Harassing Automated Phone Calls At Night? For Every Day of the Week?

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superberkut

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I'm not much of a 'happy camper' today. I woke up at 4 a.m. to hear my phone ring every ten minutes, and every time the message on the answering machine is a set of very electronic beeps every 3.7 seconds. The fact that we have several working phones add to the din, and the beeps are also very loud when picked up on the machine. It seems to happen at irregular times, as it didn't bother us for about a week, then it continued to harass us throughout the entire ensuing fortnight. It appears to be very on and off in this sense.

So, does anybody else have experience with these types of phone-calls? They are very irritating for sure, but they also alarm me in another way. Is it rational for me to feel this way, if there is a possibility that a serial murderer or a stalker is on the other line? I very much doubt that it is a tele-marketer; the company would lose business fast! Most of all, its only purpose we have seen is that it checks if we are home during certain hours, because whenever we pick it up, the same beeping continues. Is there a history of crank calls like this? Because it is not very humourous!

What I am trying to ask here is this, in conclusion: does anybody know what these calls are or why we receive them? Our good-night's sleep depends on this!
 
I doubt it's telemarketing, they tend to know that phoning people at the dead of night is not a good idea.

I know that there was a problem a while ago with SMS to landline services. Basically the phone would ring every 10 minutes untill someone answered it and listened to the whole SMS message being read out by a computer. You're not getting anything like that are you?
 
ExigeExcel
I doubt it's telemarketing, they tend to know that phoning people at the dead of night is not a good idea.

I know that there was a problem a while ago with SMS to landline services. Basically the phone would ring every 10 minutes untill someone answered it and listened to the whole SMS message being read out by a computer. You're not getting anything like that are you?
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Was the SMS message a computer voice, or a series of beeps? Because in that case, I guess that is what it is.
 
Sounds like someone thinks that your phone is a fax, and is trying to send you one.
 
daan
Sounds like someone thinks that your phone is a fax, and is trying to send you one.
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Yep.

Try *69, and then look up the number in google.
 
Will also confirm it's a fax machine. From experience.
 
Well, I've been told that a fax machine is different than this situation... does a fax machine normally beep three times before it hangs up? And why does it occur every 10 minutes? It's been going on for 6 MONTHS, is it even possible to resent that the number I have is not a fax for that long?
 
superberkut
I'm not much of a 'happy camper' today. I woke up at 4 a.m. to hear my phone ring every ten minutes, and every time the message on the answering machine is a set of very electronic beeps every 3.7 seconds. The fact that we have several working phones add to the din, and the beeps are also very loud when picked up on the machine. It seems to happen at irregular times, as it didn't bother us for about a week, then it continued to harass us throughout the entire ensuing fortnight. It appears to be very on and off in this sense.

So, does anybody else have experience with these types of phone-calls? They are very irritating for sure, but they also alarm me in another way. Is it rational for me to feel this way, if there is a possibility that a serial murderer or a stalker is on the other line? I very much doubt that it is a tele-marketer; the company would lose business fast! Most of all, its only purpose we have seen is that it checks if we are home during certain hours, because whenever we pick it up, the same beeping continues. Is there a history of crank calls like this? Because it is not very humourous!

What I am trying to ask here is this, in conclusion: does anybody know what these calls are or why we receive them? Our good-night's sleep depends on this!
Click to expand...
I had exactly the same thing a few days ago, lucky for me it wasn't in the middle of the night. It has also happened on and off over the past few years. It is definately not a fax trying to come through, I know what that sounds like.
Previously when it has happened it has gone on for days. Last week when it happened after a few times of answering and getting the beeps I decided not to hang up at all, I just put the phone down. It didn't call back.
My theory is it's some automatic dialler (for telemarleters or similar) gone wrong and since the real person on the other end doesn't get through it just keeps dialling.
A few years back, after it going on for days, I tried to get my telco to trace where it was coming from but of course once I asked them to keep check on it it stopped happening.
 
superberkut
Well, I've been told that a fax machine is different than this situation... does a fax machine normally beep three times before it hangs up? And why does it occur every 10 minutes? It's been going on for 6 MONTHS, is it even possible to resent that the number I have is not a fax for that long?
Click to expand...

Faxes can be programmed to retry every so often. Default redial is usually every 5 or 10 minutes. I'm guessing it beeps three times before hanging up because it's trying to detect a fax on the other end.
 
Do you know any deaf insomniacs? 'Cause a teletypewriter sounds like what you are describing, but I don't know why they would keep calling you back at random times of the night.
 
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