How you finance terrorists with your cell phone
And to think that Mrs. Carl doesn't understand why I don't answer calls from or return calls to numbers I don't recognize that won't leave a voice mail.... Terrorists order a certain type of phone line and place a call to an unwary Israeli, hanging up before the person answers. Often, the call is placed at an odd hour – at 3:30 a.m., perhaps, a time when someone might wonder whether there has been an emergency in the family. After one or two such calls, the Israeli usually ends up calling back by dialing *42 – the code to dial a missed caller.Now to figure out how to get rid of robocalls to my American line in the middle of the night (no I don't want to buy a raffle ticket from your yeshiva at 3:30 am).
The person on the other end of the phone picks up, but says nothing for several seconds --- and then disconnects the calls. Figuring it was a bad connection (not an unusual problem in Israel, unfortunately) the average Israeli will then call back several more times until finally giving up. But by then, the damage is done, and a fair amount of money has changed hands, although the victim doesn't know it – and might never even find out, unless he checks his phone bill.
Anyone can order a special phone number in Israel from a variety of companies – Orange, Cellcom, MIRS, Pelephone, and even a Palestinian Authority company, which has the 059 prefix. However, although the customer is charged for the air time use of what appears to be a mobile phone, these special lines are not actually cellular phone numbers, but instead, are numbers connected to land lines.
The mobile phone company receives 50 percent of the charge for the incoming call, and you, the owner of the line, get the other 50 percent of the money, all on the caller's account.
Pretty good trick – Hamas terrorists in Gaza sit at a phone bank, or program their computers to dial random Israeli numbers in the dark hours of the night. When the source shows up on the Caller ID, it appears as a “cellular” phone number.
They earn a 50 percent profit on the air charge for the callback and a priceless profit on the stress they cause their victims, stealing some of their sleep and possibly their serenity as well.
It turns out that one can purchase from the Bezeq company a device that blocks calls to the 059 prefix. However, it is impossible to block such incoming calls.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:06 AM
2 Comments:
Carl - you could order a whitelist from the phone company, meaning you accept only calls from numbers you have approved in advance. All the others will be blocked. There is the off chance some critical call might be missed but for peace of mind, it would be best to limit phone calls from people you already know. There is no solution that will be 100% effective but one must do what one can for the sake of privacy and security.
I've learned the hard way that such calls can also come from 07 phone numbers.
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