Comments on: What's he dialling in there?

Question: What's he dialling in there?

xchmp — Thu, 01 May 2008 20:32:52 -0800

For the last month or two I've been hearing noises from the flat above me. Specifically, I hear a phone number being dialled (as if by a modem), followed by the standard telephone voice saying that the number dialled has not been recognised. This voice repeats itself for a while, before the whole process starts again. This goes on for hours at a time. What's going on?

I wouldn't find this odd if it was just occasionally. I don't always hear it, depending on what I'm doing and whereabouts in my flat I am, but it seems to happen at all times of day and night.

I can't think of what it could be. If he were using dial-up internet, then I'd expect the occasional sounds of dialling, but not the unrecognised numbers or the fact that it repeats for hours on end. I did wonder if he was running some kind of auto-dialling phone scam, but it seems to happen too much in the early hours of the night for that to be the case.

This is in the UK. I don't know the guy (or anyone else in the building) so I can't just ask. But at this point I'm curious as to what's going on and any ideas would be welcome.

By: the dief

the dief — Thu, 01 May 2008 20:36:25 -0800

Maybe they're wardialing? Wait, do people even wardial anymore?

By: bigmusic

bigmusic — Thu, 01 May 2008 20:36:59 -0800

Sounds like someone war dialing to me.

By: nathan_teske

nathan_teske — Thu, 01 May 2008 20:42:22 -0800

Fax spammer?

By: pompomtom

pompomtom — Thu, 01 May 2008 20:42:27 -0800

Fax spam would be my guess.

By: SansPoint

SansPoint — Thu, 01 May 2008 20:53:51 -0800

Autodialer? Maybe running a telephone scam.

By: flabdablet

flabdablet — Thu, 01 May 2008 21:00:07 -0800

If you can post a link to a recording of what you're hearing, I'm sure somebody here can tell you what numbers are being dialled.

By: wfrgms

wfrgms — Thu, 01 May 2008 21:33:26 -0800

I don't know the guy (or anyone else in the building) so I can't just ask.

This is one of those Ask Mes which could be resolved by JUST TALKING TO YOUR NEIGHBOR!

Go up, ask them what the deal is. You may not get a straight answer, but the neighbor will probably take steps to insure the noise doesn't continue. Maybe that doesn't satisfy your curiosity, but at least it's a step toward getting to know your neighbors.

Asking strangers on the internet to speculate about a person who lives within dozens of feet of you is some sort of antisocial behavior...

By: ctmf

ctmf — Thu, 01 May 2008 23:19:27 -0800

Tell your neighbor to put M0 in his AT command in his dialer prefs. That turns the modem sound off.

By: ctmf

ctmf — Thu, 01 May 2008 23:20:15 -0800

Sorry not to answer the question - I think war dialing is the answer.

By: misanthropicsarah

misanthropicsarah — Fri, 02 May 2008 07:52:36 -0800

for those not in the know (like me) wardialing is, according to wikipedia:

a technique of using a modem to automatically scan a list of telephone numbers, usually dialing every number in a local area code to search for unknown computers, BBS systems or fax machines. Hackers use the resulting lists for various purposes, hobbyists for exploration, and crackers for password guessing.

By: Elminster24

Elminster24 — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:47:35 -0800

Does sound like fax spamming or war dialing, so you may want to request he do something to minimize/eliminate the noise. Maybe hint at what you think he might be doing. If he's doing something illegal and scammy, that might make him take more precautions about pissing you off.

Of course at the end of the day its none of your business what he's doing...just that the sound of it is annoying you.

By: Kid Charlemagne

Kid Charlemagne — Fri, 02 May 2008 21:48:32 -0800

Is your neighbor actually around when this is going on? I mean what are the odds of a war dialer hitting dozens and dozens of out of service numbers with such great regularity? If you kept getting zero hits I'd think you'd eventually try a different exchange or something.

This makes me wonder if a) he's infected with a virus and would be part of a botnet if his system could actually get on line or b) got an old computer from work, uncle Bob, whatever, that is trying to do something like update virus definitions, but is dialing a number that is not legitimate from your building (e.g. dialing 9 to get an outside line when you only have an outside line).

By: xchmp

xchmp — Sun, 04 May 2008 11:35:24 -0800

Thanks everyone. He's definitely home while it's happening so fax spamming and war dialling both make sense.