You pick up and hear nothing — no voice, no background noise, just silence, then a hang-up. Or you miss a call and your history shows a duration of zero seconds. These silent calls are confusing and can cause anxiety. Let us understand their origins together and how best to respond.
Technical causes of silent calls
The majority of silent calls have a perfectly mundane technical cause. Teleprospecting centres use predictive dialling systems that simultaneously dial multiple numbers to maximise adviser occupancy. When your number is answered but no adviser is available at that moment, the call stays silent for a few seconds before being automatically hung up. This phenomenon, regulated by ARCEP, must not exceed a certain rate of abandoned calls, but violations do occur.
Silent calls linked to scams
Some silent calls are deliberately used in scam attempts. The ping call (or wangiri) works exactly on this principle: an automated system dials your number, lets it ring once or twice and hangs up immediately. The goal is to get you to call back, thinking you missed an important call. If you do call back, you are connected to a premium-rate number where each minute can cost you between €1 and €8. The numbers used are often exotic foreign prefixes (+222, +676, +357, +44…) or French 0899 numbers.
How to distinguish a harmless silent call from a ping call
- Number prefix: a French 0800, 01 or 06 is generally less suspicious than a +222 (Mauritania) or 0899. Always check on TelCheck.
- Ring duration: a ping call only rings once or twice. A commercial call centre will let it ring longer.
- Call time: fraudulent offshore call centres may call at unusual hours (night or very early morning).
- Repetition: if the same silent number calls several times, it is very likely an automated system.
What to do when you receive a silent call
Never call back an unknown number that left you a silent call without first checking it on TelCheck. If TelCheck confirms suspicious activity or the number is foreign, block it and do not call back. If TelCheck does not know the number and it is a standard French prefix, wait for a potential callback or voicemail rather than calling back yourself.
Report and block abusive silent calls
Report abusive silent calls on TelCheck to alert the community, and on Signal Conso (signalconso.gouv.fr) to inform the DGCCRF. Call centres that exceed the abandoned call rate authorised by ARCEP are liable to sanctions. Your report directly contributes to enforcing this regulation.
Protect yourself durably from silent calls
Register for free on Bloctel (bloctel.gouv.fr) to reduce commercial canvassing calls. Activate your carrier's anti-spam filters. On smartphones, the "Silence Unknown Callers" option (iPhone) or the built-in spam filter (Android) significantly reduce unwanted silent calls.