\"intelligent\" telephone answering machine...

[Grant Taylor]

On 10/28/20 4:14 PM, Martin Brown wrote:
> They typically fake a local number in the hope that you will pick up.

Likewise here in the U.S.A.

I know a few people that purposefully have cell phone number from
somewhere they never go to. So they can simply screen any and all calls
from the same area code as their cell phone number.



--
Grant. . . .
unix || die

 

[Ricketty C]

On Wednesday, October 28, 2020 at 5:40:54 PM UTC-4, Robert Baer wrote:

Ricketty C wrote:
On Friday, October 23, 2020 at 9:36:57 PM UTC-4, Robert Baer wrote:
Ricketty C wrote:
On Thursday, October 22, 2020 at 6:13:33 PM UTC-4, Robert Baer wrote:
Ricketty C wrote:
On Thursday, October 22, 2020 at 3:23:06 PM UTC-4, Robert Baer wrote:
Have need for such a beast; must recognize caller ID and determine if
call is from a town/city.

Wait 7 rings before pickup.

Emit loudest noise allowed by Ma Bell specs, primary frequency 3-4KC
for greatest effect; perhaps sawtooth for most grating.
Mixed with second tone about 14Hz above fundamental (understand 14Hz
is least pleasing frequency difference).

Simple-minded way of town/city determination: extract state
designation (seems 90 percent of these fake callers have state included)
and use look-up table for verification.

Second \"level\" would be: verify all capitalized letters, only one
\"word\" excluding state if any.

Anyone willing to take on such a project?

Thanks,
R. Baer

Not sure what you are talking about. Seems a very complicated way to force a dialing robot to listen to robot music. Actually, most of the robocalls I get are from out of state only because my phone number is from out of state. They even pick an exchange local to where my phone number was originally from. So how would this detect a spammer?
* NOT music; never music, machine would emit grating NOISE.
Read what i wrote; all undesired calls are from a town/city and most
disclose state (WA, TX, etc).

Yes, and these calls are pretty much all from India. What\'s your point???
* Maybe, and maybe not. Do not care if they come from Mars.
How about that machine?

Are you actually rational? Can you form a coherent thought???

The calls are nearly all robo calls with no human to hear your noise. When you press the right button they connect you to someone from India. They use random phone numbers local to you and pay for nothing other than being connected to a phone line somewhere in the world, very possibly over the Internet before it reaches a phone network.

Caller ID tells you nothing about this callers. Nothing.
* BULLSHIT! As i said many times before, most of the calls i get have
the state code as a part of the caller ID.
BELLEVUE WA, OGDEN UT, MOUNTAIN VIEW CA, SILVERDALE CA,CASTLE ROCK
WA, ROY WA, MARYSVILLE WA, CAMAS WA, NEW YORK NY, PORT ANGELES WA, ELMA
WA, HAYWARD CA ... need i go on with examples that GIVE USEFUL INFO?

All of those calls actually originated in India... or China, or elsewhere. There is nothing in caller ID that verifies the location. It simply reports what was transmitted by the caller.

So get a grip and learn how caller ID works.

Here, these guys will help you fake your calls.

https://www.phoneburner.com/blog/how-does-caller-id-work/

--

Rick C.

--++ Get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging
--++ Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209

 

[Charles Elias]

On Thursday, October 22, 2020 at 3:23:06 PM UTC-4, Robert Baer wrote:

Have need for such a beast; must recognize caller ID and determine if
call is from a town/city.

Wait 7 rings before pickup.

Emit loudest noise allowed by Ma Bell specs, primary frequency 3-4KC
for greatest effect; perhaps sawtooth for most grating.
Mixed with second tone about 14Hz above fundamental (understand 14Hz
is least pleasing frequency difference).

Simple-minded way of town/city determination: extract state
designation (seems 90 percent of these fake callers have state included)
and use look-up table for verification.

Second \"level\" would be: verify all capitalized letters, only one
\"word\" excluding state if any.

Anyone willing to take on such a project?

Thanks,
R. Baer

I have a Digitone Proseries II Call Blocker. When a call comes in that you want to block for future calls the press of a button will do that. The unit has features too numerous to mention here. Google it to check it out. I am very satisfied with the unit\'s performance. I think it meets all of R. Baer\'s requirements

 

[Martin Brown]

On 28/10/2020 22:28, Grant Taylor wrote:

On 10/28/20 4:14 PM, Martin Brown wrote:
They typically fake a local number in the hope that you will pick up.

