• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

Unusual Phone Calls (Received; Incoming)

MrSnowman

Abominable Snowman
Joined
Aug 5, 2002
Messages
869
This doesn't belong in the UL section because it's real!!

Does anyone know of any scams where someone calls you, pretends that your number has been left on their phone, and then tries to weedle as much information out of you as they can?

It's happened twice this week, and I'm wondering what on Earth they could possibly gain? I mean, surely some people don't go giving out their address and stuff do they?

The conversation went something like.. (both times):

Caller : Hi there, who's this? This number was left on my phone at 10.15 last night.
Mr Snowman: What's your name etc?
Caller : Ben Pullen (cough) I'm from Grimsby.
Mr Snowman : Well, no-one here knows you, so you must have redialled incorrectly.
B Pullen : Oh no, it's definitely your number. Where's 0115 the code for? Whereabouts are you?
Mr Snowman : Why? I've just told you no-one has phoned you from here.
B Pullen: Is it in England?
Mr Snowman : Yes.
B Pullen : Whereabouts?
Mr Snowman : Trust me, no-one from this number has called you.
B Pullen : Oh why, is it a business or something?
Mr Snowman : Ermm.. yes!
B Pullen : Ok then, bye.

Very strange eh?
 
how very odd..randon ax killer perhapse?... i often get silent calls..the wife solved that one as im not usauly standing by the phone... so some call center auto dials me and if its not picked up in a few rings it goes on to next number. Or aparently if no operators are avalible to read their script it just hangs up!
 
I don't know if you made the name 'Pullen' up, but two phone numbers ago I used to get lots of calls for a Mr. Pullen. Nobody of that name had ever lived here and eventually the calls died out.

I have also got calls from a couple of people claiming to find my number on their mobile (I never ever give my mobile out to anybody), they try and weedle infornmation out of me but i don't think there's anything nasty in their intent, I think (hopefully) it's a genuine mistake. However, I still make up a big lie about the boyfriend being a very big guy who spends an awful lot of time working out and maybe he, in his muscle-fuelled haze, gave it out by mistake and he's insanely jealous too, just in case they are an axe murderer.

The strangest call I ever had was when my youngest son was a baby and the ex received a call while I was in the same room from a health visitor. She insisited on us bringing the baby to the health centre as soon as we could to have his hips checked. In fact she could come round now if we wanted. As he had his hips checked the week before I was puzzled and told the ex to say that I would talk to my health visior about it. She rung off and that's the last we heard from her. When I did see my health visitor I mentioned the call and she left the office to make enquiries and came back just as puzzled, nobody from her department had made the call and in fact the hip check was never done on its own. I let the matter drop but I wonder if it was a bogus health visitor?
 
Wow.. that's too freaky :eek!!!!: It was definitely Ben Pullen, and I would have thought it was genuine had my housemate not had the exact same conversation with him last Saturday, so I reckon that either it's someone trying to carry out some scam, or it is, indeed, a random nutter who's developed a fixation for our phone number.

Regardless, if he calls again, I'll begin to question his parentage. ;)
 
I've had the" you have won the lottery" and "I have a really soldid investment offer for you in gems in switzerland" etc. and told them what to do, and the common e- mail scams!But no Mr. Pullen yet.
 
The bogus health workers thing was covered in FT when I started reading it, so probably around 1996-ish. Haven't heard much about it lately, presumably the government took note.
 
I had a horrible one about 6 months ago, but it certainly wasn't random. They said they were from a double glazing firm, and actually named a well known company. Then they asked "is this 21 Acacia Avenue?" (naming my actual address..) I asked why they wanted to know, should've just hung up, but I didn't and he just kept asking, getting quite aggressive. Then he said "just tell me if it is, you f****** stupid b****, and hung up. I was really, really scared, after all, this guy basically had my address, even though I wouldn't confirm it to him. I phoned the company he named, not them. Number witheld of course. BT not interested. Nothing else happened, but I was really rattled for a while.
 
