Prompt Cast
Mysterious Phone Calls Lead to Investigation by FBI and FCC
TLDR Jody has been receiving strange phone calls with screeching noises and muffled voices, leading her to suspect government wiretaps. After investigation, it is discovered that the calls are part of a scheme to make money through toll-free numbers, and the FBI and FCC are now involved in the case.
Timestamped Summary
00:00
Jody, who works at a company that sells .law domain names, has been receiving strange phone calls where she hears screeching noises, muffled voices, and even finds herself in different locations, and no one can figure out why.
04:59
Jody has been receiving strange phone calls that include crystal clear conversations, and she suspects that the government or the NSA may be accidentally forwarding wiretaps to her.
08:55
The host contacts Precision Interconnect, the company that provides Jodi's VoIP service, and speaks to Harley Bitman, who is intrigued by the strange phone calls and shares stories of other phone malfeasance she has encountered.
12:20
The host learns about phone scams that have been used to fund terror organizations, but realizes that it doesn't explain what's happening with Jodi's phone calls, so they decide to call Dave Maynard for technical support.
15:52
Dave Maynard believes that the phone calls are actually recordings made by someone for the purpose of making money through phone fraud, but the host is still left searching for answers.
19:53
James discovers that the weird phone calls are part of a massive computer program designed to scrape the internet for 1-800 numbers and make hundreds of thousands of calls to them every day, with the purpose of making money through the reverse payment system of toll-free numbers.
23:23
The phone calls are part of a scheme where a person or small group is making money by placing a large volume of 1-800 calls and receiving a portion of the payment from the phone companies, and James believes that the person behind it is someone with intimate knowledge of large-scale traffic, potentially retired from a big phone company.
26:54
The FBI and the FCC are now involved in the investigation and are confident that they will catch the person responsible for the phantom calls.
Categories:
Technology
Society & Culture