Likewise here in the U.S.A.

I know a few people that purposefully have cell phone number from
somewhere they never go to.  So they can simply screen any and all calls
from the same area code as their cell phone number.

Your cell phone numbers have a geographic location? I didn\'t know that.

Ours tells you only the original network that the phone was on when the
mobile contract first started. You can port your old number with you to
a new mobile network afterwards so it is no longer meaningful.

The SIM original phone number has an \"exchange\" code determined by
network carrier. A bit like the leading digits on credit cards.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

 

[Charles Elias]

On Thursday, October 22, 2020 at 3:23:06 PM UTC-4, Robert Baer wrote:

Have need for such a beast; must recognize caller ID and determine if
call is from a town/city.

Wait 7 rings before pickup.

Emit loudest noise allowed by Ma Bell specs, primary frequency 3-4KC
for greatest effect; perhaps sawtooth for most grating.
Mixed with second tone about 14Hz above fundamental (understand 14Hz
is least pleasing frequency difference).

Simple-minded way of town/city determination: extract state
designation (seems 90 percent of these fake callers have state included)
and use look-up table for verification.

Second \"level\" would be: verify all capitalized letters, only one
\"word\" excluding state if any.

Anyone willing to take on such a project?

Thanks,
R. Baer

I have a Digitone Proseries II call blocker which satisfies all of R. Baer\'s requirements and more. You can Google it to see its features. I am very satisfied with its performance;

 

[Charles Elias]

On Thursday, October 22, 2020 at 3:23:06 PM UTC-4, Robert Baer wrote:

Have need for such a beast; must recognize caller ID and determine if
call is from a town/city.

Wait 7 rings before pickup.

Emit loudest noise allowed by Ma Bell specs, primary frequency 3-4KC
for greatest effect; perhaps sawtooth for most grating.
Mixed with second tone about 14Hz above fundamental (understand 14Hz
is least pleasing frequency difference).

Simple-minded way of town/city determination: extract state
designation (seems 90 percent of these fake callers have state included)
and use look-up table for verification.

Second \"level\" would be: verify all capitalized letters, only one
\"word\" excluding state if any.

Anyone willing to take on such a project?

Thanks,
R. Baer

I have a Digitone ProSeries II Call Blocker. It has the capabilities that R. Baer wants and more. Google it and check it out.

 

[Charles Elias]

On Thursday, October 22, 2020 at 3:23:06 PM UTC-4, Robert Baer wrote:

Have need for such a beast; must recognize caller ID and determine if
call is from a town/city.

Wait 7 rings before pickup.

Emit loudest noise allowed by Ma Bell specs, primary frequency 3-4KC
for greatest effect; perhaps sawtooth for most grating.
Mixed with second tone about 14Hz above fundamental (understand 14Hz
is least pleasing frequency difference).

Simple-minded way of town/city determination: extract state
designation (seems 90 percent of these fake callers have state included)
and use look-up table for verification.

Second \"level\" would be: verify all capitalized letters, only one
\"word\" excluding state if any.

Anyone willing to take on such a project?

Thanks,
R. Baer

I have a Digitone Series II Call Blocker. It meets R. Baer\'s requirements and more. Google it for more details

 

[Charles Elias]

On Thursday, October 22, 2020 at 3:23:06 PM UTC-4, Robert Baer wrote:

Have need for such a beast; must recognize caller ID and determine if
call is from a town/city.

Wait 7 rings before pickup.

Emit loudest noise allowed by Ma Bell specs, primary frequency 3-4KC
for greatest effect; perhaps sawtooth for most grating.
Mixed with second tone about 14Hz above fundamental (understand 14Hz
is least pleasing frequency difference).

Simple-minded way of town/city determination: extract state
designation (seems 90 percent of these fake callers have state included)
and use look-up table for verification.

Second \"level\" would be: verify all capitalized letters, only one
\"word\" excluding state if any.

Anyone willing to take on such a project?

Thanks,
R. Baer

I have a Digitone Proseries II Call Blocker that meets all of R. Baer\'s requirements and more

 

[Grant Taylor]

On 10/29/20 4:58 AM, Martin Brown wrote:
> Your cell phone numbers have a geographic location? I didn\'t know that.

