The Scary New "Delayed Disconnect" Phone Scam

Learn how to beat this new scam!
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▼ Time Stamps: ▼
0:00 - Intro
0:25 - How the Scam Goes
0:57 - How the Scam Works
1:57 - Beating the Scam
3:23 - Why it Exists
4:11 - About the 'Feature'
7:09 - About the Delay
9:01 - Delays for Different Companies
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[@ThioJoe]

Remember: Even though almost everyone has cell phones, plenty of people have landlines just as a backup, for work, in an office, etc.

[@searchedfor]

Hey joe

[@mherweg]

I'm curious if this works with VoIP systems?

[@TheOnlyK1ng]

Sup

[@wowtv4294]

Please

[@ok-us6hv]

yeah boi

[@MrGrumblier]

The first clue for me that this is a scam would be getting a human being on the line when calling any bank.

[@nigelm5777]

Of course, too true!

[@ecoquilting7077]

Right? 🤪

[@ajfrommillay3766]

I didnt have to go through a menu and then wait on hold forever to talk to a human? Hol' up. This is sus.

[@spacecoyote6646]

The first clue is the Indian accent.

[@TheCookiePup]

The lack of "if you're calling about x, please press 1…"

[@Commenter839]

Whenever I get a call saying my bank account is compromised, I always just thank them for letting me know and tell them I'll sort everything out in person at my local branch tomorrow. One of them insisted on shutting my account down, and I just said "aight then do it, I'll figure out the rest at my branch." That shut her up really quick.

[@brianadams6204]

LOL I just had that happen to me on Friday the funny thing is I was pulling into my banks parking lot when the guy called. So I told him hang on a minute and you can talk to the branch manager he hung up right away.

[@philiprice7875]

@@brianadams6204 got to remember that one just say well i am in the queue at the cashiers so you can tell them what the problem is

[@johnwang9914]

@@brianadams6204 Great, but it's also good to just string them along as long as possible to waste their time then end with how's the weather in India when you run out of things to say.

[@jeffreybaker1725]

I am getting the same messages on my cell phone- if you look hard at the message you can usually detect something is amiss. Open the link and block the phone number- no need to go further. But I also check my account just to make sure nothing funny happened

[@johnwang9914]

@@jeffreybaker1725 Well, the phone number is most likely faked too and not their actual phone number. The way that caller id works is that it is the callers equipment that provides the caller phone number and if they are using a computer or modified equipment to call, they can provide any caller id they want, the phone system was simply not designed for authentic caller id. Of course blocking that number is one of the few things you can do, but blocking their number really doesn't help (it still gives you a slight psychologic satisfaction though). The best you can do is block every number and whitelist the numbers you trust, unfortunately some government departments such as healthcare have a policy of always sending "private number" as the caller id and not leaving voice mail in order to be able to say that any calls claiming to be from them is faked, I found this out when my mother was diagnosed with cancer and all the calls from the cancer centre came as "private number" and would not leave messages, I asked them why and they said it's their policies. What I'm upset about is that the phone companies still allow incoming calls from foreign countries that have caller id's claiming to be from domestic numbers, that would seem to be something that could be blocked, sure VoIP calls can spoof their IP address but they still have to come in over routers, now VPN's would be a problem but you could make the owner of the VPN servers liable for the scams they relay in from outside the country and they would then block the VoIP from their encrypted tunnels or relay them back to outside the VPN from the source countries. Cloud virtual servers would have to either block the virtual servers from providing VoIP SIP services or provide local authorities with their customers contact information but that shouldn't affect their intended customer base, it would just discourage scammers from being their customers so they would deserve the financial liability if they allowed their equipment to relay the scams through. There's plenty that could be done to stop these scams so the question is why hasn't the government done that.

[@dakotawolf9091]

this is so interesting because I feel like in a lot of old movies you'll see someone angrily hang up a landline and then quickly pick it back up and expect the other person to still be there on the line. I always thought that was so silly because they hung up the call. I feel like this is the reason scenes like that exist and weren't immediately cut for being unrealistic!

[@pineapplegirl8078]

This “glitch” was what allowed my boyfriend and me to talk late into the night decades ago. He would call me before dinner when I was allowed to be on the phone for 15 minutes. Then I would say goodbye and hang up and he would leave his off the hook. After my parents went to bed I would sneak downstairs pick up and wait for him to get back to his phone. It was great because the house phone didn’t have to ring and alert the parents 😂

[@Rad-Dude63andathird]

At least there's some sweeter applications for this. 😆

[@lotstodo]

I love that story.

[@campkohler9131]

Or just don't hang up. Plunk the phone down behind the buttons so it sounds like you have hung up. Or, you call him back. Or, whoever is going to be called back sets the ringer volume knob to off.

[@AVERYhornyMrDinosaur]

u still single? UwU bonus pickup line: hey babuh, i know ur legal if you know what a corded phone is.. you into dinosaurs? ima 15 ton T-Rex and i need your help and can't reach, if you know what i mean ;) the joke there was that i have tiny t-rex arms and i cannot reach my own doodle. also, i don't think a t-rex had a doodle. marry me

[@johnwow2646]

But did he finally get into your pants? That's the part that you left out!

[@hunter19884]

I actually knew about this feature decades ago. I recall always reminding my dad to hang up the phone so the line doesn't stay busy. I am afraid most of the victims of this scam will be elderly people who still rely on landlines and not aware of this threat.

[@iammaxhailme]

Yeah. This is the case with most phone cams... old people are the intended victims

[@ianmcknight2469]

Lol

[@JV-pq3qn]

You mean elderly people who still rely on honesty

[@bobbybobbatunday9959]

Yeah. We had an uncle who would never hang.up the phone properly. Once I got my license, one of my regular chores was to drive to town to have him hang up the phone.

