Years ago calling and immediately hanging up was immensely popular among teenagers/young adults as a way to ping someone. Used as a way of flirting, telling something was ready, arrived at home.
Of course this tactic wouldn’t work in places where the receiver of phone call has to pay a portion of the price.
Calling and hanging up didn’t count, so that is what we would do. We would know to call back.
Years later I ran reports for call centers. I would run data every which way.
Found an agent that would dial a disconnect number hundreds of times a day.
Went to big boss, as I couldn’t figure out the rational.
He took one look at it, and cursed “well know we know how he has top numbers.
Found so many ways agents would mess with metrics
For the unfamiliar, the collect call recording asked for your name and played it back to the call recipient. You had a a small window whereby you could get info across.
“You have a collect call from ‘555 4784’, would you like to accept the charges?”
Then whoever could just call you back.
The real power was unlocked with a Blue Box - a phone phreaking device that played the same tones as if money was entered into the pay phone. You could trick the phone and make your call. I remember looping the tone on a cassette tape and calling some random number in Japan for several dollars worth of tones. Good times.
- "You have a collect call from AtTheStationMyBusLeavesIn18Minutes. Do you wish to accept the charges?"
- "No"