Prank Calls

[Lemon[H]ead]

my house has been victim to prank calls for a week or so now, its like silence but some weird noises that some little punks are making.

i really want to tear these little (i shouldnt say the word because fingers will throw me off the board , but you know what I mean) apart.

anyways to with-hold your number in britain you dial 141 before the phone number. the little bandits forgot to dial one time and i 1471'd and got the phone number. i really ought to post it here, and get some of you american guys to place a collect call to the number (or even better - Hellmund or Vert in Aus and New Zealand, or at least i think Vert lives in NZ..)

What should I do? Is there anyone I should phone like our telephone service provider or even the police?

I'll email all my mates and find out if they recognise the number and then if they know and its who i think it is. i'm sure its a little fag called "nobby" who i've been itching to kick the sht into after him and two mates decided it would be funny to throw a bag from those dog cr4p disposal bins at me and get all his little boyfriends at school to call me "shtface" at school.

oh please let it be him so i can beat him down (i'm bigger than the little weasel now)

sorry, back to topic, is there anything i cna do with this number?

[SpookyEddy]

Why not just look up the number on 192.com (I think you can do that).

Eddy

[willy_ph]

Try calling your phone company and see what they can do. i know here in canada it is an offense and one can be jailed for it, but that rarely happens. You could also call the authorities and see what they can do.

[Jonty]

Well yes, if you're on BT just dial 150 and ask to be put through to the nuisance call dept. Have you been making a log of all the calls? Each time they call dial 1471 and it'll give you the exact time of the call even though the number has been withheld. Armed with this info BT can make sure the calls are coming from the same number and then they can deal with it accordingly.

Don't do anything hasty before phoning the phone company as the offending party could start complaining that you are making nuisance calls!

[Lemon[H]ead]

07801 is the prefix so its probably a mobile number and i'm not sure if 192.com do mobile numbers.

[krohnjw]

I don't know about in scotland...but here you can report it as harassment. Call the phone company and let the authorities know. The phone company has logs of numbers that called you, report the number you found, the times dates, etc. If they call again, then the authorities can get involved for harassment. Which would really crack down on those doing it, and you wouldnt have to risk an assault and battery charge

[fortysomething]

I the US, I have an option of using a code: *69. It attempts to dial back the number that just called. There's a $0.75 charge to me only if I ask to have the number connected. If I don't connect, I get the actual number reported to me instead. I don't know if you're offered a similar feature.

The only solution that has worked for me is to lay the handset in a towel or blanket so the caller doesn't hear any activity in my house.
DO NOT respond to these individuals, they call even more!

After being plagued by two obscene phonecallers for over a month, ignoring them was the only thing that made them go away.

I have a dial-up internet connection now, and I rarely get any phone calls at all.

You have my sympathies. Have patience, and good luck to you.

[korgul]

Try this website. You can do a reverse lookup on the number that you have.


korgul

[Jonty]

One thing you could do is this. When you get the next call from them just leave the receiver off the hook. If they put their receiver down you will still be connected and they will still be clocking up the call on their bill.

Two downsides to this though, first obviously you won't be able to receive any calls whilst you're off the hook , and secondly after a couple or so minutes a wailing sound generated by the exchange will come through your phone warning you that the receiver is off the hook.

[MegalosSkylaki]

Dear Lemon [H]ead,

THERE ARE NO PRANK CALLS.

When someone wants trouble, you give them trouble:

1) They are almost certainly "repeat offenders" so check with a trusted neighbor.They may have a rap sheet if caught.And a parole /probation officer YOU can call if found.

2) While nuisance calls are treated mildly in most jurisdictions YOU do R-E-M-E-M-B-E-R the racial, ethnic,bias in conjunction with extorting remarks they made if you don't give them money, Don't you??

("Blocks" placed on phones through phone company are widely defeated, so having somebody call them maybe self-defeating.)

DOOOG