Mystery phone calls

[Maxim]

To cut a long story short. I have received a couple of calls at around 2am in the morning and 730 tonight were the person at the other end hangs up when our end gets answered.

Does anybody know what can be done about this problem? (other than changing my number.)

[BOOSTDEF]

My grandparents get this. They have contacted telstra numerous times but havent had anything come of it.

Next time it happens, note the time of the call and its duration. Then report it to telstra or your phone carrier.

[rag top]

mobile or land line?
was there a caller id?

[Maxim]

To my land line and no id.

I have been noting the time.

[gtfpv]

my parents have had this too . sydney . at around 2 am.

[aidansea]

i get pranked by this bunch of little hoe bags you can stop this by kicking their little hinny hoes thats what i did brot

[kenz]

Originally Posted by aidansea

i get pranked by this bunch of little hoe bags you can stop this by kicking their little hinny hoes thats what i did brot

: hmmm

[MO]

Have a loud whistle handy and when you answer the phone and realise its a crap call blow the whistle..hurts their ears big time.

[toastyanana]

If it is often not a one off speak to you carrier ie telstra or the like they can trace it if they say they can do nothing ask to speak to a manager and take it there
They will send a letter informing the offender to stop it or it will be reffered to the police
My missus had this problem and it was a telemarketing company needless to say once they got the letter it stopped
just dont take no for a answer

[Pouki]

yeh we used to have this problem and my grand parents still do at about 3am every morning easy fix was just take the phone off the hook before u go to sleep no many people call at 3am if so just call their mobile. its annoying but

[Thornie]

your phone carrier is ment to do somthing about it, there is a law of some sort regarding nueisence calls. i used to get them but that was when i had a dodgy phone line that was crossed with others in the neighbourhood, no idea how it worked was just what the telstra guy told me the 3rd time they came to fix it

[70caprigt3k]

I had the same problem for a few weeks except i got death threats too, i ended up smashing the phone against a wall. problem solved.

[1970galaxie]

This might solve all your problems guys.
Take your time to read it.....and it does work!
Item 2, relates to your question.

My kind of revenge - love it


How to deal with the Telemarketer


Three Little Words That Work!!



(1) The three little words are: "Hold On, Please..."

After saying this, put down your phone and walk off instead of

hanging-up immediately. This would make each telemarketing call so much

more time-consuming that sales would grind to a halt.



Then when you eventually hear the "beep-beep-beep" tone, you

know it's time to go back and hang up your handset, which has efficiently completed its task.



These three little words will help eliminate telephone soliciting.



2) Do you ever get those annoying phone calls with no one on the other end?

This is another telemarketing ploy where a machine makes phone calls

and records the time of day when a person answers the phone.



This technique is used to determine the best time of day for a "real"

sales person to call back and get someone at home.



What you can do after answering, if you notice there is no one there,

is to immediately start hitting your # button on the phone, 6 or 7

times as quickly as possible. This confuses the machine that dialled

the call and it kicks your number out of their system.



Gosh, what a shame not to have your name in their system any longer!!!



3) Junk Mail Help:

When you get "ads" enclosed with your phone or utility bill, return

these "ads" with your payment. Let the sending companies throw their own

junk mail away.



When you get those "pre-approved" letters in the mail for everything

from credit cards to 2nd mortgages and similar type junk, do not throw

away the return envelope.



Most of these come with postage-prepaid return envelopes, right?

It costs them more than the regular 50 cents postage IF and when they

receive them back.



It costs them nothing if you throw them away! In that case, why not get

rid of some of your other junk mail and put it in these cool little,

postage-prepaid return envelopes?!



Send an ad for your local carpet cleaner to American Express.

Send a pizza coupon to Westpac.



If you didn't get anything else that day, then just send them their

blank application back!



If you want to remain anonymous, just make sure your name isn't on

anything you send them.



You can even send the envelope back empty if you want to just to keep

them guessing! It still costs them $1.00



The banks and credit card companies are currently getting a lot of

their own junk back in the mail, but folks, we need to OVERWHELM them.