Has there ever been a recorded case of a bloke who rings a complete stranger up, tells them he's going to kill them, then goes round and does it?
 
i had some indian sounding woman selling insurance. i didnt need and said i didnt need it...for about 20 minets she ran thro every script...and ended with requesting all my bank details.... i refused and she got quite anoyed.... i asked where in the world she was and she wouldnt say..so i asked why i should trust her with my bank details... she just kept going!..it was like a robot... eventuly i just hung up (even tho my polite genes really didnt want to)
 
When I was a poor student, I had a temp summer job for a telecommunications company. Decent sized hard drives really did cost several thousand pounds then and in a fit of stupidity they decided not to invest in new drives. Or tape backups.

The inevitable happened and they lost the address details for several thousand numbers - you can guess what my job was!

Jane.
 
I was away from home for a number of months a few years ago. When I got back the answer phone was full of messages. This was when 1571 was new. Well one of the messages on my answer phone was a woman screaming that we should leave her family alone. I have no idea who she was!
 
Mr Snowman said:
I reckon that either it's someone trying to carry out some scam, or it is, indeed, a random nutter who's developed a fixation for our phone number.

The phone company may be at fault. It's technically possible for the number showing on his caller ID to be wrong. If he calls again, you might suggest that he call his phone company about it.

I'd think a scammer would be a bit more organized, you know? Also there're very easy ways to get the information that he wanted (where the number is) - it's hardly the sort of thing one needs to wheedle over the phone.
 
Christmas Eve.
Phone rings.
Guy at the other end says he found my husband's phone number in his wife's purse. "You're husband and my wife were having an affair," he told me. "I just killed her. When your husband steps out the door, I'm putting a bullet through his head."

The caller turned out to be a tool salesman who had called a month earlier. My husband had strung him along, even putting down the phone and walking away for long lengths of time before laughing and telling him he wasn't buying anything. On Christmas Eve, the salesman/telemarketer, located 2000 miles away in California, called the wife of every guy who'd been nasty to him and told her the story he told me. This was years ago, before real telemarketing when the callers actually had your name and number.
 
Mr Snowman said:
Wow.. that's too freaky :eek!!!!: It was definitely Ben Pullen, and I would have thought it was genuine had my housemate not had the exact same conversation with him last Saturday, so I reckon that either it's someone trying to carry out some scam, or it is, indeed, a random nutter who's developed a fixation for our phone number.

Regardless, if he calls again, I'll begin to question his parentage. ;)
My (very recently) ex-boss is called Ben Pullen! But he's a thoroughly decent chap, and lives in Bath. Odd coincidence nonetheless.

Oddest one we've had was someone insisting that I was the previous owner, and getting rather irate with me:

"Mr Stone?"

"No, Mr Stone moved out six years ago."

"But you are Mr Stone?"

"No, I'm not. Mr Stone sold the house to us in 1997. He moved to another part of the city - I'm afraid I don't have his number."

"Look, Mr Stone, I've had enough of this shit..."

"Listen to me, I am not Mr Stone, I don't know where Mr Stone is, and nor do I care. I am putting the phone down now."

As I was replacing the receiver I heard "You fu...." being yelled down the phone - I 1471'd it and he'd witheld his number. He never called back.
 
I think it's probably a new variant on the hoax calls some kids make. It's just adults who may have no intention on acting out their threats but get off on the fear and worry it makes.

It's amazing how much information we inadvertantly supply. Hoaxers get an area code and a telephone directory. Most will give your name and address. They then randomly call that number and make threats. One intention is to make the victim think they've been wrongly contacted and might be aware of a possible murder. The other "fear factor" is that this deranged person is going to kill them by mistake.
Regardless of the hoaxers hiding their number, inform the telephone company (letting them know the time and date of the call). They then "monitor" the situation and may inform the police!

Go ex-directory. NEVER subscribe to internet "directories". Never react to their threats. If you really want to risk it - up the ante and threaten them back! Yell that you've got a trace on them and the shotguns loaded! This may not be the most sensible action but try to out-wierd the wierdos!
 
