OT. new Phone Phreaking book out

I know very little of the phone system, though I do have a system working here that passes caller-ID to all my phones, but doesn't ring if it's a call from 8xx (and other select numbers ;-)

The only snag to this system is that some sales mongers leave messages on my voice mail.

Is there a tone I could play that would drop them? ...Jim Thompson

Yep. That's certainly worth a try...

The "We're sorry" tone.

boB

Well, it is 'Ma Bell', after all. ;-)

Take the line off-hook for a second, then go back to on-hook (open circuit). That will effectively answer the call, then hang up on them.

The only tone that might work is a simulated dial tone.

Jon

Yes, that works too.

Usually, the "I'm Sorry" tone will not "supervise" (go off hook) when it is received by the caller, but you could, I suppose, answer (automatically), play that tone, and then hang up on them.

I don't think the caller (spammer) knows about the supervision these days so some machines might just respond (do something with) to that tone too, maybe adding your number to a non working number list and stop calling.

boB