Let's let them know what it's like to get lots of junk mail, and best of

all they're paying for it... Twice!



Let's help keep Australia Post busy since they are saying that e-mail

is cutting into their business profits, and that's why they need to

increase postage costs again. You get the idea!



If enough people follow these tips, it will work ---- maybe you'll get

very little junk mail anymore.



.

[Funtime25]

call telstra they can put a trace on your line if it is a pestering occurrance.
They will tell u to answer call.................then DO NOT hang up..........for a few minutes.they can trace the call and send a very nice letter warning of federal laws that can land them in big trouble. U will find the calls will stop

[5L]

lol when i was around 15 we used to do heaps of prank calls, we would phone them up and say we were phoning up about the vl calais in the trader.

in the end i ended up getting a phonecall from optus, asking if they could speak to my mum (phone was in her name). i said no the phone was mine and they had to speak to me. it turns out someone had diobbed me in and they had a prank call recorded to that persons number (probably full of it but at the time i freaked) they gave me a warning and told me to stop or they will disconnect my phone.

[XR8GRL]

For a week I had a private number calling my mobile non stop, but cut out after two rings before I could answer. I finally got them after they gave me a lovely little wake up call, ended up being a paki trying to sell me something. After he finally stopped talking, I asked him to not bother me again, never has. out:

[Yaw]

I have the same problem but on my mobile. I know who it is, and i know its unintentional. Might be something similar happening to you. My real name is Adrian, so quite often I am the first name held in peoples mobile phone being that my name starts with "a" The phone that calls me is usually around 2am on friday and saturday nights, They either sit on the phone or go to bed with it in thier pocket.

[TheChemist]

if it hangs up as soon as you answer it, they may be calling from a public phone...

[atec77]

Originally Posted by Maxim

To cut a long story short. I have received a couple of calls at around 2am in the morning and 730 tonight were the person at the other end hangs up when our end gets answered.

Does anybody know what can be done about this problem? (other than changing my number.)

Hellstra log all calls numbers , if it continues register a complaint and press them ahrd to track it , the results will be helped of you speak to your local Sargent ( coppers have a use after all)

[Matty4]

1970Galaxie,
that is pure GOLD, I'll be doing all of that in the future, especially sending them my junk mail...hehe...

[BAFalconXT]

I have had a few lately where no one says anything. There was one where a voice recording said "hello........... hello" then hung up. I know its no one I know as only companies have the home number. I will follow that /\ advise When I had a 3 mobile, they called me everyday for months when I was at work with a private number, finally I answered it and they were trying to sell me some $3 a month crock. Never called again.....

[Feathers]

We get it on 2 business numbers that get diverted to one home number, and we used to get it on our home number, but it's stopped pretty much.

We called Telstra and were told that unless the caller stays on the line for a certain amount of time they can't do anything about it.

I started answering the phone and not saying anything. They would stay on the line silent as well, until they either got confused, and hung up (but usually called back a few mins later) or they realised that I was willing to sit there for however long it took for them to give up.

It gets worse in the school holidays. Kids are bored at home.

[ronwest]

Originally Posted by Feathers

We called Telstra and were told that unless the caller stays on the line for a certain amount of time they can't do anything about it.

No, that's incorrect. Your phone only has to be answered (completing the connection) for the calling number to be logged and then if warranted, accessed.

A few years ago (prior to Caller ID) a fax machine was calling our new phone number each morning at 5am. As luck would have it I know someone within Telstra with a high enough clearance to access my phone incoming call log (not all Telstra bods have that clearance).

I simply rang the business that owned the fax machine and asked for my number to be removed from their list.

Problem solved.

[BAFalconXT]

Has anyone had one of those calls from the bank, "We have an important call for you, please hold......." and actually waited for them to talk to you? I just hang up, my time is worth more than theirs!

[ThoR_]

Dad was a cop for 20 years he said people call to see if your home. If ya not in they come and take your stuff.

[bob^]

With the whole "don't hang up on the telemarketer" thing, I heard one of them on Nova the other day, and he said that's the best thing you can do for them, as it means the one call lasts longer, so the telemarketer gets payed more or something along those lines.