[@DoubsGaming]

@@bobbybobbatunday9959 simultaneously wholesome and worrisome.

[@pat3464]

I loved the stock footage of the guy pointlessly tapping away on an upside down phone lol

[@ArcticWolfOfficial]

🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@ijuver]

Must be stock actually meant for "How grandpa uses cell" haha

[@StarKatGaming]

When was it so I can laugh

[@archerino]

@@StarKatGaming 2:12

[@StarKatGaming]

@@archerino lmao I dunno how I didn’t notice that at first. Stock footage is insane

[@atworldsend818]

Nice job pointing out how to deal with this scam. I do actually use my cell phone to call any numbers from calls that I receive on my landline phone, and I always use a answering machine to screen phone calls before I answer them on my landline. Any messages I get concerning my financial matters, legal matters, or technological matters, I usually wait till the next day to call them anyway. Procrastination saves a lot of time and hassle in matters like this.

[@ralphm6901]

I ignore any call from a number that's not in my phone book. If my bank, or anyone else, has a legit reason to call, they'll leave voicemail. My bank is about 5 minutes walk away, so I'd go there to sort out any issue they might have.

[@bensmith3890]

@@ralphm6901 exactly. I have a list of less than 50 people who ever call me. And even then most of those people haven't talked to me in well over a year. It's really more like about 5 people. If you're not one of them, I probably don't need to be talking to you. Leave a text message so I can ignore it.

[@drunkensquirrel7545]

@@ralphm6901 This happened to us twice recently. Even though it sounded legit I was suspicious, so I used my cell to trace the number before calling anyone. Turned out to be scams. Few people call our land line anyway, and we screen all calls. it's never about money either... unless someone needs bail money at 3am. And in that case they can just wait until morning when I MIGHT show up to the jail in person to get them out. Maybe. 🤔😉

[@Dargonhuman]

I have a medical bill that I'm waiting to be referred to collections because the hospital's call center keeps coming up as Scam Likely on my phone (even AFTER adding their number to my phone) so I never answer their calls, and they never answer when I call back so if they don't want my money, I'm happy to not give it to them.

[@drunkensquirrel7545]

@@Dargonhuman I can relate. We've had similar trouble. Especially with emailed medical bills. The payment sites are flagged as unsecured by our browser, so I end up playing phone tag with the doc's office all day because they always return my calls using a Private Number & won't leave a message. Drives me nuts!

[@zombiesbyte331]

This explains when I worked in a contact centre why sometimes when the customer had finished the call and I'd sit there finishing off my notes that I would hear them pick up the phone and start dialing into my ear. I always assumed that they just never hung up correctly but this explains it.

[@sassykat2000]

Thanks so much for exposing all this. My elderly mother has a landline and I have briefed her on this scam. If she's told to call back, she either doesn't call at all, but if she's concerned and wants to call her bank etc she just uses her cell to call, not her landline.

[@jimaanders7527]

She could call a friend to break the connection. Alternatively, if she calls her own number, she'll get a busy signal, not a person at the bank.

[@653j521]

@@jimaanders7527 That is more complicated and elderly people are already trying to remember all the protective strategies that have arisen every year since they were children and it gets to be too much. Clear, simple directions, not alternative strategies, are what they need: don't use the landline to call anyone. That's what your cell phone is for.

[@johnwang9914]

My parents would never think of their cell phones as being theirs. If you called them on their cell phones, they would just think someone else's cell phone was ringing. I also had to change their ring tone to match that of a traditional dial phone before they even started to answer their cell phones. Their pay per minute service was set up by my older sister and it had free evenings and weekends but she didn't leave any credit for peak use, long distance or text messages so my parents didn't know why it would sometimes not work for them, I had to put in $30 to cover peak use, long distance and text (as well as $100 a year to renew the service as she didn't instruct my parents on that either), I also put in Google phone so they could dial out on WiFi for free (I first used magic jack back when dialing out on magic jack without a subscription was free and they understood that service fully) but they didn't understand that Google phone was a separate dialer just as magic jack was, so they burned up the $30 quickly thinking the long distance was free and I had to walk them through the alternate dialer again as well as drop in more credit. I also had to call Apple to reset the phone to my parents AppleID as my sister had not cleared the phone properly and it was still tied to her AppleID with all her appointments and such, for some reason a factory reset wasn't enough back then or it wasn't intuitive enough to do right without being walked through by support.

[@SJR_Media_Group]

*_I still remember receiving calls on my old landline_* ... After call ended I hung up phone. My friend (caller) didn't hangup correctly so it never disconnected. I had to go to their house and hang up the phone just so I could use my phone. There was no way to contact my friend because his phone was still connected to my phone. The fun part was I could hear everything happening near the phone. It was like having a 'bug' on the phone. Sometimes I could yell loud enough he could hear me through his handset, he was freaked when I told him what I just heard. He was more careful after that.

[@stuckinneutral3522]

Heh, I remember the exact same thing in the early 80's. Listening to my friend's family laugh and argue over the TV, then eventually hopping on my bike and going over there to tell them to hang the damn phone up.

[@SJR_Media_Group]

@@stuckinneutral3522 I still have a landline, I am the only one in my family or group of friends that does. I needed it to get really bad DSL internet. Moving to T-Mobile in 2023.

[@stuckinneutral3522]

@@SJR_Media_Group Me, too. I can't even call people who might live across the street because they all have out of state cell numbers now, and I'm still paying about a dime per minute! So I call and ask people to call me right back. And thank god the line disconnects when I hang up!

[@SJR_Media_Group]

@@stuckinneutral3522 Gotta love Old School my friend. Just wait until the WAR when electromagnetic pulse wipes out all cell service around globe. They will be willing to pay us $100 per minute to use our Landlines.

