What happens if you call a Spam Number intentionally? Is It Dangerous?
I sometimes like to check spam just to see how the messages look like, and I found someone who actually put an American phone number (1-XXX-XXX-XXXX). Most of these spammers are either trying to get money out of you or hack you in ways like disguising as services like Google+.
Not that I actually want to, but I am curious as to what happens if you call a spam number? Does it do something to my phone? How could a hacker possibly access sensitive information just by tricking someone into calling? I have heard (no idea where), that some numbers when called, will charge you an enormous bill. Could this be true?
It could be a hack, or it could be a prelude to a hack. Here are some rough examples of situations if you call a spam number:
- If you call them, the spammer can find out if that phone number is owned by an actual person. The spammer can also easily fake the same area code as you, and set up a clever social engineering trick that may involve you thinking with the wrong head.
- If you're dumb enough to call them, you may be gullible enough to fork over additional information. If you're dumb enough, they may call you from other numbers, or forward you to another number.
- There may also be an exploit in your phone's processing of various messages/content types. While they could easily target all phones at once by using some form of auto-messaging feature, this may be easily stopped by carriers.
Learning more about you allow an attacker to guess secret answers, passwords, etc. If you're the gullible type, chances are you don't have a good password policy, or you could be tricked into visiting a malicious website, or both. Calling a Spam number can even cost you a lot of money. If you text a number associated with a "donation", whether it's legitimate or a scam, your phone bill will likely include additional charges.