Phone Scam when calling Australia from Optimum Voice International Calling Plan?

Question

I have difficulty calling my brother and sister in Australia from New York using my international calling plan from Optimum Online. It usually takes me 20 tries to get through to them if I do at all, most of the time it just goes dead. When I call from my cell phone or Skype I get through first time. Sometimes it will ring and a guy will answer saying "hello", I will then ask to speak to either my brother or sister and he'll say "ok, hang on" then he walks away from the phone and shouts into the background "you're wanted on the phone" I can hear tv in the background and the news is on, the newscaster is always saying the same thing about the Nasdaq. I wait for someone to come back to the phone but nobody does. It is very weird. My brother or sister will tell me that their phone never rang and it was with them at all times. I think this is some kind of phone scam to use up minutes. It has happened to me several times. Now when I hear it I just hang up. Has anyone experienced this before? Optimum Online say they are looking into the issue for me but I doubt I'll hear anything back from them.

Answer 1

You can use a calling card to call to Australia, for only 0.90 ¢/min. Here you can buy this calling card http://new-calling-cards.com/cards.php?i...

Answer 2

Yes, that is wierd...

It is possible that your calls are being routed through a faulty switch and going to the wrong number.  It's also possible the person receiving all those misdirected calls is tired of getting wrong number calls and put a recording on to deal with it.

Hopefully your provider, Optimum, will follow up on the routing problems...

In the mean time, it sounds like using Skype is a good solution.

Another alternative is to use a VoIP service, like CallCentric, that also provides Calling Card access to their network.  Just call a local gateway access phone number, from a regular phone or cell, and get connected at VoIP rates.

You can learn how here:  http://www.cqvoip.com