[@turismofoegaming8806]

I knew before you even said “they would play a recording of the dialtone in the background before the line had ever cut off“that this was where this was headed!

[@nicholashoi3155]

2:14 this guy is such a genius, using his phone upside down

[@fghsgh]

there are legitimate reasons for wanting that, like if your charging port is at the bottom but you need it at the top

[@fromthegamethrone]

I didn't even spot that ahaha

[@DarkWraith95]

Totally noticed that as well LOL.

[@robertu]

Phone is also not powered on

[@heart755]

xD LMAO lol

[@psa110]

I remember when I was in my teens (I am 71) and calling your friends was a big thing. (So were phone booths.) I recall several times when I thought I had hung up by depressing the button and then releasing in order to make another call just to find the original caller was still there. Never knew this was right, not a glitch, and a part of how the phone system worked. Now I know. Interesting video, Joe.

[@johnwang9914]

Back before cell phones existed, everyone knew that both parties had to hang up to close the line or a timeout to occurred to give you that annoying off hook alarm sound, it's just that we thought nothing of it. Then there were party lines where your neighbours might've picked up the line and that was what was holding the connection.

[@tomkirk2652]

Up through the at least the 1970s, Bell Telephone called this "Priority Calling". The caller had priority over the line. The audio portion is an AC signal through the phone line for your voice. There is also a DC signal used for billing. When the receiving line picks up, it closes a set of contacts in the receiving phone starting the billing cycle. The audio signal also is connected at this time. If either party hangs up, the billing cycle is stopped. If the caller does not hang up, the line remains open. If the receiving caller picks up the phone later, they are still connected to the caller. There were no timers on the line. This was a problem if the caller did not hang up the phone correctly and left the line open. The receiving phone could not call out. Check out any older phone, the design is such that the receiver could not stay on the phone partially, it would always fall to the ground if it were not hung up properly.

[@XEONvE]

Thats the old analog service you are talking about. In the 90s most of the CO were converted to digital service. But we still have some old 4 or 5 digit phone numbers owners in downtown TO refusing to more over to digital service. Thus, in parts of dt analog service is still available. Therefore this issue still exist for only a small group of customers.

[@terryhui9555]

Hi Thio! CSH is a legacy behavior of land lines reliance on physical switching that physically connected the two landlines. Since most landline are now connected via VoIP, CSH time should be measured in seconds versus minutes. Long CSH times is a behavior of the old analog switching days.

[@paparoysworkshop]

Two points to add, Joe. First off, back in the 60's when we were kids and got mad at our friends, we would call their place and never hang up. Their line would be tied up for hours or until their parents came over and yelled at our parents for what we did. It was great fun. 😁 But on a more serious note, incase this happens to someone, first call yourself. The line should be busy (since you are on the phone). If someone says hello, defiantly something is not right.

[@smallfeet4581]

i was going to say good comment but wouldnt it still be a 'busy' tone if scammers were still on it ?,

[@paparoysworkshop]

@@smallfeet4581 Nope, it would just be quiet. Edit: And if they faked a busy tone for some reason, then let it go to voice mail. They can't fake that.

[@smallfeet4581]

@@paparoysworkshop ok

[@johnwang9914]

@@smallfeet4581 Only if the scammers recognized the dial pulses or touch tones as being your phone number and was bright enough to play a recording of a busy tone, otherwise they would just play a recording of the rings and pretend to be answering the phone. The odd thing is that we all knew of this caller hold back in the days of the land lines and of course used it to play pranks yet never thought of it being used for scams.

[@ProtoV33MK1]

Sometimes this will connect you to your voicemail. I've found this usually happens with cable company landlines where the phone is connected to your cable modem. But, your point still applies, if you don't get a busy signal or *your own* voicemail, something's up.

[@savedbygrace2397]

Back in the old days, some crank callers could camp on your phone line by calling you then not say a word but also not hang up. You could wait long periods of time like an hour, and they would still be there. It was super creepy.

[@mparagames]

tf

[@crimsonlion100]

or a street party line where you could hear everyone elses calls, had one of those when i was little

[@OddZodd]

There are whole troll accounts that are dedicated to doing the same thing online lol

[@peacefulpossum2438]

So stalkers could call, not hang up, and the victim couldn’t call 911. Disturbing.

[@peacefulpossum2438]

@@mirrorneurongirl I’m not sure what “back then” you imagine I was referring too. I’m old enough to remember when 911 was created. We had a party line when I was a kid. I realize that the country was still a weird mix of technologically advanced and relatively primitive phone systems in the ‘80s. I guess I should have said, “call the police.” Either way, my point stands.

[@a9ball1]

I want to thank you for going the extra distance and getting into detail about the technology. A lot of KZbinrs would just tell us about it and not bother explaining how it works. Two thumbs up!

[@collynbertin3260]

I know I'm a bit late but another good reason landlines may have originally had this is if you are calling emergency services and the call drops, or you need to hang up and call back the emergency operator could stay on the line in case they called back..... On the other hand you'd think emergency services could just find a way to force themselves to stay on the line instead of this clearing phone line delays .

[@wonderwomandiana6461]

Hello Thio, your KZbin imperative information is always clear and to the point. Your a wonderful young man to take the time for us

[@jamesbryan287]

Uhh...?

[@dynamic1x931]

@@jamesbryan287 lol

[@misslonewolf04]

Sound lile a bot

[@BigManT]

@@misslonewolf04 it could just be a old person and that’s my guess with how it’s phrases

[@HazbinRotel]

Who also thought this was gonna be a scam untill the second half? Lol

[@TimSheets]

I remember that when I was growing up. If you got mad and tried to hang up on someone, the caller could just not hang up and when you pick up the phone again, they would still be there. Talk about infurating! lolol

[@chrisbaker8533]

I usually disconnected the earpiece or the handset and just set about spinning the dial or pushing buttons. They got the message pretty quick.

