General Question

mambo's avatar

Why do I keep receiving these calls?

Asked by mambo (2731 points ) June 27th, 2012

Lately, I am receiving calls from an unknown number up to 5 times a day. If and when I pick up, the other line is silent and hangs up after an average of 5 seconds. Why am I receiving such pointless calls?

Observing members: 0 Composing members: 0

12 Answers

ZEPHYRA's avatar

Could it be an ex checking you out?

mambo's avatar

@ZEPHYRA Most likely not.

WestRiverrat's avatar

Someone phishing for phone numbers to sell to telemarketers. Contact your service provider, they should be able to block the calls.

Blueroses's avatar

^^ what @WestRiverrat said. It’s an autodialer looking for a pickup to verify that it’s a valid number.

mambo's avatar

Thanks lovelies :)

bookish1's avatar

@WestRiverrat : Cool, I didn’t know the service provider could directly block calls. I’ve gotten some like this too. How can they block a call if you do not know the number?

WestRiverrat's avatar

@bookish1 just because you don’t get shown the number, does not mean the provider doesn’t know what it is.

wangxc's avatar

They are cheaters might be! Don’t ask them or upload one security app for your phone to avoid such pointless calls.

jca's avatar

I get these calls often. They come to my home phone during the day when I’m not home. The caller ID has weird names like “Good deal” or stuff like that. On the very rare occasion that I am home and answer, nothing happens. I used to get calls that the caller ID would label “warranty info” and on the few occasions I answered those, it was telemarketers trying to sell me extended warranties on my car.

I don’t think twice about them.

AshlynM's avatar

Agree with @WestRiverrat. Just today I got a strange call from someone who just breathed heavily into the phone for a solid 5 seconds before hanging up. Never gotten that type of call before. What the frak? They left a “message” on my answering machine. Glad I didn’t answer it.

bookish1's avatar

@AshlynM : Um…................ I am inclined to think such calls are much less common now because of the proliferation of free pornographic material on the Internet…

@WestRiverrat: Thanks! Derp, I was not thinking :-p

Does anyone actually BUY a home security system or an extended warranty from a telemarketer who bought their number? How do those people make money?!

AshlynM's avatar

@bookish1 That may be, but it still doesn’t change the fact that I received such a call.

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