Strangely, I kept having dead calls yesterday. Phone rang, I answered: "Hello?" , silence, then the click of the connection being broken the other end. sometimes the line was broken before I even got to "Hello". Each time number witheld.

I'm ex-directory on my old number and the new one I've just got, and I NEVER give my number to anyone I don't need to.

This happened about 8 or 9 times before I just took the 'phone off the hook - everyone who knows me and I could possible want to speak to has my mobile number and would call that first in an emergency anyway.

I now have a particularly loud blood-curdling scream wav file on my desktop to play down the 'phone at full blast should it start to happen again.

Then again, if I do this I'm just giving them the satisfaction of getting a reaction from me, aren't I?
 
That sounds like telemarketing - as someone else said previously, the computer just keeps dialling numbers and when the phone's answered, if there's no drones available to talk, they just drop the line. They might keep a record of which ones they've not spoken to and call them back.

I went through a phase of getting those before I signed up to the phone preference service (well worth it, especially since it's free!) - I'd get several a night and after one weekend when I was away, I came back to find either 43 or 23 blank messages on my answerphone, either just a click or in some cases where there clearly was someone available, a few seconds of call-centre style background noise - people talking on phones, that sort of thing.

Eventually someone did speak to me and was told to stuff it, and the calls died out again but I still registered my number with the phone preference thing anyway.

Steve.
 
I suspect sometimes it is someone who is planning to make an obscene or threatening call if a woman asnswers but if a man answers they have a cover for why they called so it becomes an enigmatic "enquiry" or wrong number.

It could be someone checking if anyone is occupying an address or away at certain times of day so they can burgle the place. There was the ploy that someone is called at work, told they have won a prize, and they say they are no one is home to receive it but give their address - Then someone goes round to break in before they get home from work.
 
My guess would be some kind of burglary fishing expedition or some nefarious activity. It might also be someone trying a touch of 'Social Engineering' on you. If they can get you to confirm your name and/or address then they can extract more information on you and potential call back later claiming to be your bank and asking for your bank detials - it works depresingly often.

My real put hate at the moment are those automated cold calls so you can't even spend a while confusing the poor sod in the call centre :(

I have to odd phone experience:

I once answerd the phone and there was just the sound of a radio in another room, I kept istening and you could hear someone in the room, after a bit someone said 'shit' and the phone was hung up. It was just after (or pos. around) the time when the police were watching the house (don't ask) and I spoke to a friend of mine who's father's phone was probably being tapped (for poltical reasons) and she has experienced similar odd things on her phone (lots of clicks and echoes and crossed lines) and I suspect my phone was also being tapped, pos. due to my connections to her (wow that makes me sound like a paranoid nut but all the information cam from other people I trusted). Not long after that the odd line problems cleared up and never occured.

I once phoned a friend and I thought she sounded terrible but she confirmed it was her and I talked to her for about 5-10 minutes about meeting her down the pub, etc. before she started calling my 'Geoff' or something (not my name whatever it was). It eventually turne out it was a wrong number and I'd been talking to a confused old lady - I was half expecting her to wander into my local later on ;) I suppose the point is that you should never exclude the possibility that the person giving you weird phone calls is senile or pos. confused in some other manner - it might be a bit weird if you had no memory and you had a load of old phone numbers in your telephone book (my great aunt used to phone the speaking clock for someone to talk to and ran up massive bills - the buggers refused to block that one number).

Emps
 
Emperor said:
I once answerd the phone and there was just the sound of a radio in another room, I kept istening and you could hear someone in the room, after a bit someone said 'shit' and the phone was hung up.
I've had those and made those.. sounds more like someone accidentally leant on their mobile which called a number in their phone book or something.

I always lock my keypad, but it seems to keep unlocking itself so it's not foolproof - and I seem to have made several 999 calls without my knowledge because, for safety reasons, mobile phones have to let 999 (and 112 IIRC) work even if the key lock is on.

Steve.
 
Fishing for info

I recently acted as a 'responsible adult' for my local police station, whilst the police were interviewing a vulnerable person who I work with in regards to an assault case.

I recieved a call very early one morning, approx. a week after the interview.

