The Scam of the Century: Uncovering the Mysterious "Call Clearing Delay Time"

In recent years, a mysterious phenomenon has been plaguing phone users across the globe, leaving them wondering what's behind this eerie silence. The term "call clearing delay time" or "CSH timeout" has become synonymous with frustration and confusion. But where did this concept originate, and how can you protect yourself from its effects?

It all started in the United Kingdom, where a document was discovered that referenced a timer called TO-01, also known as subscriber health. This term is specifically used in the UK, but it's not clear if it's used elsewhere. The document explains that this timer refers to a delay period after which a phone call will be cleared or disconnected. But what's the standard duration for this delay?

According to the NICC (National Interoperability Coordination Committee), the possible range for this timer is between two seconds and three minutes. However, it's essential to note that this is only applicable in the UK, and other countries might have different standards. In fact, one Canadian telecom company, Shaw, referred to this delay as "call clearing delay time" – a term that's also used by British Telecommunications.

The reason behind these delays is largely unknown, but it's believed to be related to preventing unwanted or unauthorized access to phone lines. Phone companies can adjust the duration of this delay to suit their needs, and some have even reported using shorter or longer intervals depending on the situation. However, it's crucial to note that this technology might not be used universally, as different countries and providers may have varying standards.

In the United States, the situation is equally confusing. Two major carriers, AT&T and Verizon, were contacted via support chat to inquire about the call clearing delay time for landlines. While both companies seemed knowledgeable about the topic, their responses left room for further clarification. According to Verizon, the line will get disconnected within 1-2 seconds after the receiving party hangs up, while AT&T stated that the call will be terminated right away.

This lack of transparency and clarity has led many to wonder if there's a universal standard for this delay or if it's purely a matter of national preference. One thing is certain, though: being aware of these delays can help you prepare for potential scams and protect your phone line from unwanted access.

If you still have a landline, you might want to take extra precautions to secure your line. This includes regularly checking your usage patterns and monitoring your account activity. By staying vigilant and informed, you can minimize the risk of falling victim to these mysterious delays.

For those who enjoy watching educational videos like this one, be sure to subscribe and hit that thumbs-up button! New content is uploaded every week, covering various topics related to phone scams, cybersecurity, and more. Don't miss out on the latest episodes, including a recent video about new scams in 2021 – it's definitely worth checking out.

