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    Constant calls from an unknown number

    greetings.


    About 2-3 weeks ago now, i kept getting calls from an unknown number. This usually happened 3-4 times a day at any random time. However in the last week, these calls have started to be at 3-4 am and about 8 times a day. It has got to the stage where my phone has to be on silent for the night or i am continuosly woken up.
    If the calls are answered, nothing happens - the person or machine on the other end will immediately put the phone down.
    Can anyone recommend anything to do? i have tried phoning o2, but they only suggested changing numbers which i really don't want to do as i have had my current number for 10+ years. They don't offer an unknown number barring service.
    Are there any phones which have an option to reject calls from unknown numbers?

    Many Thanks.
    Dentist, and general teeth lover.

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    Oh Crumbs.... Biscuit's Avatar
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    Re: Constant calls from an unknown number

    If you had a smartphone ther would probably be an app for it. Im pretty sure i have seen a winmo one.

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    Re: Constant calls from an unknown number

    There are all sorts of ways to tackle this, but they will have varying degrees of success depending on quite what is happening.

    First, what is the source of the calls? It could be someone playing a practical joke or with some kind of vendetta, but almost certainly, it's a predictive dialler at a telemarketing call centre. They have automated dialling systems that call people, and when you answer, you get transferred to an operator. But they make more calls than there are operators, presumably to keep operators fully busy and not waiting for a connection. i.e. they're saving themselves money.

    The next question is ..... where is the call centre? If it's in he UK (or, IIRC, if it's acting on behalf of a UK company) then what they are doing is now (and has been for several years) illegal. Not that they are making calls, but that they are silent. Ofcom introduced new rules about 3 years ago that companies doing this MUST respect TPS lists, MUST put caller ID info on such outgoing calls and MUST play a message explaining what happened if an operator is not available. Companies ignoring that are subject to fines of up to £50,000 or so.

    So .... are you getting caller ID information? If not, does 1471 (or similar) work to give you the caller's number? If it does, contact Ofcom and complain.

    But, if the calls are coming from an overseas call centre, they aren't bound by that. If the company they are hired by is UK based then, IIRC< that company is bound by it. So, if you can find out who they are calling on behalf of, you can still complain, either to Ofcom or to the company directly about the activity of their call centre. If the hiring company is not UK based, then you have a real problem, as they aren't bound by Ofcom either.

    You can register with the TPS (Telephone Preference Service). They will add you number to a "no marketing calls" list that most decent companies respect. It'll take some weeks to be effective though, and again, foreign companies tend to ignore it.

    You can try talking to O2, not about call blocking, but about nuisance and abusive calls. If it's waking you up at night, then I'd take the attitude that :-

    1) I'm sometime on call so I need the phone at night, and can't turn it off
    2) These calls are in the middle of the night, and wrecking my sleep.
    3) If O2 can't find a way to prevent this, I'll find an airtime provider that can.

    If this were a landline, there are devices that will block such calls. like Callblocker. Essentially, this answer the call silently, without ringing the phone bell. It then plays a message, requiring the caller to press a number (lke Press 7 to connect) and only rings the phone bell alerting you if they do so. i.e. it blocks automated calls that can't respond to such a message.

    There might be something that works with mobiles too, but I can't think offhand quite how it would do it. But that company may have a product, or know of someone that does.

    Finally, if all else fails, you'll have to either put the phone on silent mode (as you have), or turn it off at night. At worst, you could get another cheap phone (or an old one) on PAYG for urgent night time calls and ONLY give the number out to people that absolutely need it, like family, or if you are on call, to the office, and not to ANYONE else. These dialling systems have to get the number from somewhere, and while some of them just dial sequentially and won't be prevented by that, at least it would be a different number.

    And for the future, especially if you do end up changing number, be very selective who you give it to. I very, very rarely give my number to commercial operations, for precisely this reason. My insurance broker wants it, but doesn't get it, for instance. I have a mobile I use for exactly this purpose, and it's only turned on when it's convenient to me. Otherwise, they can write me a letter. And I left British Telecom many years ago, and have never been back, because they would not stop pestering me with telesales calls. And when I mean would not stop, I mean they ignored requests, ignored complaints to customer service, ignored two letters of complaint to their Chairman. and ignored a complaint to Ofcom. I still keep getting "come back" letters .... which I ignore.

