Nuisance phone calls

[Tree cutter]

Since January this year i have been getting calls on my mobile from a private number and as soon as i answer it i get either the engaged signal or it hangs up. Is there any way that i can find out who is calling me so i can either ring them back and tell them to stop calling me or pay them a visit to let them know that i am sick of their calls.

[al99]

lol i havent had one of those calls for ages now. Mate its most likely a chick doing it. A ex or who ever.
Speaking of annoying phone call i dont answer the home phone now. Stupid telemarketers call non stop. I used to be polite but i just hang up if i do answer.

[Tree cutter]

Yep those telemarketers annoy me also. Had some idiot call me the other night doing a water survey and said he would put me in a draw to win a free water purifier as long as i buy the first filter off him for $90.00. I am waiting for him to call back to say i have won the purifier. I am going to tell him to give me my free purifier but i will buy my filter elsewhere or make my own filter

[vlv8vic]

divert your mobile to your house phone and get telstra to put a trace on your home phone ($5 month). then when they call telstra and find out who it is and wwhy they are calling. they might not tell you who it is but if it is repeatedly happening they can forward it to the auths.

[Tree cutter]

divert your mobile to your house phone and get telstra to put a trace on your home phone ($5 month). then when they call telstra and find out who it is and wwhy they are calling. they might not tell you who it is but if it is repeatedly happening they can forward it to the auths.

I have sent an email to telstra and i am waiting to hear back from them. I get a call with private written on my phone at least every second day but sometimes twice a day.

[R0d]

it happened 3 times to me the other day, its such a time waster...

[qwertsta]

I dont get telemarketers calling my home phone since we have a private number but i used to get people calling me on private number's on my phone. You answer you say hello and then they hang up. I no longer answer private number's at all.

[NickVR]

I get this with my mobile phone. Private number calls i answer and they hang up. I don't answer private numbers anymore, such a waste of time.

[adam69]

I got one once from a member here(now in hiding).It stopped as soon as he realised i got his the names,addresses and ph numbers of most of his family
it stopped.
I prob wouldnt have done anything with them,but people do some strange things when provoked.
Get with telstra and see what they can do.
Good luck.

[qwertsta]

Telstra is a complete joke.

[walesy]

i get them too but they leave their number on... but still refuse to tell me who it is...so i call them back and tell em to **** off

[Secki]

if its a landline number there is a few websites out there that you can do reverse lookups on that will give you thier name and address

[NOT.BT1]

i get this all the time to sometimes they will sit on the phone not saying anything but most of the time they just hang up i always answer my phone even if its a private number just in case there is an emergency or something i really dont care if people call me and hang up its there money there waisting on the call not mine

[Scooter79]

Could possibly be telemarketers from Indian call centres. This happened pretty often but we moved 3 weeks ago. We'd get these calls at home where no one would speak for about 5 seconds then hang up. 30 seconds later a telemarketer would call and try to speak in broken english, trying to sell me everything from holiday vouchers to mobile phone contracts from companies that I'd never heard of. Then when you tell them you're not interested they get agro and ask "Why are you not interested!?!?!"

Anyone see a story on 'Today Tonight' last last week about the boat shop owner who kept getting calls from some dodgy finance company. The telemarketer got so rude he called about 100 times every day over the space olf the week saying he has connections with Al Qaida and he was going to rape and kill the shop owners wife etc... He even told the 'TT' reporter on speaker phone that he'd rape her too. The guy went to police and they said they couldn't do anything. He even reported it to the terrorism hotline and they wouldn't do anything. ...and the federal gov't thinks a do not call register is going to work? Not likely!

If you're wondering where they get your name and number from, it can be as simple as you filling out one of those free tickets for a raffle that you see in shopping centres. They then sell off your details to other companies and then they in turn sell your details again and so it continues. Anyone heard of a company called 'Trendwest'? They orgainise those free raffle tickets in shopping centres where they have a car on display beside the stand. No where does it say that the car is the prize. They use your details to target you for Time share holidays. My wife and I got targeted for one of their seminars and we went only because you get a free prize just for turning up. Man, do they put the pressure on once your in. You pay $40,000 upfront and you get supposedly free timeshare holidays at resorts all over the world. for the next 30 years. I'm too much of a sceptic to fall for that crap.

[-UNKNOWN-]

I used to get it all the time from my girlfriends ex! Sometimes more than 10 times in a row! I used to just **** with him to see how pissed off I could get him and waste all his money!!

[MikesVT]

I used to get them too... suprise suprise, from the ex... always at around 11pm-midnight, not so much anymore


As for tele-marketers, I LOVE when they call... I get to have a bit of fun. Putting on different accents, pretending I can't speak english, passing them around to different people for about 10 minutes... I love it!

[TexasRealtor]

It became such a problem in the states, that we passed a Federal Do Not Call Law. Once you register you phone #, marketers can be fined up to $50,000 per incident. As a realtor, we have had to purchase special software that tell us if they are on the Do Not Call List. The only ones exempt are charities and political pollers (of course). Put pressure on your politicians to pass a similar law. Personally, it has reduced my telemarketer calls by about 95%.



https://www.donotcall.gov

[VS Omega]

Ahh interesting thread!