[@justincoleman9776]

One of the reasons I kept a whistle by the phone

[@wta1518]

@@justincoleman9776 Calm down, Satan.

[@justincoleman9776]

@@wta1518 😈lil ol' me? Lol. The main reason it was there was for my sister and Mother to thwart lewd callers, which was a problem in the 80s. So it was handy if someone made me really angry.

[@ProtoV33MK1]

@@justincoleman9776 Another good one is a dog toy or crinkling paper over the mic

[@bodan1196]

An old "engineering" complication: the more convenient you make a system to use, the easier it becomes to abuse.

[@navret1707]

“The more they play with the plumbing the easier it is to stop up the sink.” Approximation of a Scotty line in Star Trek movie.

[@kathyputman5160]

I remember this from the 70's. A contemporary at school, 7th grade was making multiple, every 5 mins phone calls to my house just to harass me. When I figured this out, I kept the phone off the hook. We didn't get any calls (we were tired of hearing it ring anyway) but their phone was also blocked from making or receiving calls. When her parents came home and wanted to know why their phone didn't work my Mama was more than glad to explain it to them. This girl had been doing this from the time school let out till her parents came home for weeks.

[@derrick_martin_g.]

This little phone quirk was well-known when I was a kid in the 60's and 70's and of course it was exploited to the max with prank phone calling.

[@AJMarraffa]

I had no idea that there are multiple ways phone call disconnects can be handled by the various companies out there, thanks for spreading the info!

[@moname7017]

This practice by phone companies, (for landline users), seems to be employed so the phone company can charge a few more minutes for the call. It's a bit like a scam to overcharge the callers in such small bits that hopefully aren't noticed. This is so they can make more money from their customers. If you have a million customers, and you charge them an extra 2 minutes, that number can significantly add up. So this would be an instance of a scammer using a scam system to scam those customers.

[@tomkenney5365]

With the exception of long-distance calls, landlines didn't charge by the minute. You paid for the service, and it was a flat monthly rate.

[@darkshadowrule2952]

Getting charged by the minute is a prepaid cell phone feature almost exclusively, landlines are a flat rate, sometimes even bundled as part of your monthly internet bill

[@dopesickdog]

even if it's flat rate now, wasn't landline usage was charged on a per-minute basis in its earlier days? maybe it's a leftover practice because it _did_ make extra money, who knows

[@darkshadowrule2952]

@@dopesickdog not that I've ever heard of, but I don't know much about anything earlier than the sixties

[@xyex]

Uh, landlines don't charge by time outside of some long distance plans.

[@gaillewis5472]

If I get a call from the bank, I will immediately drive up the street to the local branch.

[@653j521]

Gail Lewis We're all so proud of you for having a driver's license and a car. Now if you had good sense, you wouldn't believe it was real and could stay home. Banks never call.

[@donotneed2250]

@@653j521, at least she's smart enough to want to go and check it out in person to be sure.

[@Brandonford1_4life]

Is it just me who thinks Verizon's response was more satisfying than AT&T's because of how specific the seconds they laid out and acknowledged Call Clearing? AT&T's phrasing feels like a response for someone who didn't take the effort to look up what Joe was asking

[@eturtled]

I agree

[@vernondecker9532]

Agreed

[@bren.r]

AT&T has the worst customer service. I always need to file an FCC complaint and have a higher up reach out to me to solve issues because of the amount of incompetence from their poorly trained reps.

[@YTStoleMyUsername]

@@bren.r Maybe you should consider switching.

[@bren.r]

@@YTStoleMyUsername Oh I've switched and haven't looked back. Absolutely zero regrets.

[@DeeDee-a29L]

My heart goes out to the elderly people and those who doesn't understand how to deal with these scammers...I don't have a landline phone...Thank you for sharing.

[@jackic23]

Actually now that you mention this feature it kind of makes sense. I recall back in the old days of landline phones, they used to be on the wall (think Stranger Things). Usually the one answering the phone wasn't actually the person the caller wanted to talk to. So what normal people would do is hold the corded handset and shout to call down the other intended receiver. This feature would have been great back then because you could just tell the person who called to stay on the line, then you hang the phone back up and go get the intended receiver who may be in another room or even out in the backyard.

[@Ck87JF]

Why would you hang up the phone and not just set it down? Maybe if it's a short cord and attached to the wall, you wouldn't have room to set it somewhere, but with all of the updates to phone tech over the years and most people with landlines having desk phones and portable phones, you'd think the clear time would be reduced.

[@thecianinator]

@@Ck87JF so they could pick up another phone in a different room on the same line and you wouldn't have to wait for them to get it before you could hang up and go do something else

[@anthonynorman7545]

I forgot that was a thing that happened!

[@RogueSmithers]

Yeah, I've known about this feature for a few decades now... People I knew were prank callers that used to use it for annoying certain targets. In some situations that call can stay connected for hours, had some harassment issues from my ex-wife's family where they tied out line up for over 2 hours just by not hanging up and continuing to talk into the phone. This was back in 2009 and what they were doing was talking into the phone loud enough the computer switchboard didn't register the click of my phone hanging up and as long as they kept talking it would stay connected so if ya picked up the phone they were still there going off like a ghetto fool cuz they wanted to act like children cuz I went for custody of my own kids.

