical problems to solve in all these systems: setting up connections, and clearing them down. Clearing down creates the possibility of connections remaining open, and I think digital is vulnerable too. When a subscriber hangs up, how long does it take the system to reset end-to-end? As there's no physical connection between the two telephones, it's either done by sending a message, or by the two sides ignoring each other after an agreed period of 'nothing received'. All done in software, so there's no guarantee both sides obey exactly the same rules, or that a naughty person hasn't coded his end to ignore them!

Long story cut short, I think it's possible that hanging up a telephone doesn't immediately clear the connection.

Dave