Unknown callers (not in my address book) show up as 10 digit phone
numbers; the three digit area code, the three digit exchange, and the
four digit number.

So anything from the area code where the number originated from and is
wildly away from where it\'s in use, is a very good indication that it\'s
an unwanted call, if not outright spam.

Ours tells you only the original network that the phone was on when the
mobile contract first started. You can port your old number with you to
a new mobile network afterwards so it is no longer meaningful.

Ya. Number Portability makes things more entertaining.

The SIM original phone number has an \"exchange\" code determined by
network carrier. A bit like the leading digits on credit cards.

Yep.

But that\'s where it originated, not a guarantee of where\'s it\'s
currently in service.



--
Grant. . . .
unix || die

 

[Ricketty C]

On Thursday, October 29, 2020 at 2:43:57 PM UTC-4, Grant Taylor wrote:

On 10/29/20 4:58 AM, Martin Brown wrote:
Your cell phone numbers have a geographic location? I didn\'t know that.

Unknown callers (not in my address book) show up as 10 digit phone
numbers; the three digit area code, the three digit exchange, and the
four digit number.

So anything from the area code where the number originated from and is
wildly away from where it\'s in use, is a very good indication that it\'s
an unwanted call, if not outright spam.

Ours tells you only the original network that the phone was on when the
mobile contract first started. You can port your old number with you to
a new mobile network afterwards so it is no longer meaningful.

Ya. Number Portability makes things more entertaining.

The SIM original phone number has an \"exchange\" code determined by
network carrier. A bit like the leading digits on credit cards.

Yep.

But that\'s where it originated, not a guarantee of where\'s it\'s
currently in service.

No, that\'s the fallacy. The \"origin\" of a number means nothing when the caller is spoofing the call. It\'s no different from spam emails that appear to be from a friend but are instead spam. The \"from\" address is easily spoofed.

But you can\'t spoof the billing process. Charge each call start a dime and spammers can\'t afford to call unanswered phones or phones with answering machines or even people who hang up. But for the typical user the dime a call is pretty much nothing. When I had a land line I was on a budget plan that was less than $15 a month and $0.115 a call. I didn\'t mind that at all..

There\'s no way around the expense for the spammer because it can be conveyed to their provider (actually it IS conveyed to them and they then have to collect it from the customer). If providers start being part of the problem rather than part of the solution they are pretty easy to handle. They have to have much more of a presence to provide connectivity. Bottom line is, whoever provided the service to the last guy in the chain that is duplicitous gets the bill to pay. Service for spammers will dry up very quickly.

--

Rick C.

-+-- Get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging
-+-- Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209

 

[Grant Taylor]

On 10/29/20 5:19 PM, Ricketty C wrote:

No, that\'s the fallacy. The \"origin\" of a number means nothing when
the caller is spoofing the call. It\'s no different from spam emails
that appear to be from a friend but are instead spam. The \"from\"
address is easily spoofed.

You\'re missing my point.

Yes, I know that it\'s trivial to spoof the caller ID. I\'ve done it.

But given that the vast majority of the people that I want to not talk
to are the only people that will spoof the caller ID /and/ they spoof to
match the area code that the phone number is in, you can use this habit
against them and simply ignore all calls with a caller ID from the area
code.

If I live and work in Georgia and everybody that I deal with is in
Georgia or is in my contacts, then I can safely ignore any and all calls
from an area code out of Alaska, which is where I got my phone number
from. I can do this explicitly as a trap for the spam calls. I have
zero to do with Alaska. Thus I know that any call from an Alaska area
code is extremely likely to be spam and thus ignore it.



--
Grant. . . .
unix || die

 

[Ricketty C]

On Thursday, October 29, 2020 at 10:08:50 PM UTC-4, Grant Taylor wrote:

On 10/29/20 5:19 PM, Ricketty C wrote:
No, that\'s the fallacy. The \"origin\" of a number means nothing when
the caller is spoofing the call. It\'s no different from spam emails
that appear to be from a friend but are instead spam. The \"from\"
address is easily spoofed.

You\'re missing my point.

Yes, I know that it\'s trivial to spoof the caller ID. I\'ve done it.

But given that the vast majority of the people that I want to not talk
to are the only people that will spoof the caller ID /and/ they spoof to
match the area code that the phone number is in, you can use this habit
against them and simply ignore all calls with a caller ID from the area
code.