"Hello, is that Mandy?", I had been woken up after being on-call over night so I'm like "Eh? what? no you've got the wrong number".

The guy on the end of the 'phone, is very insistent that he's got the right number and he wants me to tell him my name, "Go on what's your name?" and he asked this about three times.
At this point I'm saying "What?? you freak! I'm not telling you my name, YOU HAVE GOT THE WRONG NUMBER!!" Just as I'm about to tell him to **** off and die, he decides to inform me he is P.C. so-and-so from the police station calling in regards to the case I was involved in.

He still did not appreciate why I had been so adamant I wasn't giving him my name, his details were wrong and he hadn't explained who he was, so therefore it is reasonable for me to give my name etc. over the 'phone? You would have thought he would have known better. Muppet.

I had an echo and 'click' on my 'phone line recently whilst I was speaking to a friend. It was so audible my friend jokingly said my line was tapped. As she said that, the line 'clicked' again. I have only the one line, I've put it down to the fact I've dropped the 'phone too many times on the floor, but it was strange none the less.
 
sjwk said:
I seem to have made several 999 calls without my knowledge because, for safety reasons, mobile phones have to let 999 (and 112 IIRC) work even if the key lock is on.
I think if you dial 999 from a mobile, it gets put through to an automatic service where you have to press 5 twice to continue to a real operator (haven't tried it though!!), as I looked up information on this when I came home one evening to find "999" in my recently called list... :eek:
 
When I worked in Directories we were warned about this type of call. In the UK if you have someone ring you asking for house and/or personal details they are likely to be one of three things

a) an abuser

b) a marketing person in breach of the Telecommunications Act

c) someone involved in "identity theft"

In all cases note the time of the call, make a record of the conversation and keep a track of other dead or wrong number calls; then report the matter to your telecoms company and to the Telecoms regulator Details here

Despite the common belief that "number witheld" calls cannot be traced they can. If it is an abuser then you will have done your bit to convict the worm.

If it someone involved in marketing the company can and will lose it's licence

If it is someone indulging in identity theft then you need the records for any defrauded credit card or finance companies
 
It's certainly true that 1471 can throw up a wrong number. Unfortunately it once gave the social services my number, and they phoned me insisting that a distressed child had called from my house. Took ages to convince them it was just me and the cats there. Thinking about it though, they really should have come to my house to make sure, I could have been a Rose West or something for all they knew.
 
intaglio said:
When I worked in Directories we were warned about this type of call. In the UK if you have someone ring you asking for house and/or personal details they are likely to be one of three things

a) an abuser

b) a marketing person in breach of the Telecommunications Act

c) someone involved in "identity theft"

In all cases note the time of the call, make a record of the conversation and keep a track of other dead or wrong number calls; then report the matter to your telecoms company and to the Telecoms regulator Details here

Despite the common belief that "number witheld" calls cannot be traced they can. If it is an abuser then you will have done your bit to convict the worm.

If it someone involved in marketing the company can and will lose it's licence

If it is someone indulging in identity theft then you need the records for any defrauded credit card or finance companies

An excellent and informative post. I really appreciate it, intaglio
 
Last edited by a moderator:
this may be off thread a bit but here it is

has anyone noticed white vans on motorway bridges

some time ago i drove for about an hour up the m6 and every bridge had a white escort van parked directly over the lane i was in .

any one?
 
I think white vans are very favoured by the security services for tailing people. :eek!!!!:

Whatever you've done TF I wasn't involved and I've never heard of you
 
i saw a road tax checking camra (moblie) that was in front of a parked white van..tho it had MOBILE ROAD TAX CHECKING writen on it.
 
intaglio said:
I think white vans are very favoured by the security services for tailing people. :eek!!!!:

Whatever you've done TF I wasn't involved and I've never heard of you

you're making me paranoid now. I was follwed by various white vans on the way home from work:eek:

I don't think the security services would make it apparent by driving like mad idiots behind me though, so it may have just been a bunch of ordinary white van driving lunatics. unless it was some kind of double bluff:D
 
Back
Top