In western NY, it used to be you could pick up the phone and dial 511. The computer would tell you your phone number.
Some other parts of the state, it was 993, or 998.
Now, 511 isn't working. What else to try?
The work - around is to carry a cell phone with Call ID, and call the cell phone. See what number shows on the screen. But what other number might be the "get your number" number?
=============================================================== Try 990---That's what it is down here in Westchester & Putnam County, NY. ======================================================== Remove the ZZZ from my E-mail address to send me E-mail.
On Long Island, it was either 9588 or 9855, IIRC.
MB
On 09/15/04 05:57 pm Stormin Mormon put fingers to keyboard and launched the following message into cyberspace:
Thanks. Didn't work, here.
Thanks. I'd heard 958 or maybe *#958 works in the Buffalo NY area. Don't either of those work around here.
But, well, someone oughta know.
0 will work.
It's handy when you are out some where, and you pick up the phone. Don't know the number, but want someone to call you back.
Not sure if this is an urban legend or not, but I heard it from a police officer at our local community meeting: Burglar enters and steals valuables including victim's checkbook. While in victim's house, burglar telephones the phone company and orders call-forwarding to accomplice's telephone number. Burglar writes check for almost the entire balance and presents it to bank. Bank telephones victim's number to verify the check, and accomplice obliges.
Proposed solution: make sure your telephone company attaches a password to your phone line so that evil doers cannot do evil.
Paul in San Francisco
Sounds like a pretty bad idea.
Not everywhere. Once I was a guest at a friend's cottage and had not been told the phone number, but I wanted to let my office know where to reach me. The operator (Bell Canada, in Ontario) was prohibited by policy from telling me the number from which I was calling. I'm sure a lot of people want their number private, even from houseguests, workers, etc.
I don't know if the number was unlisted. That may have made a difference.
At the time nobody I knew (including the office) had caller-id.
Chip C Toronto
Probably not impossible, but some details seem problematic:
- Whenever I've dealt with the phone company to change services, they ask for info to identify myself. Granted, a burgler with full access to my paperwork might have sufficient info.
- Ditto the bank.
- Have you ever had the bank phone you to verify a check? I never have. Perhaps some do. (This means that the whole phone forwarding scheme is quite needless; just stealing a checkbook and practicing the victim's signature is quite enough. In fact, in many cases, the sig doesn't even have to be a good likeness). I presume the check is made out to cash, or to an alias for which the bad guy has ID.
- The scheme puts the accomplice's phone number in the phone company's records. Not smart.
However, I have heard that very similar schemes are known to exist, in which bad guys find a little-used voice mailbox at some company, and record the greeting to say "YES ... YES ... YES". They then place third-party-billed calls to far-away places (there is a large black market for this kind of thing, not least in the drug trade). Many phone companies today use computerized voice recognition when they dial the third party for validation.
So regardless of the possible holes in the exact scenario, the take-home message to protect your phone and voicemail services is well taken.
Chip C
This function is called "ani".......
1-800-444-44441-800-532-7486
1-800-314-4258"PrecisionMachinisT" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@uni-berlin.de:
Thanks! 1-800-444-4444 works for me.
MB
On 09/16/04 01:44 pm PrecisionMachinisT put fingers to keyboard and launched the following message into cyberspace:
| > 1-800-444-4444 | >
| > 1-800-532-7486 | >
| > 1-800-314-4258
*67 is the key sequence used to block caller ID in our area. Even when calling *67-1-800-444-4444 I am able to retrieve my phone # via a computer response.
You *can't* turn off caller id for an 800 number (including, of course,
888, 877, and 866), 900 numbers, or 911 emergency calls.
Im curious if it works with the different cell phone providers--thinking it might only resolve as far as the provider's CO number in some instances, and so would like to hear from anyone has tried this with cell service.
ANI works everywhere, because it's billing information. Caller ID is suppressable. If it's really ANI, it should work pretty much everywhere.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.