If I live and work in Georgia and everybody that I deal with is in
Georgia or is in my contacts, then I can safely ignore any and all calls
from an area code out of Alaska, which is where I got my phone number
from. I can do this explicitly as a trap for the spam calls. I have
zero to do with Alaska. Thus I know that any call from an Alaska area
code is extremely likely to be spam and thus ignore it.

Yes, I did miss that I was replying to the guy with a non-local area code. That is different. But it still doesn\'t prevent the spam calls from reaching you. It just means you don\'t have to pick up the phone to know for sure. I don\'t have much trouble with identifying spam calls. 99.9% of the time I can tell a spam call because it is from someone who isn\'t in my contact list and so I see a number instead of a name. I don\'t want to hear the phone ring much less have to find it to see the number.

I shouldn\'t say I don\'t want to hear the phone ring. I don\'t want to hear it unless I\'m in the mood to mess with the spammers. I got a call from about car insurance the other day. They started me at the low salary remote worker without a robo call first. She gave me the whole spiel and tried to transfer me to an actual agent (who I love to talk to nice and slowly). But she got the state wrong and I got disconnected.

But that is the other way to get rid of the spam calls, answer them all and get on a black list... lol! Think Glen Gary Glenn Ross.

--

Rick C.

-+-+ Get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging
-+-+ Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209

 

[Martin Brown]

On 29/10/2020 23:19, Ricketty C wrote:

On Thursday, October 29, 2020 at 2:43:57 PM UTC-4, Grant Taylor
wrote:
On 10/29/20 4:58 AM, Martin Brown wrote:
Your cell phone numbers have a geographic location? I didn\'t know
that.

Unknown callers (not in my address book) show up as 10 digit phone
numbers; the three digit area code, the three digit exchange, and
the four digit number.

So anything from the area code where the number originated from and
is wildly away from where it\'s in use, is a very good indication
that it\'s an unwanted call, if not outright spam.

Ours tells you only the original network that the phone was on
when the mobile contract first started. You can port your old
number with you to a new mobile network afterwards so it is no
longer meaningful.

Ya. Number Portability makes things more entertaining.

The SIM original phone number has an \"exchange\" code determined
by network carrier. A bit like the leading digits on credit
cards.

Yep.

But that\'s where it originated, not a guarantee of where\'s it\'s
currently in service.

No, that\'s the fallacy. The \"origin\" of a number means nothing when
the caller is spoofing the call. It\'s no different from spam emails
that appear to be from a friend but are instead spam. The \"from\"
address is easily spoofed.

Indeed and in the case of the most prolific cold callers almost always
is and is in reality a VOIP call from India or somewhere else with
incredibly cheap call centres. They skimp on bitrate too - some are all
but unintelligible if they happen to get through my filters.

But you can\'t spoof the billing process. Charge each call start a
dime and spammers can\'t afford to call unanswered phones or phones
with answering machines or even people who hang up. But for the
typical user the dime a call is pretty much nothing. When I had a
land line I was on a budget plan that was less than $15 a month and
$0.115 a call. I didn\'t mind that at all.

You are assuming that they are making the call inside the USA. A few
local scammers might be but the vast majority are not.

There\'s no way around the expense for the spammer because it can be
conveyed to their provider (actually it IS conveyed to them and they
then have to collect it from the customer). If providers start being
part of the problem rather than part of the solution they are pretty
easy to handle. They have to have much more of a presence to provide
connectivity. Bottom line is, whoever provided the service to the
last guy in the chain that is duplicitous gets the bill to pay.
Service for spammers will dry up very quickly.

But there is because it comes into the country as an international call
from somewhere else in the world but with a spoofed CLID. I am sure that
major telcos could block known spamhaus callers if they wanted to but I
expect they somehow make money from the traffic that they put through.

Increasingly in the UK cold caller boiler room scammers are spoofing as
if from a UK mobile number which makes people more likely to pick up. UK
Test & Trace are using an 0300 number which almost no-one will pick up!

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

 

[Grant Taylor]

On 10/29/20 10:00 PM, Ricketty C wrote:

Yes, I did miss that I was replying to the guy with a non-local
area code. That is different. But it still doesn\'t prevent the spam
calls from reaching you. It just means you don\'t have to pick up the
phone to know for sure. I don\'t have much trouble with identifying
spam calls. 99.9% of the time I can tell a spam call because it
is from someone who isn\'t in my contact list and so I see a number
instead of a name. I don\'t want to hear the phone ring much less
have to find it to see the number.