Stay safe online, and we'll catch you in the next video!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthere is a very clever new scam going around that you definitely need to know about or should i say  it's an old scam that's becoming newly popular again i've seen it being called the delayed  disconnect scam but basically it takes advantage of a lesser-known feature in some phone systems  to trick you and the worst part about it is they can trick you doing this even if you do everything  completely right so it won't even be your fault so you really need to know about it in order to  defeat it so first here's how the scam goes and then i'll go over how it actually works  so you get a phone call from someone claiming to be from your bank they tell you your card  has been compromised your card has been hacked whatever the usual and they tell you you know what  you need to contact the number on the back your card which is exactly what you're supposed to do  so then you do that you hang up you call the number on the back your card correctly by the  way you call the correct number so after dialing someone picks up and they say hi this is whatever  bank but at this point you have already been tricked you are still talking to the scammer  wait a minute how did that just happen so here's how the scam works the first key to understand is  that this is only going to potentially happen on landlines you see a lot of landline phone systems  do not actually disconnect the call right away after you hang up the phone depending how the  phone company has your specific system set up if you as the receiving party hang up the call  however the other caller does not hang up on the other end then it will stay connected for anywhere  from a couple seconds to several minutes until the original caller disconnects or that timer is  reached so in the meantime if they didn't hang up if you pick up the phone again you'll still  be talking to that same person so what the scammer does is after they hear you hang up they'll start  playing a fake dial tone so then when they hear you pick up again to call the number on the back  of the card like you're supposed to then they'll just stop the dial tone and then pretend to pick  up as the bank and obviously what's especially bad about this is you can do everything right  and still be tricked if you just didn't know so let me go over a few ways you can easily  defeat the scam and then afterwards we can talk a little bit more about this so-called feature  and why it exists now the first way to avoid this scam first of all if you receive the call on your  cell phone then hanging up right away immediately disconnects the call you don't have to worry about  it if you receive the call on a landline what you can do is call using a totally different landline  if you happen to have 2 or more likely use a cell phone to call the number on the back of the card  not the landline you just received the call on if you don't have a cell phone you only have that  landline and you don't know how long the timer is for your particular phone company in your area  then you have no choice really but to wait 10 or 15 minutes even to be sure that that call was  disconnected one thing you could do is call your phone company to ask what this delay disconnect  time is though you might have to go through a few people before they know what you're talking about  or alternatively you could have a friend call you i don't know if this has to be done by the friend  having a landline or cell phone but you can have them call you then you hang up and they stay on  the line and basically time for you how long it takes until they start to hear a dial tone which  means that that's the amount of time that anyone is going to have to wait for the disconnect and  then you know also one thing you could do to test it after not waiting the full amount of time is to  dial a number that you know already like maybe your friend's phone number and then obviously  if the scammer picks up again or someone picks up saying hi this is your bank while you just called  your friend's phone number then you know it's the scammer and then you know that it was a scam  now you might be wondering why does this feature even exist it sounds like a nightmare in security  well i found a couple reasons the first being the idea is you could hang up the phone and then pick  it up in another room to continue a conversation without the other person having to call you again  and this was probably before cordless phones were a thing another reason that does make  sense actually is so that if there was a weak connection between the two lines and it was  cutting out it wouldn't hang up every time there was a weak signal that occurred but still that  would kind of not explain why it would go on for several minutes maybe like a few seconds tops in  there but there are other big questions like why does the call remain connected with a delay only  if the receiving party hangs up and why does it disconnect immediately when the original party  hangs up why not the other way around and why are there different delayed times so let me get  into explaining all that now it actually took me quite a bit of digging to find out more details  about this so-called feature or quirk of a phone system whatever you want to call it  beyond what just some of the basic news articles were talking about when they were referring to the  scam and all the articles that i was reading about it referred to this feature as delayed disconnect  but it turns out that that's not actually the name of this feature one extremely informational  bit of info i found was from a scanned pdf of this obscure book that i found on google books  and it was called the informatics handbook in one section it describes the term call clearing which  basically is how the phone system disconnects the lines depending on conditions it says call  clearing aka clear down or tear down the orderly disengagement of a call in a switch network later  on here's the key though it says note that three different control approaches are used in telephone  systems first the calling party clear approach where the call is only cleared when the calling  A-party puts down the handset then there's the called party clear approach where the call is  cleared when the B-Party puts down the handset and third the first party clear where the call  is cleared when either puts the phone down it then elaborates the A-Party clear approach means that  the receiver can put down the handset and move to another phone extension without losing the call  however it leaves B-Party vulnerable to having a phone unable to receive calls if the A-party  does not hang up correctly there are also implications in hacker scams involving entry  into systems requiring callback procedures so even in 1996 when this book was written 25 years ago  they already realized that this feature could be potentially used to scam people so if you have  a landline this is definitely something you want to know which of the approaches your phone system  from your phone company uses obviously it sounds like first party clear makes the most sense if  either party hangs up then the phone call should end even called party clear would be better i mean  if you think about it if you're the person who's receiving the calls you don't really have control  over who's calling you and how many times they call you so you should definitely have control  over whether or not you want to end those calls so then why do phone companies even have this  calling party clear approach well apparently the logic is that the original caller is the one who's  paying the bill and they're paying for the call so they should theoretically be able to control when  the call ends but that still seems completely backwards to me if someone receiving the call  doesn't want to talk then they should be able to end it and i think most people will probably  agree with me i also did some more digging and found that the term used for the condition  on the phone system where the called party hangs up the line remains connected is something named  called subscriber held or CSH and it turns out this phone system behavior or feature is pretty  ancient i even found it in this document about phone systems from 1944 so it has been around for  a long time so assuming a landline has calling party clearing how long is the actual delay and  like i mentioned before that's going to depend on your phone company and potentially even the  system that your local area phone system uses and i already talked about the options where you can  call your phone company hope that the person knows what you're talking about or maybe have a friend  test it with you and time it themselves but again i'm not 100% sure if this behavior still happens  if the original caller is calling from a cell phone or if it has to be both people on landline  now i wanted to know what the actual name of this delay or timer was so that if you called your  phone company you could specifically ask about it but i couldn't really seem to find any universal  name for it now in the United Kingdom at least i was able to find a document from the NICC which  talks about UK interoperability standards and they refer to it as the CSH timeout called subscriber  health we mentioned that before and it actually does have a specification called timer TO-01  and it looks like the NICC set a possible range that phone companies could choose for this timer  and it could be anywhere from two seconds to three minutes and again this is only in the UK in the  united states i've seen cases where it could be longer so it's not going to apply everywhere also  in this document i found another timer called TO-03 which is apparently a backup timer in case  the signal for the 01 timer failed to get sent or something and again everything in here seems  to only apply to the UK so this TO-01 timer might not be used anywhere else except in the UK however  there was one statement by a Canadian telecom company called Shaw where in their statement they  referred to it as the call clearing delay time and this is actually the same term used by British  Telecommunications in their press release when they reduced that time so it seems like this could  be a pretty good term to use hopefully that now this scam is getting a lot more press attention  companies will kind of follow suit from the UK and reduce this greatly if they still have it  implemented there was actually one pretty major news story done in Canada and the news agency CTV  contacted several different companies in Canada to ask what their delay time was and they got  some responses so Shaw company did say that they will shorten the timer to combat the fraud though  they didn't give a specific number two other companies they contacted Telus and Rogers said  that there is disconnect after 10 seconds and one company Bell didn't say it all now i was actually  curious what the deal was in the united states so i tried contacting AT&T and Verizon via support  chat those are two really big companies in the us and actually got responses so here was my question  it was high i'm trying to find out the call clearing delay time for landlines meaning how long  a phone call stays connected after the receiving party hangs up Verizon said thank you for reaching  out to us this varies from call to call actually many things go into how long a line remains  engaged after the call is completed and terminated by the handset cellular lines will disconnect and  terminate faster than a traditional copper line would but generally the line is terminated within  1-2 seconds AT&T's response was this the call will get disconnected right away after the receiving  party hangs up so assuming the representative knew exactly what i was talking about  it sounds like these companies use either first party clearing or a very very short disconnect  time but it maybe would still be worth it to test out yourself just to be sure in any case  though now that you at least know about this scam you can be prepared for it if it ever happens to  you so let me know what you guys think down in the comments if you still have a landline did you know  that this was a thing that could happen with your phone line also if you enjoyed the video  be sure to give it a thumbs up and also subscribe because i try to make a couple videos a week so  it should be worth it if you guys want to keep watching the next video i recommend is where i  was talking about new scams in 2021 so definitely check that out it should be worth a watch you can  just click on it right there so thanks so much for watching guys and i'll see in the next video\n"