What it is highly likely to be, is telemarketers. They have a phone system which automatically calls up numbers (how do they get the number? I'll tell you below) and once it gets through and you answer your phone what's meant to happen is the system will transfer your call to the next available telemarketer. However sometimes all of the telemarketers aren't available to take your call, so the system hangs up. Sometimes you may or may not hear a beep prior to being disconnected, and these numbers usually come up as private though it's up to the company.

You may think you're safe from it though if you pay money for a private number and don't enter raffles or give your number to anyone, but the reality is there's a book (and CD now I believe) called the electoral roll which is made available around election time. This can be freely purchased by anybody (I think) and it contains the name and at least phone number (maybe address but I'm unsure) or everybody who is registered to vote (which should be everybody over 18).

EDIT: OK just did some research.. the roll hasn't been available since 2004 though they could still be using an old copy? Or just guessing numbers http://www.aec.gov.au/_content/what/...ctoralroll.htm

[minux]

If you dont want private numbers etc, just set your phone to only accept address book numbers.

[VNexecutive]

if you ever get telemarketers, stop what your doing for 5 seconds, answer the phone, ask them to explain in detail what they are selling, put down the phone for 5 minutes and continue what you were already doing. then pick the phone up a few minutes later (cut them off if they are speaking) and say "sorry can you please repeat all that", and repeat those steps until THEY hang up on you. apparently they arent meant to hang up on you :P

[STEALTHY™]

Glad i don't vote then.


I had one for a survey about food shopping. I just said call back on the weekend and ask for my housemate. Then when they call, he'll do the same, i rekon after going back and forth twice they'll give up.



Also there was one a while ago, where a number would call you (i think it was an 03 number, so sydney maybe??) and would hang up after a few rings. the plan was people would see a missed call from the number, and call it. Sorta like a reverse marketing thing, we'll wait for you to call us lol

[burnz]

Since January this year i have been getting calls on my mobile from a private number and as soon as i answer it i get either the engaged signal or it hangs up. Is there any way that i can find out who is calling me so i can either ring them back and tell them to stop calling me or pay them a visit to let them know that i am sick of their calls.

on some mobile phone's you can select call barring incoming
on call's that don't display numbers
it works for me ...they want to talk they must ID them self

[Pretender]

Ahh interesting thread!

What it is highly likely to be, is telemarketers. They have a phone system which automatically calls up numbers (how do they get the number? I'll tell you below) and once it gets through and you answer your phone what's meant to happen is the system will transfer your call to the next available telemarketer. However sometimes all of the telemarketers aren't available to take your call, so the system hangs up. Sometimes you may or may not hear a beep prior to being disconnected, and these numbers usually come up as private though it's up to the company.

You may think you're safe from it though if you pay money for a private number and don't enter raffles or give your number to anyone, but the reality is there's a book (and CD now I believe) called the electoral roll which is made available around election time. This can be freely purchased by anybody (I think) and it contains the name and at least phone number (maybe address but I'm unsure) or everybody who is registered to vote (which should be everybody over 18).

EDIT: OK just did some research.. the roll hasn't been available since 2004 though they could still be using an old copy? Or just guessing numbers http://www.aec.gov.au/_content/what/...ctoralroll.htm

It is illegal to privately own a copy of the Electoral Role. That doesn't mean that there are not copies out there. The Role shows Name, D.O.B. occupation and address, not phone numbers though. An enterprising individual could add the phone numbers to their own copy and sell that off.

A continuing scam is to call and hang up when answered or before it is answered in the hope you will call back at $4.50 - $6.00 per minute.
These calls do show the number though.

Don't forget the White pages is online and it only takes a few minutes to list all residents of a particular suburb. Should not work for finding private numbers though.

[tr3nt]

lol.. instantly hating telemarketers lol..
Don't hate them (us, yes, im a telemarketer) for calling you.. It's 99% of the time your own fault they have your information. The information is approved from lists such as those raffles in the middle of the shopping centres, a company who does business for you (gas/electricity/phone/internet etc).

If you get one, and hang up straight away, expect another call back. If you're nice about it and say you're simply not interested, it's illegal to call back. takes an extra 5 seconds to say you're not interested.

[holdensupporter2005]

A few months ago I had some woman ring me up saying that I had been selected to recieve a FREE mobile phone and call discounts, I asked her what the catch was and she told me that there was no catch. I said "You aren't going to give me a Free mobile phone like that, I know what the catch is, I have to sign up to your company", There was a long silence on the other end and then she hung up . She knew that she couldn't fool me.


On Tuesday I had a missed call on my business line from a 02 8111 1111 number, I also checked my home phone and had a missed call from the same number an hour later. Later on that night I recieved a call from the same number again. It was a woman from GO TALK. I told her I wasn't interested and not to ring again. On Thursday Night I was in Melbourne and had both my business number and home number diverted to my mobile. I recieved another 4 calls from the same woman from GO Talk. You can imagine how annoyed I was especially when I was in peak hour traffic