[@dopesickdog]

damn dude... that got heavy

[@KayEdwardsGaming]

I'm from the UK and I remember hearing about a scam when I was a child and mobile phones weren't commonly owned. You'd get a call pretending to be BT (the biggest provider back then by a large amount) saying you're latest bill payment hadn't been recieved and they were going to cut you off instantly unless you paid now. Should you refuse they would say to hang up and try making a call and then you'd know it was them. You would hang up and pick up the phone and there would be no dial tone. They held the line open and muted their side. Then they'd call back hoping they fooled you. Scams do the rounds, even the really old ones it seems. Very interesting video.

[@AliensInc.]

Even better, do not trust a phone call. I never ever trust anything made on a phone when it comes to money.

[@Runner-Boy]

I never answer unless I know the number

[@ownpetard8379]

I intimidate my phone into giving me full loyalty. My phone knows I will shun it if I detect the least amount of sass or disrespect.

[@pathfinder3175]

How ask the caller to prove to me who they say they are, it's impossible to do. I can say anything too!

[@philmccracken2012]

@@ownpetard8379 I know your post was from a year ago but your comment was the funniest comment I have seen on KZbin of very very long time! Just let your phone know who's in charge!

[@llywyllngryffyn8053]

You touched upon the reason this feature exists... money. The person making the call is paying for it. If the call lasts longer than they expected it to because they get cut off and they don't realize that eh person hung up, they might think that the person they were speaking to would come back.. but they are just holding a line and in the old days, phone calls cost money. Especially if you called long distance.

[@LinkSquish]

I remember discovering this hang-up thing in the 80's with our friends. Thanks for making a video about this new scam

[@Combat.Wombat.official]

We used to ring K-Mart and after they hang up we dial 1 and then it connects us to an outside line, then we could make long distance calls via them, so they would pay the extensive cost.

[@paparoysworkshop]

Why didn't you tell me about this 50 years ago. I would have loved to have known that. 😁👍

[@Sirenhound]

@@paparoysworkshop KZbin comments weren't around to tell you with 50 years ago.

[@paparoysworkshop]

@@Sirenhound No kidding! I was there. Were you?

[@geariagaldgkja]

@@paparoysworkshop another old phone hack was for payphones. When you put in coins it played a specific tone over the line telling the phone company you had paid. You could just play these specific tones into the handset and payphone for free.

[@paparoysworkshop]

@@geariagaldgkja Yes, I knew that trick. Not that I would have ever done such a dishonest thing... 😎

[@joesmith1810]

jeez, I remember hearing about this being a problem like a decade ago, but since I was just a kid I had no idea what was to be gained from it. Interesting to learn now how scammers use it to trick people.

[@LouLope]

Check your bank account on line. Another option is, don't answer the phone from an unknown source. If there is a problem companies, the IRS, banks, utilities always communicate via regular mail anyway.

[@NoggleBaum]

When I realised this delay, I learned to UNPLUG my cord. After a few, (4-6), seconds plug it back in and have the dial tone.

[@FoxDren]

the reason "calling party clear" is so common is due to a quirk of how some old mechanical phone networks where configured, basically they often didn't have "far end monitoring" (checking the recievers end of the line) because it would have cost more to impliment.

[@ThioJoe]

Yea was reading about it, "supervision" is apparently a term. Didn't include all that in the vid though

[@sarah1390]

There are especially in remote areas lines that are called Party lines where one line will service multiple residences. The line was setup that if it did monitor the receiving party hanging up then you would have been more than likely hanging up calls that were going to the other residences on the same line from my understanding but I could be wrong as they are extremely rare nowadays.

[@FoxDren]

@@ThioJoe also think Tom Scott has a video on the topic.

[@wolphin732]

@@ThioJoe "Supervision" is a term still used in Emergency Services call centres when transferring the calls... maybe this is why the tech is still there?

[@martinploughboy988]

It could also be related to how a manually switch call would be controlled. The originating operator would only know the call had ended when their caller hung up. It probably carried over to mechanisation as `feature` customers used.

[@LMacNeill]

Back in the day, when I was a kid in the '70s and '80s, we used to use this feature to hang up and go pick up the phone in another room when someone called and we had to grab the nearest phone, but it wasn't the phone we wanted to sit there and talk on. It was actually a very convenient feature. But with the advent of cordless phones, I'm kind of surprised it still exists.

[@1lmp1]

You guys are much nicer than I dealing with the scammers. When they start their spiel I start mine " please hold a second" and I put my ear plugs on a let an air horn rip. Then just hang up. 🤣

[@Sandmansa]

I knew of this feature on land lines. I found this out over 40 years ago, the phone could stay connected for several minutes if one party failed to hang up the phone. But now it seems to end the call much faster.

[@PiltdownSuperman]

It was a bit startling to learn that this can lead to a scam. Before we ditched the landline and my decades of experience, I was puzzled by how sometimes a call would remain connected after somebody hung up. I never thought that it could be useful for changing extensions and so on. (Mayhaps I saw it in movies or TV, someone would say, "Don't hang up", then hang up themselves and pick up elsewhere.) The frustrating part of any potential usefulness is that it varies by the call or the phone provider. This was fun to learn.

[@himasnehith9579]

The only person on KZbin who gives the original and the best tech Knowledge

[@littlejohnny4759]

I used this "undocumented feature" back in the 60s to convince people I had telepathic capability with a friend of mine in another town. We had a code word to signal I had a subject primed. I would then pick up the receiver and repeat back to the subject the answer to their question while my friend was still on the line. It worked like a charm.... had a lot of fun with it.

[@hatac]

Some of the switching equipment in some older phone exchanges, particularly country systems, can be so old that they take several seconds to a minute to disconnect even if its meant to be immediate. I found this out because the older system were also causing problems for the army. We had Vietnam war signals equipment, phone, that was actually faster. Yes we were plugging in the jack into the array of holes as late as the 1990's and it was still faster that some town systems.

