How to make these phone calls stop!
Asked by
rory (
1407
)
August 1st, 2013
So for the past couple of weeks I have been getting random phone calls from numbers I don’t recognize. They’re generally at exactly 9:00 AM. And as I have an afternoon job I’m usually asleep and they wake me up. I’m usually not able to get to my phone in time to answer, because my sleeping brain is like NO DO NOT GET UP GO AWAY PHONE NONONO! But occasionally, I’ve picked up, and there’s just silence on the other end, and then it disconnects. When I call any of these numbers back, I get an automated message that the number I called is not in service.
I have Verizon, if that helps. And most of the numbers are coming from 917 numbers, which is the New York City area code (which is, incidentally, my area code).
What do I do? I can’t put my phone on silence at night, because I need to keep it on in case it’s an emergency and someone does need to reach me. And it’s a different phone number every time, so I can’t block the calls.
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10 Answers
Call your provider and ask them to block those numbers.
@ragingloli the thing is the calls never come from the same number, and there are sometimes two or three a day.
@rory
Block them all until they run out of numbers.
Verizon FIOS, wireless, or both?
might be time to change your number?
I had a major run of those about three months ago and now they’ve let up. I don’t know why or how but I’m glad it did!
They are part of a scam. There is a computer that is randomly calling numbers. When someone answers, they save the number as ‘active’. Then they create the scam. Sometimes they come through with offers of a cruise, lower credit card interest rates, or a number of other prerecorded offers. When you actually go through with a call, you can tell them to remove you from their database and the “operators” will immediately hang up on you. If you should happen to play along, you WILL be asked for a credit card number.
They will make a charge against your card from a fake terminal. The phone numbers they call from are totally fictional. Computers can “spoof” a telephone number, heck, you can do that from your smartphone as well. This is why, when you call back, the numbers don’t exist. Sometimes I play along and give them my credit card number which is 1234 5678 9101 1213. That’s usually the time that they curse at me, call me names, etc.
They will pretend to be your bank. They will tell you to verify your Visa card that starts with the number 4. All Visas start with a 4, Mastercard starts with 5, Discover with a 6. If you don’t know that, you could believe that they know your card number and are just looking for verification before they give you a 0.0000001% APR. For more info, Google “Rachel from Card Services. It’s a federal crime and nobody is doing anything about it.
OK, this is good information to know. Thanks @letricguy
I have a friend who got so frustrated with callers, he finally put this on his answering machine:
“This is Bob. I screen ALL of my calls. If you are a telemarketer, hang up now. If you are a friend of mine and to want to leave a message, do so. I’ll call you back if I want to.
thanks @letricguy. I’m just gonna ignore them, never pick up, and hope they go away. If not, I might have to look into changing my number, which sucks, because I’ve had it for seven years.
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