From: spencer@phoenix.princeton.edu (S. Spencer Sun)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Hang-up Pirates
Date: 12 Apr 92 07:52:18 GMT
Article-I.D.: eecs.telecom12.313.2
Organization: Princeton Univ. Class of '94
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 313, Message 2 of 10

> [Moderator's Note: Well, when I call a wrong number, I apologize, I
> don't just disconnect rudely. They might try the same.   PAT]

This is a very valid point; however, you might consider the
possibility that the calling party has realized his/her error in
advance of your picking up the phone.  Now, there is a certain
recognized delay between when you take the phone away from your ear
until you actually put the phone down on the hook (I believe for
billing purposes they allow you two seconds to do this?) ... has it
occurred to you that maybe the other person just happened to hang up
while you were in the act of picking up the phone?

This also explains those phone-rings-once-but-no-one's-there
phenomena.

I seriously doubt that *most* people intentionally wait until someone
answers before disconnecting.

OK, granted this cannot be made to apply to all circumstances ... if
the person clearly waits until you say "Hello" and then hangs up,
that's a completely different situation.

But hell, people are human.  If you have no reason to believe that the
intent was malicious (and assuming you don't have a rabid case of
paranoia and/or bloated sense of self-importance) then give the poor
guy/gal the benefit of the doubt.  

> [Moderator's Note: See earlier message this issue. Most who lie about
> it are very unconvincing. I hear hesitation and surprise in their
> voice. They have to think about their answer, which should be only a
> simple 'yes' or 'no' to the question, 'did you just ring a telephone?'
> I suggest to them in the future they take a second to apologize.  PAT]

I don't for a moment condone their lying (I don't see what's so hard
about apologizing either ...).  But I question the necessity of
pestering the person with *69 in the first place.  Unless you have
some personal ends to satisfy by doing so, I really think it's not
needed.  With all due respect, this appears to me to be an ego-related
sort of thing ...

If it was anything worth saying, the person's going to call back.  If
not, you can assume it was a wrong number.

Is it really going to bother you so much if someone rings the phone,
hangs up just as you pick it up, and then doesn't call back?  No doubt
you are seized with an uncontrollable obsession to find out who could
possibly have dared to dial a wrong number.

So, the recap is, sure, if you actually do *69 and they try to BS
about it, then they're being pretty silly about it, but in the end I
think using *69 and saying "Did you just call me and why did you hang
up" is pretty gratuitous to begin with.

Anyway, I've pretty much said my piece, will kick back and see what
responses this brings but probably will not say much more about this.

> [Moderator's Note: Because the nine who lie about it are not very
> convincing, and if I browbeat them they then always admit it.   PAT]

(OK, so I lied about not saying more.)

See?  This is my point.  Why do you have to browbeat them?  I don't
see what sort of gratification this could bring about, nor do I see
any purpose this might server.  Great.  You have outwitted and
shredded the defense of a telephone mis-dialer.  Congratulations.

Dunno, I can't imagine myself deriving any satisfaction from such a
situation.  Personal thing, I guess.


Spencer Sun - Princeton Univ. Class of '94 - Dept. of Computer Science