    BT are largely responsible for my current attitude, which is that nobody gets my phone number unless I want them to have it. Not my insurance broker, not my bank, not even HMRC. I don't have much good to say about NTL, but at least they never pestered me with telesales calls, which is more than I can say for BT.

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    Re: Constant calls from an unknown number

    Quote Originally Posted by Saracen View Post
    There are all sorts of ways to tackle this, but they will have varying degrees of success depending on quite what is happening.

    First, what is the source of the calls? It could be someone playing a practical joke or with some kind of vendetta, but almost certainly, it's a predictive dialler at a telemarketing call centre. They have automated dialling systems that call people, and when you answer, you get transferred to an operator. But they make more calls than there are operators, presumably to keep operators fully busy and not waiting for a connection. i.e. they're saving themselves money.

    The next question is ..... where is the call centre? If it's in he UK (or, IIRC, if it's acting on behalf of a UK company) then what they are doing is now (and has been for several years) illegal. Not that they are making calls, but that they are silent. Ofcom introduced new rules about 3 years ago that companies doing this MUST respect TPS lists, MUST put caller ID info on such outgoing calls and MUST play a message explaining what happened if an operator is not available. Companies ignoring that are subject to fines of up to £50,000 or so.

    So .... are you getting caller ID information? If not, does 1471 (or similar) work to give you the caller's number? If it does, contact Ofcom and complain.

    But, if the calls are coming from an overseas call centre, they aren't bound by that. If the company they are hired by is UK based then, IIRC< that company is bound by it. So, if you can find out who they are calling on behalf of, you can still complain, either to Ofcom or to the company directly about the activity of their call centre. If the hiring company is not UK based, then you have a real problem, as they aren't bound by Ofcom either.

    You can register with the TPS (Telephone Preference Service). They will add you number to a "no marketing calls" list that most decent companies respect. It'll take some weeks to be effective though, and again, foreign companies tend to ignore it.

    You can try talking to O2, not about call blocking, but about nuisance and abusive calls. If it's waking you up at night, then I'd take the attitude that :-

    1) I'm sometime on call so I need the phone at night, and can't turn it off
    2) These calls are in the middle of the night, and wrecking my sleep.
    3) If O2 can't find a way to prevent this, I'll find an airtime provider that can.

    If this were a landline, there are devices that will block such calls. like Callblocker. Essentially, this answer the call silently, without ringing the phone bell. It then plays a message, requiring the caller to press a number (lke Press 7 to connect) and only rings the phone bell alerting you if they do so. i.e. it blocks automated calls that can't respond to such a message.

    There might be something that works with mobiles too, but I can't think offhand quite how it would do it. But that company may have a product, or know of someone that does.

    Finally, if all else fails, you'll have to either put the phone on silent mode (as you have), or turn it off at night. At worst, you could get another cheap phone (or an old one) on PAYG for urgent night time calls and ONLY give the number out to people that absolutely need it, like family, or if you are on call, to the office, and not to ANYONE else. These dialling systems have to get the number from somewhere, and while some of them just dial sequentially and won't be prevented by that, at least it would be a different number.

    And for the future, especially if you do end up changing number, be very selective who you give it to. I very, very rarely give my number to commercial operations, for precisely this reason. My insurance broker wants it, but doesn't get it, for instance. I have a mobile I use for exactly this purpose, and it's only turned on when it's convenient to me. Otherwise, they can write me a letter. And I left British Telecom many years ago, and have never been back, because they would not stop pestering me with telesales calls. And when I mean would not stop, I mean they ignored requests, ignored complaints to customer service, ignored two letters of complaint to their Chairman. and ignored a complaint to Ofcom. I still keep getting "come back" letters .... which I ignore.

    BT are largely responsible for my current attitude, which is that nobody gets my phone number unless I want them to have it. Not my insurance broker, not my bank, not even HMRC. I don't have much good to say about NTL, but at least they never pestered me with telesales calls, which is more than I can say for BT.

    Thank You for your detailed response.
    Unfortunately i don't know the source of the calls at all. The number is always with-held, and dialing 1471 is no help.
    I have registered on TPS just now, so hopefully that may help the situation. However i am not sure if TPS applies to just landlines or mobile phones.
    One lady at o2 said that she had a samsung g600, which could block certain phone numbers but she wasn't sure if it could block unknown callers... May have to try and get my hands on a 2nd hand one.
    Failing that, maybe my local police office may be able to help.
    Dentist, and general teeth lover.

