Spam call that bypasses the voicemail trigger and never stops ringing?

June 26, 2020 1:57 PM

I just received a spam call that rang until it would have normally been triggered to go to voicemail, but then the ring just dipped for a second and then it restarted the ring sequence without going to voicemail or hanging up. It rang about six times the normal ring length before I finally declined the call and blocked the number. How did this call bypass my cell phone's normal behavior?

1) I know for sure it was a spam call due to the number it was purportedly calling from.
2) My cell phone has never done this infinite looping ring before that I am aware of.

posted by vegartanipla to Technology (4 answers total)

One possible answer: an autodialer that only lets it ring a limited number of times and then just hangs up and re-dials the same number. That might explain the "ring just dipped for a second" that you heard.
posted by mu at 2:16 PM on June 26, 2020

Response by poster: It didn't register on my phone as separate missed calls, though - it was perceived as one continuous attempted call to both the phone and to the listener, though there were those slight dips that helped show the total cycle length.
posted by vegartanipla at 2:25 PM on June 26, 2020 [1 favorite]

One possibility on the dipping could be that you just reached the end of the ring tone file on your phone, and it doesn't loop perfectly. If you go into the settings to change the ringtone, select it and just let it play, does it dip the same way?

As to why it didn't go to voicemail, I have no idea. Is your voicemail working correctly for other calls?
posted by yuwtze at 8:24 PM on June 26, 2020 [1 favorite]

There may be a way via an app or system setting to make all calls from numbers not in your contact list automatically bypass ringing and go straight to voicemail.
posted by conrad53 at 12:50 PM on June 27, 2020