Incoming Landline Phone Calls That Just Show "Incoming Call" on Call Display and Aren't Missed Calls

[CAMERC]

I occasionally receive an incoming call on my Panasonic landline that shows nothing in call display but "Incoming Call". I don't ever answer and the call eventually disappears without ever being subsequently registered by my phone as a missed call. Just before the call drops the phone quickly flashes a  "line in use" message. Normally the phone shows "Incoming Call" for a second and then having learned the number involved, flashes that number or say a province name.

Anybody have an idea what these peculiar calls are doing - beyond that they are spam? 

[CAMERC]

Should mention I have a free Telus fax number associated with my phone as well...

[rc]

By "free fax number" do you mean you have a second, smart ring, number associated with your landline?

Do you have a fax machine sharing the landline?

If you call the fax number, does the Panasonic phone behave as you describe?

[CAMERC]

First question: Yes.

2nd Question: a Brother (MFC-L2750DW) printer with fax capability connected to the phone.

3rd question: no. The phone correctly registers the call as coming from a private caller (I used Google hangouts on my PC) and I see/hear the call answered and the resulting fax tone before hanging up.

[CAMERC]

Footnote... I'll have to see what the printer LED console is saying when the next such call comes in...

[BillTelusCust · Accepted solution]

Can you try the star code to find out the last number that called you and see what it says?

https://www.telus.com/en/on/support/article/use-star-commands#call_trace

Make sure not to use the call trace one unless you want it reported to the police.

[CAMERC]

Thanks for the suggestion! I can certainly try that the next time I spot it happening.

[CAMERC]

As recommended, I initially tried *69 to get the mysterious incoming call's actual number but the feature wasn't working. Telus chat couldn't resolve THAT issue. I subsequently tried picking up on one of the calls but all I heard was a dial tone.

Yesterday, after many months, I tried *69 again and it was working. The call according to this was from 1-604-555-1212. A discussion of this number on site WhoCalledMe.com showed that it's someone trying to get you to phone back. When you do, you are somehow automatically routed to 411 directory assistance and end up charged a small fee for the effort by your phone company. I'm not sure whether this is just a prank or somehow a money making scam.

Apparently 555 is an "exchange" (?) number that is not actually in use - except in movies where they want to avoid using any real person's number. And 1212 relates to an information request call (?). Most everyone in the discussion indicated they could block these calls. I will try using my landline's "nuclear" capability to "block incoming calls that have no phone number" as I don't think the device ever sees the above number that Telus tells me about.

[starchoice]

1-800-555-1212 has always been a legitimate number for toll-free directory assistance. Don't know about the 604 area code derivative.

[rc]

The story behind 555-1212.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/555_(telephone_number)

In summary

In the days of 7 digit dialing, 555-1212 was the same as dialing 411 for Directory Assistance and  1-604-555-1212 provided the capability for people outside of the 604 area code to call directory assistance for the 604 area code (BC TEL/TELUS operators).

If you see this number appear on your call display it is because it is being "spoofed" by a junk caller.

[CAMERC]

Thanks for the informative link! 👍

FYI... the original mystery for me around these occasional calls was that NO number shows up (nothing but an "incoming call" message appears for 10 secs or so). My quite good quality landline does not even register it having happened after the fact - I guess because there is no CID. It was somewhat beyond being one of the usual simple spoofed number calls.

[vishwa]

I think it is a quirk of Panasonic cordless phones.  I have seen that happen over the years and there is some Caller ID information on my corded Nortel Vista phone but not on the panasonic.  I can't be certain but that is the best explanation I have.

[CAMERC]

Thanks for the reply but this is not a cordless phone I am seeing the problem on. Note... none of the many Amazon reviews of this (KX-TGF350 series) phone mention such an issue happening. It was actually the winner of Google reviews of best-landline-of-the-year when I bought it.

It appears to be that the suspicious incoming calls never get sensed as having an originating number source, which is supposed to happen after one ring. Guess I will just have to pick up the receiver and listen the next time to confirm whether it is some sort of spam or not.