Phantom 911 Call

[adhrty]

Wanted to see if the collective talents of S4GRU might be able to shed some light on an interesting situation I just encountered. Around 15 minutes ago I received a call claiming to be from the Leavenworth, KS 911 dispatch, saying they were responding to a 911 disconnect from my number. I live in south suburban KC, roughly forty miles away. My phone log does not show a call to 911, nor does Google Voice or Sprint billing. What say you? A misdial on their part? Some kind of phantom call? A network issue? Anyone else ever ran into this?

[digiblur]

Scam... why did they let you disconnect? Last time I called 911 it was impossible for me to hang up my phone.

[adhrty]

I was not calling 911, they were calling me. The number does match with the Leavenworth PD, although I supposed it could have been spoofed.

[digiblur]

I was not calling 911, they were calling me. The number does match with the Leavenworth PD, although I supposed it could have been spoofed.

 

I know you weren't. But that say you were so my question is since you supposedly called why did they let you disconnect on this phone call?

 

Sent from my little Note2

 

 

[mirlyn]

Probably related to Google Voice. I've had several calls to my GV number attempting to social engineer me. All had CID appearing to be from another GV number.

 

FWIW, the GS3 will let you hang up on 911, but your phone will default into emergency mode for 5-15 mins which locks out data and other calls (to allow dispatch a clear callback line).

[adhrty]

Probably related to Google Voice. I've had several calls to my GV number attempting to social engineer me. All had CID appearing to be from another GV number.

 

FWIW, the GS3 will let you hang up on 911, but your phone will default into emergency mode for 5-15 mins which locks out data and other calls (to allow dispatch a clear callback line).

 

That's the thing though, the number is perfectly valid (it is listed on their website) so it would've have to been spoofed. Second, it was the lamest social engineering I've ever seen. I guess they established that the phone number is live, but other than that they were perfectly content to end the conversation when it was clear I had no idea why they were calling. As for why they "let" me disconnect, I would guess they have to make some judgement call on calling back 911 disconnects and I think it was clear that I was not someone in imminent danger.

 

Edit: With the vast amount of telco knowledge we have around here, someone must have some experience with 911 systems. There is no way they have to manually enter a number to call it back right?

[centermedic]

Edit: With the vast amount of telco knowledge we have around here, someone must have some experience with 911 systems. There is no way they have to manually enter a number to call it back right?

Yes they do. They have to be able to dial manually as a back up to the computer system assuming that they are using a computer system capable of dialing a number.

[centermedic]

Almost forgot. The 911 center needs to be able to call a host of other agencies. ie: salvation army, power company, gas company, airports etc etc.

[Luuminator]

Many phones will let you disconnect from 911, most cell phones will go into emergency mode for around 5 minutes after the call and will block all calls except the 911 center unless you cancel it. If you listen to a scanner you will hear a few run for a 911 hangup. Ive hung up on one city before here in michigan, by mistake, and they did nothing, but if you do that to a county or suburb 911 center most of the time they will call back after they have triangulated your cell position( if using a landline all the info pops right up) and have dispatched two units or a doubled up unit.