[@tedjammers]

2:13 Best lowkey piece of humor in the video

[@frozenlicks]

I was looking for this comment. thank you!

[@t3hpwninat0r]

🙃🤣

[@moronicpest]

I can say for certain that even in the early '70s in the usa using AT&T land lines I could hang up the phone for a half an hour and if the other caller stayed on the line, I could still pick up my phone and they'd still be there. I still have a land line, but haven't tested this feature recently to see if it has changed over the years.

[@MichaelSmith-qu2ms]

The pre-80s ANALOG Central Offices were notorious for this. When the new DIGITAL technology was installed, this "connection error" was mostly made improbable. That still didn't affect calls being made to BUSINESS ANALOG or DIGITAL in-house systems, which got hit a LOT with this type of failure. Upgrades to better programming and tech has mostly eliminated this on local switch-to-home service.

[@preciousditto]

Thank you for your channel! This happened to me 45 years ago. A boyfriend did not take the breakup well and called, stayed on the phone and wouldn't get off the line. It seemed to last quite some time. He ended up slashing all my tires and breaking all the outside mirrors. Bad memory indeed...mean people suck.

[@FilthyCasual268]

These features among most landline users are not known as "Delayed Disconnect", but rather "Call Waiting" and "3-Way Calling".

[@elizabethmauer4797]

I haven't had landline in years but in the past I have experienced all three of the call clear types you describe. A couple of times I picked up the phone nearly 10 minutes after hanging up from a call and the line was still open. Apparently the caller had not hung up their phone correctly. Shared your video to my fb timeline so others will be aware as I know many people who still have land lines. Thanks for the heads-up!

[@AccEngineer]

This delay time (maybe 40 years ago) was very long, perhaps even forever. I believe it was a function of the way the hardware in the switching system worked that resulted in this behavior. A tactic used at the time was to call someone and not hang up. Then they or a partner would drive to the victim's house, break in and rob them. Since the phone wasn't usable, the victim couldn't call the police. Obviously, after they got away they would hang up the phone so the phone company couldn't trace it back to their phone.

[@chrisbaker8533]

Payphones were best for this tactic.

[@peacefulpossum2438]

The disconnect time may have changed - shortened to seconds - when phone switching systems went from mechanical to digital.

[@sallyshipwreck4315]

I agree it was forever. Decades ago I always told people to let it ring at least 12 times as I might have to come in from outside. A friend called, and he put his mobile phone down on the counter while waiting, forgot about it and it was hours and hours of listening to him whistle, bang pots and pans while I was shouting into the phone. He finally picked his phone up and hung it up.

[@653j521]

Ken Mueller Sounds like an urban legend.

[@sgt.duke.mc_50]

@@653j521 I am 71 & can attest to that not being an urban legend. Going thru my 1st divorce, my soon to be "ex" was well aware of this in the phone system & damn near got me fired by pulling this trick on our company phone. I'm not sure how long the delay was exactly, but it was long enough to cause serious problems. A minimum of 5+ minutes each time she called & even for a business the phone co. (Ma Bell only option "back then" in the 70's) wouldn't do a thing about it.

[@user-nd7rd8jo6h]

Pov: When a friend calls u and forgets to hang up and the only way to be able to make a call to anyone else is to go to their place to tell them to hang up...

[@wilsonaguiar4646]

At first, i was confused because i didn't remember this being a thing but as i kept watching i remembered this feature. It's crazy because i haven't had a land-line in a very long time but my parents do so i sent this to them.

[@kristoffseisler2163]

thank god you released this video before it happened to me, i owe you my life!

[@seanb3516]

You know they're just after your money, right? Perspective dude...

[@joesterling4299]

@@seanb3516 Rationalizing some levels of crime as not a big deal? If someone's life savings are on the line, it's a huge, hairy deal. It might mean the difference between good medical care and death, for example. Elderly people are more likely to use land lines these days.

[@seanb3516]

@@joesterling4299 That Scammer may have called them from a room that was about to explode... Anything is possible, dude. ANYTHING :O

[@seanb3516]

@@joesterling4299 Also, I thought you said 'Land Mines' which I totally agree that the Elderly should have access to. You don't need to run away from intruders quickly, you just have to remember the pattern.

[@Avrysatos]

The way I was first taught to do this was to call like pizza delivery and ask what specials they have or your local pharmacy and ask the hours (or listen to the robot saying so). If you don’t get the right number you know what’s going on. They’ll claim to be your bank when you called Pizza Hut? Whoooops.

[@darkwing3713]

Or dial your own number and see if you get a busy signal or your "bank" :)

[@lulabee384]

Came back to watch this as a suggestion from a newer video that you recently posted. ALL of the videos you share with us are so helpful, sometimes even life-saving to be honest. I really really appreciate all the hard work that you put in and all the research that you do out of the kindness of your heart to help the rest of us. That’s incredible to me that you take that amount of time in today’s world. Thank you, truly! 🙏🙏

[@BabyShenanigans]

I haven't had a land line in... oh god... probably a good 16 years. But I do remember hanging up on someone and then going to make another call and them still being there.

[@BPEKSupraInteractive]

Mad respects to you man. This sounded like a lot of research.

[@sergiojimenez9977]

Quality content! I do not own a landline nor do I live in the US, but I found your video to be really informative. I am glad you decided to use your time to inform people as opposed to mocking people lacking common sense or tech knowledge like on your old satirical videos, which were pretty funny to me by the way. But being as clever as you seem to be, this kind of content suits you better. Keep it up!

[@srirachaaaa]

I literally work for a company that sells these services and had zero idea this was a thing, I’m glad I found this

[@brewcider]

i remember getting a call in the living room, hanging up, running to my bedroom and resuming the call there... it saved a lot of walking back and forth

[@stingus]

Wow. You’ve done an amazing work digging trough all that. Thank you!