I am loving the newer feature that my phone has that caller IDs not in
my address book don\'t ring the phone, don\'t vibrate. All they do is
light the screen while ringing. It\'s trivial to ignore. If the phone
is face down, I don\'t even see that.

I shouldn\'t say I don\'t want to hear the phone ring. I don\'t want
to hear it unless I\'m in the mood to mess with the spammers. I got
a call from about car insurance the other day. They started me at
the low salary remote worker without a robo call first. She gave me
the whole spiel and tried to transfer me to an actual agent (who I
love to talk to nice and slowly). But she got the state wrong and
I got disconnected.

But that is the other way to get rid of the spam calls, answer them
all and get on a black list... lol! Think Glen Gary Glenn Ross.

Ya. Taking their time is probably the most precious thing of theirs
that you can take / consume.



--
Grant. . . .
unix || die

 

[Ricketty C]

On Friday, October 30, 2020 at 4:18:09 AM UTC-4, Martin Brown wrote:

On 29/10/2020 23:19, Ricketty C wrote:
On Thursday, October 29, 2020 at 2:43:57 PM UTC-4, Grant Taylor
wrote:
On 10/29/20 4:58 AM, Martin Brown wrote:
Your cell phone numbers have a geographic location? I didn\'t know
that.

Unknown callers (not in my address book) show up as 10 digit phone
numbers; the three digit area code, the three digit exchange, and
the four digit number.

So anything from the area code where the number originated from and
is wildly away from where it\'s in use, is a very good indication
that it\'s an unwanted call, if not outright spam.

Ours tells you only the original network that the phone was on
when the mobile contract first started. You can port your old
number with you to a new mobile network afterwards so it is no
longer meaningful.

Ya. Number Portability makes things more entertaining.

The SIM original phone number has an \"exchange\" code determined
by network carrier. A bit like the leading digits on credit
cards.

Yep.

But that\'s where it originated, not a guarantee of where\'s it\'s
currently in service.

No, that\'s the fallacy. The \"origin\" of a number means nothing when
the caller is spoofing the call. It\'s no different from spam emails
that appear to be from a friend but are instead spam. The \"from\"
address is easily spoofed.

Indeed and in the case of the most prolific cold callers almost always
is and is in reality a VOIP call from India or somewhere else with
incredibly cheap call centres. They skimp on bitrate too - some are all
but unintelligible if they happen to get through my filters.

But you can\'t spoof the billing process. Charge each call start a
dime and spammers can\'t afford to call unanswered phones or phones
with answering machines or even people who hang up. But for the
typical user the dime a call is pretty much nothing. When I had a
land line I was on a budget plan that was less than $15 a month and
$0.115 a call. I didn\'t mind that at all.

You are assuming that they are making the call inside the USA. A few
local scammers might be but the vast majority are not.

I am assuming nothing. Every phone call from anywhere to anywhere is subject to billing. Every point in the phone system supports it. All that would be required is to enact the fee and spammers will have to pay. If they don\'t pay their providers are stuck with the bill. If they don\'t pay, their providers... and so on. At some point it will become impossible for the spammers and scammers to avoid paying far too much to make it possible to be profitable.

Same with email, but there is no regulatory/billing built into email. In the phone system it\'s already there and only needs to be enacted. Brother can you spare a dime?

There\'s no way around the expense for the spammer because it can be
conveyed to their provider (actually it IS conveyed to them and they
then have to collect it from the customer). If providers start being
part of the problem rather than part of the solution they are pretty
easy to handle. They have to have much more of a presence to provide
connectivity. Bottom line is, whoever provided the service to the
last guy in the chain that is duplicitous gets the bill to pay.
Service for spammers will dry up very quickly.

But there is because it comes into the country as an international call
from somewhere else in the world but with a spoofed CLID. I am sure that
major telcos could block known spamhaus callers if they wanted to but I
expect they somehow make money from the traffic that they put through.

It\'s not about the \"spamhaus\" or the CLID. It\'s about billing. Do you think the US telcos get nothing for routing an international call? Of course they do. Even if they aren\'t presently, they can easily add the dime fee.

Increasingly in the UK cold caller boiler room scammers are spoofing as
if from a UK mobile number which makes people more likely to pick up. UK
Test & Trace are using an 0300 number which almost no-one will pick up!

