[bonobo_34]

I get a lot of robocalls from spoofed numbers that have my area code and even the first 3 digits of my phone number in common. I guess the thought is that people are more likely to pick up if the number looks familiar? For me, it's just an indication of a robo call that I won't pick up.

[gph]

>I guess the though is that people are more likely to pick up if the number looks familiar? For me, it's just an indication of a robo call that I won't pick up.

That's probably good for the robo-callers. Just like with horrible spelling/grammar errors in spam emails, they don't mind if the smart folks can figure out their pattern. They are after the suckers born every minute.

[jngreenlee]

I think they get an exit virtual POP in that AC to avoid extra charges, start at XXX-0001, XXX-0002, etc. It lowers cost and looks more relevant.

[JdeBP]

* It's not really a POP.

* The fact that many geographic numbers are in fact non-geographic means that the idea of being "in" an area has long since gone out of the window.

* It's not done to avoid extra charges. Call cost is determined by routing and tarrif, not caller ID. It's done pretty much for the reason that bonobo_34 supposed.

[reaperducer]

It's called "neighborhood" spamming. You're supposed to think it's a neighbor calling.

[Scoundreller]

Or worse, someone from your own organization (because you own the number block) and you’re on-call for a critical system...

[JdeBP]

No. In telecommunications jargon it is called "local presence".