[@patrickmusson4571]

If I ever get a call like that, I always phone the bank itself on my cellphone. Besides that, I don't use my landline. All the calls I get on the landline are routed through my cellphone.

[@cavemandelta]

This makes total sense. It does happen with cell phones and I was always trying to figure out why the call doesn't disconnect immediately after calling my office's landline.

[@webbo9798]

As a telephone engineer from past times, I must say this facility (call clearing delay) was designed well before these types of scams were ever even thought of. As the presenter says this system was designed to give the caller "priority" only because they were "paying", and somehow giving them more control to them instead of the called number. How times have changed in terms of IT fraud/scams its seems we live in a very different world now. Its sad that technology hasn't kept up apart from call logging these ( now susceptible) system processes are still in place.

[@bobbiethompson1615]

My husband worked for Bell South for 32 years and retired in 1991.. He is 92 now and some of the stories he told could fill a good book.

[@seesea-sv3xw]

Back when Ma Bell ruled the lines scammers wouldn't have gotten away with anything near what they do today. Years ago scamners couldn't just pirate any unused phone number as they do today.

[@bobbiethompson1615]

@@seesea-sv3xw Agree. AT*T is for the birds. they provide our living with a pension but our contract was with Bell South. As management retiree we are supposed to get free phone but they (Att) took that away and take out dental insurance from our pension check every month but I stopped that when I found out. I could save what they were taking out and pay to have teeth cleaned for many months.

[@fluffyty19]

I have a Verizon landline in the northeast US and if it’s a local call (on the same telco switch) I can still hang up the phone and pick it back up after about 2 minutes. It does vary based on the calling party though. Cell phones or VoIP to my landline will disconnect after about 20 seconds. Weirdly enough my landline also acts like the ones you see in movies where if the calling party hangs up and the call disconnects, I immediately get dial tone!

[@ProtoV33MK1]

You might be on a portion of the network that still uses old switching equipment. That immediate dial tone comes from the fact that when the other party hangs up, the switching equipment now has no idea if you're phone is off hook because you just finished a call, or you're about to start one. It only knows your phone is off hook, and not connected to anyone else, so you get dial tone.

[@elizabethbottroff1218]

I grew up in a small town in the USA pre MaBell breakup. I remember using 5 digit phone numbers in the '70s. My friend still had a party line on her rural road. The feature of the caller being able to block your receiving line was actually a well known and irritating bug. It was a lot longer than ten seconds. We had older relatives notorious for not hanging up their rotary phones correctly, leaving us stuck, unable to receive or make more calls. Phone companies had a work around. If a phone is left off the hook and inactive for a certain amount of time, there was an extremely loud busy tone and beeping sound that would start to sound. Hopefully, that relative was still near enough to notice it...and not deaf as a post. 😊 No one wanted extra long distance or regional charges, so we were all pretty careful. Every once in a while, I'd walk into the room, as an older kid, wondering what the noise was...yep, Lil Bro had been playing with the phone, and it was off the hook again. Inevitably, you'd get a call minutes after correcting the phone, since a caller could now be able to get through. LOL.

[@HippieLongHaired]

This used to happen with robocalls. The called subscriber receives a robocall, hangs up, picks up the phone and the robocall is still talking. Hang up, wait 15 seconds, pick up the phone and the robocall is still talking. Hang up, wait 15 seconds, pick up the phone, DIAL 911 and the robocall is still talking. I reported this to the telephone company and they almost had a heart attack when I described what was happening. I thought this was fixed years ago.

[@juangonzalez9500]

Usually whenever I hear about some new scam mentioned in the news, it's always some variant of the same scams that most people are familiar with. However, this is completely new and surprising to me. Thank you for sharing!

[@ReginaDeanReed]

I'll remember this scammer calling trick. Thank you for sharing. It takes a village to protect us from scammers.

[@radishpineapple74]

Wow, you did an *excellent* job researching for this piece. Kudos!

[@dolores2716]

Yes! I don't even have a land line but I kept watching till the end because I was so impressed with the thoroughness of his research.

[@simplydebby2530]

Just heard about it the other day, didn't realize it was still a thing. It used to be convenient to hang up the phone & go to another room to pick up the extension. With the popularity of cordless phones, I thought this was ended! I usually stay on the line until I have forced the caller to hang up on me. So many just call & don't say anything so I mess with them. They hang up & I get a laugh. Thanks for explaining this!!

[@stephpar.official]

This featured as part of the plot line of "The Sweeney" episode "Golden Fleece" in 1975 where it was used to stop an officer from being able to contact other officers to get them to accompany him to a meeting with an informant where he was set up to appear corrupt because he turned up alone. I also remember it being a common plot device around that time but that is the only one I can track down at the moment.

[@SomeNot]

“One extremely informational bit of info i found” how informative

[@cafdtp]

Pay Phones & Landlines used to do that in the 1940’s The line didn’t disconnect until the caller hung up. Crazy. I didn’t know with the digital age that feature was still around.

[@DeTommy.]

@@rabbitslayer42 But it's also nice to have the possibility to read any book there is anywhere without you having to carry around an entire library with you. Both have their weakpoints and advantages. Different times, different crimes I guess.

[@653j521]

@@rabbitslayer42 Analog doesn't mean it can't use a battery or be recharged. We all had analog tvs not so very long ago. I have analog and digital clocks. Digital uses a more efficient system than analog, that's all. We are in a high tech age, but let's realize what words mean. Maybe include that in your reading. :)

[@connomar55]

I think "this feature" is more about the way the systems work. The Call originator effectively reserves a route into the exchange and then onward to the receiving party's line. The receiving party does not control the end to end connection, the originator does. In the old days at least, a call could be left open for hours by accident, and eventually the exchange operator would play a very loud tone on the line to try and alert the subscriber that it was "off-hook".