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    HSK
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    Re: Constant calls from an unknown number

    I know the older SE phones (mine is a K810i) have an "accept list". So you basically list/select numbers you want to get through to you, and other numbers will be rejected before the phone starts ringing. including withheld and unknown numbers.

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    Re: Constant calls from an unknown number

    I have been with TPS for 13 years now. In the last few years the number of companies ignoring TPS registered numbers has increased alarmingly; they all know what it is but they don't give a damn about it and call anyway.
    Rgds,

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    Re: Constant calls from an unknown number

    TPS certainly does apply to mobiles, but (as above) it won't help if the caller isn't bound by it.

    By all means try the local police, by I doubt they can do anything.

    The abuse service at O2 (assuming they have one) should have access to call data you don't, so while they probably won't tell you the number, they should know if it originates in the UK or not.

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    Re: Constant calls from an unknown number

    I hate cold calls, but luckily don't get them too often, sometimes I'll answer and wait till there's an operator ask if they mind holding a moment then put some music on and see how long it takes for them to hang up.

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    Re: Constant calls from an unknown number

    im pretty sure theres an android app for exactly this.

    thats pretty strange O2 wont sort you out though, surely they must be able to do something! like the first reply said, if they really wont do anything id consider taking my business somewhere that will!

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    Re: Constant calls from an unknown number

    Quote Originally Posted by HSK View Post
    I know the older SE phones (mine is a K810i) have an "accept list". So you basically list/select numbers you want to get through to you, and other numbers will be rejected before the phone starts ringing. including withheld and unknown numbers.
    Most phones have this option, sadly if you block "Withheld" from your recent call list you'll also block any future calls from anyone who opts to hide their number.
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    Re: Constant calls from an unknown number

    Quote Originally Posted by mycarsavw View Post
    Most phones have this option, sadly if you block "Withheld" from your recent call list you'll also block any future calls from anyone who opts to hide their number.
    ALTHOUGH

    If they are on your contacts list already you will know its them I think

    MY home phone is ex directory so comes up as withheld, but if I call my mobile with it, as it's already in my contacts list it seems to recognise it and display the number
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    Re: Constant calls from an unknown number

    If a withheld number calls you, whether its on your contacts or not, it'll still display "WITHHELD".

    My landline number is withheld, as is my folks and my inlaws. Answering those calls is always interesting.

    You can ring an ex-dir number from your mobile though, the number is only withheld when calling from said ex-dir line.
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    Re: Constant calls from an unknown number

    Quote Originally Posted by mycarsavw View Post
    Most phones have this option, sadly if you block "Withheld" from your recent call list you'll also block any future calls from anyone who opts to hide their number.
    Yup I know, but for me that's not a worry. I tend to screen calls, I won't usually answer withhelds.

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    Re: Constant calls from an unknown number

    I had similar, from what was eventually found to be a Florida based real estate marketing company.
    • I asked why they were calling and why they were not respecting my wishes or the laws of my country...
    • The charming fellow explained to that the USA didn't have to follow the laws of any country and they could do what they want and phone me whenever they wanted.
    • I explained again, how discourteous and ignorant this was and asked to be taken off their call list
    • and was refused...


    I explained what I thought of the USA, their willingness to ignore laws (eg torture at Guantanamo...). This apparently was so offensive the supervisor came on the line to complain to me...

    I pointed out that the sequence and lack of respect was intitiated by them, and if they would not comply with a polite request, then I would make it increasingly unpleasant for anyone calling until they did.

    on reflection there were a number of ways this could have backfired... but fortunately it appears to have worked

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    Re: Constant calls from an unknown number

    I hate a similar issue, and it turned out to be Bose (of all people!) calling and trying to sell me something. They called me every day at roughly the same time, will sadly was not a time when I could access my phone.

    Eventually I picked it up and managed to tell them to leave me alone. And they didn't call back again - good times!

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    Re: Constant calls from an unknown number

    Really annoying especially as you have had the same number for 10+ years!!

    Difficult one to solve. If the phone is for personal use only then the only way maybe a number change! If you use it for business use then i wouldn't know what to do.

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