Have no idea what test and trace is other than covid. Is that what you mean?

--

Rick C.

-++- Get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging
-++- Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209

 

[Martin Brown]

On 31/10/2020 03:49, Ricketty C wrote:

Increasingly in the UK cold caller boiler room scammers are spoofing as
if from a UK mobile number which makes people more likely to pick up. UK
Test & Trace are using an 0300 number which almost no-one will pick up!

Have no idea what test and trace is other than covid. Is that what you mean?

Yes.

They are using an exchange code prefix that everyone associates with
nuisance calls for Test & Trace!
Smart or what?

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

 

[Tom Gardner]

On 31/10/20 10:59, Martin Brown wrote:

On 31/10/2020 03:49, Ricketty C wrote:

Increasingly in the UK cold caller boiler room scammers are spoofing as
if from a UK mobile number which makes people more likely to pick up. UK
Test & Trace are using an 0300 number which almost no-one will pick up!

Have no idea what test and trace is other than covid.  Is that what you mean?

Yes.

They are using an exchange code prefix that everyone associates with nuisance
calls for Test & Trace!
Smart or what?

It is the private sector at work, displaying its usual (in)competence.

It is so bad that local councils are giving up on the government\'s
throwing billions at private companies, and are reverting to the
public sector doing it far more competently and cheaply.

Bloody libertarian political dogma will kill (worse maim) millions.

 

[Ricketty C]

On Saturday, October 31, 2020 at 6:59:53 AM UTC-4, Martin Brown wrote:

On 31/10/2020 03:49, Ricketty C wrote:

Increasingly in the UK cold caller boiler room scammers are spoofing as
if from a UK mobile number which makes people more likely to pick up. UK
Test & Trace are using an 0300 number which almost no-one will pick up!

Have no idea what test and trace is other than covid. Is that what you mean?

Yes.

They are using an exchange code prefix that everyone associates with
nuisance calls for Test & Trace!
Smart or what?

I will ask again... what is test and trace? Do you mean testing and tracing for the pandemic???

Here in the US we have area codes and exchanges. Pretty much no one knows much about the exchanges since they are very local and most places have many. Area codes cover a wide area, used to be similar to states until they started to run out of exchanges. Now area codes overlap, but are still tied to geography. I guess the UK does it differently. 4 digit exchanges that do not indicate location at all?

--

Rick C.

-+++ Get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging
-+++ Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209

 

[Martin Brown]

On 31/10/2020 21:08, Ricketty C wrote:

On Saturday, October 31, 2020 at 6:59:53 AM UTC-4, Martin Brown
wrote:
On 31/10/2020 03:49, Ricketty C wrote:

Increasingly in the UK cold caller boiler room scammers are
spoofing as if from a UK mobile number which makes people more
likely to pick up. UK Test & Trace are using an 0300 number
which almost no-one will pick up!

Have no idea what test and trace is other than covid. Is that
what you mean?

Yes.

They are using an exchange code prefix that everyone associates
with nuisance calls for Test & Trace! Smart or what?

I will ask again... what is test and trace? Do you mean testing and
tracing for the pandemic???

Yes - and they are phoning from numbers in a region code block that
is almost invariably associated with unsolicited sales calls. Then they
wonder why so many people fail to pick up the phone when called!

UK Test & trace is presently managing 15% results within 24 hours and
60% of contacts reached within the window where it does any good. They
need to be 50+% and 80+% before it will make a worthwhile contribution.

Here in the US we have area codes and exchanges. Pretty much no one
knows much about the exchanges since they are very local and most
places have many. Area codes cover a wide area, used to be similar
to states until they started to run out of exchanges. Now area codes
overlap, but are still tied to geography. I guess the UK does it
differently. 4 digit exchanges that do not indicate location at
all?

It is similar in the UK there were originally 2,3 or 4 digit region
codes beginning with \"0\" then a 3 digit exchange code and finally a 4
figure number. Eventually they ran out of numbers in London and some
other major cities so all existing geographic numbers morphed to \"01\"
whatever. Locally you can just dial the 6 or 7 digit code.

My rural exchange is a 6 digit local call type. Most cities are 7 digit.

These days you can port your landline number but I am unsure how far.

UK mobile phone numbers almost all begin \"07\".

--
Regards,
Martin Brown