[@kilroy1964]

Boy does this bring back memories! We used this feature a lot, before cordless phones. You'd put down the receiver and pick it up in another room. Also I don't recall any time out. In fact a common problem was: not hanging up properly, which caused someone else's phone to be tied up almost indefinitely.

[@Everytwo_]

Another day, another awesome ThioJoe video!

[@fromthegamethrone]

Crazy to think scams from when I was a child still exist. My parents always taught me to check for a dial tone before dialing.

[@fth2video]

ThioJoe noted that the scammers play a dial tone. It's about 1:40 into the video.

[@alphanerd2305]

I think this also applies to some VOIP based system as well. For example, I have Spectrum as my phone provider for my business. When I initiate or receive a call, that call doesn't immediately terminate upon hanging up the phone. I usually have to wait anywhere from 5 to 10 seconds before I can use the phone again.

[@jasondoyle1037]

Great bit of research. Thank you and well done!

[@Jan-sn5tk]

My mum once advertised something for sale. A call came from an interested buyer, and made an appointment to view. They didn't disconnect the call at their end to prevent any-one else calling. So they got the ONLY chance to buy the item. very crafty. And dangerous. If she had needed to call an emergency service she wouldn't have been able as she didn't have a cell phone at the time

[@CaseyDplays]

Some old landlines would disconnect any call and call emergency services or the operator who would connect you to emergency services if you pressed the hang up button/lever/switch 10 times quickly

[@Jan-sn5tk]

@@CaseyDplays thank you. Obviously didn't know that.

[@richardkennedy5598]

Thanks for this information. I am one of few, I suppose that still uses a landline. If I don’t recognize the number I allow my answering machine to take the call. During a week I get 50 plus unidentifiable calls and no messages. With the exception of a few wanting to extend my warranty on a car that I traded in 4 years ago.

[@653j521]

Richard Kennedy55 Have you tried the govt spam-blocking service for landlines? It really cut down on what I received the first year it was implemented. I have a cell phone now so don't know what is available.

[@smoocher]

This is one of the most helpful videos I've watched on YT. My parents live in a rural area and have a landline. Thank you for this video.

[@FleaMarketSocialist]

_God damn, I love how thorough you are with these videos_

[@mrdiamond64]

"If something exists, then there's a way to scam using it" Someone, probably

[@653j521]

RandomYT Videos Uploader ً Or more famously, there's a sucker born every minute.

[@kuplung22]

I don't have landline, but I like your videos.

[@kristankneale4052]

Thanks very much Thio. This information is timely and very useful. Keep up the great work. 👍

[@photonboy999]

*EXCELLENT VIDEO!* You explained it really well, and the research was great. Thanks!

[@carolynbell2246]

Very informative. Thanks for sharing.

[@das5813]

OK, I used to be a production technician or electronics engineer. Here's what is the minimum you need to do to secure your phone and use it properly. After every call, in or out, you must always press the red end button and not rely on the system to close the call. Hope this helps.

[@just_passing_through]

Landlines don’t have a “red end” button.

[@das5813]

@@just_passing_through Yes I know unless it's a wire free but even so, the line remains live until the other party closes it or it times out. However, it's still possible for people to listen and turn on the camera covertly even if you turn the mobile phone off and because the CIA forces the manufacturers to install a GPS system in it there's no reason why it should even get stolen because its also trackable.

[@roguestowl2280]

😱 I’m so glad I ran across this! So helpful!

[@HiTechDiver]

Very interesting and useful info; can't imagine the depth of research you conducted. Thanks

[@andrewhickey2849]

Unfortunate that the demographic most likely to have a landline are also the target demographic of phone scams 😕

[@melkiorwiseman5234]

This trick only works in countries which have not yet gone completely over to VOIP services. Australia is one of those which has completely transferred over to VOIP and so this trick isn't possible in that country (unless you've somehow managed to retain an old-style local telephone exchange AND the scammer is also calling you from the same telephone exchange). In any case, Australian telephone exchanges were modified to include called-number disconnection on hang-up long before the VOIP system replaced exchanges.

[@melkiorwiseman5234]

Adding: This trick was occasionally used for telephone "bugging." The victim's phone would need to be modified (often by someone pretending to be from the telephone company) so that it no longer switches off the microphone in the handset when it's hung up. The caller could pretend they had the wrong number, or fake an enquiry, then not hang up after the victim had hung up and the telephone's handset microphone would keep on transmitting every sound in the room to the caller. There is another version which still works with VOIP telephones but it requires someone to install a device between the telephone and the socket.

[@melkiorwiseman5234]

The fact that the caller had to hang up in order to disconnect the line was just a feature of how early telephone systems worked. It wasn't an intentional feature at all. It was just a by-product of the way the electrical connections were made between the caller's telephone and the called party's telephone. The telephone exchange systems had to be made more complicated in order to allow called-party disconnection of calls. Source: Had some training as a telephone technician, many long years ago. The reason why this feature didn't have a single official name is because it was so common that nobody thought it was important to give it a name. It wasn't a deliberate thing which was added. It was just "the way it works" and so nobody ever bothered to name it officially. It wasn't until it became an issue that people started to give names to it.

[@dopesickdog]

@@melkiorwiseman5234 fascinating!

[@PixieDusted72]

Great info. Ty so much. My mom is a prime target for this scam. Letting her know immediately.

[@rebeccaanderson4728]

Wow I did not know this. Thank you for sharing this information in order to help keep us safe. Much appreciated.