topic Re: Spammed by automated phone call every 6 hours in Get Support

Spammed by automated phone call every 6 hours

toast — Wed, 05 Jan 2022 17:30:45 GMT

I've been with public mobile for a few years now. I've recently been receiving a phone call exactly every 6 hours for over a week now: 4:18AM/PM and 10:18AM/PM. When I pick up, it disconnects. When I leave it, it logs a voicemail with silence for about 20s. The number is shown as a Private Number and anonymous when it forwards to my voicemail.

This is extremely irritating because blocking anonymous calls also blocks some legitimate calls, and I still get the voicemail recorded.

What can I do about this? Is this something PM can track down and put a stop to?

Re: Spammed by automated phone call every 6 hours

cellphoneuser1 — Mon, 20 Jul 2020 08:42:06 GMT

You can change number or ignore it. Nothing else. There is some spam software to prevent them from leaving messages but that won't work because it's private number.

Re: Spammed by automated phone call every 6 hours

gpixel — Mon, 20 Jul 2020 09:02:32 GMT

@toast next time dont pick up the call, they are probably testing to see if you have a live number. if it's important they will leave you a voicemail

Re: Spammed by automated phone call every 6 hours

maximum_gato — Mon, 20 Jul 2020 09:23:16 GMT

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Using-Your-Service/Fun-with-Conditional-Call-forwarding-and-reduce-SPAM-calls-while/m-p/449594#M100378

@toast

Have a read thru this thread by the viceroy of voicemail @Nezgar . It will give you some options to deal with this spam call other than call blocking. Im sure the viceroy will weigh in with some other suggestions that might solve your issue with a little effort put in....

Re: Spammed by automated phone call every 6 hours

cavemantoronto — Mon, 20 Jul 2020 10:01:23 GMT

@maximum_gato

That won"t work. @toast is being called from unknown number and said blocking all unknown blocked number or forwarding isn't an option because of not wanting to miss other calls from callers who block the number.

Re: Spammed by automated phone call every 6 hours

maximum_gato — Mon, 20 Jul 2020 10:06:28 GMT

@cavemantoronto

@maximum_gato wrote:
https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Using-Your-Service/Fun-with-Conditional-Call-forwarding-and-reduce-SPAM-calls-while/m-p/449594#M100378

@toast
Have a read thru this thread by the viceroy of voicemail @Nezgar . It will give you some options to deal with this spam call other than call blocking. Im sure the viceroy will weigh in with some other suggestions that might solve your issue with a little effort put in....

@cavemantoronto Did you check the link i supplied? Or am i missing your point?

Re: Spammed by automated phone call every 6 hours

cavemantoronto — Mon, 20 Jul 2020 11:28:11 GMT

@maximum_gato

Don't think we can assume that they want to forward all unanswered calls to play a joke. Doing that will make them miss wanted calls or voice messages too which was a concern. Most people want voicemail.

Re: Spammed by automated phone call every 6 hours

esjliv — Mon, 20 Jul 2020 11:30:37 GMT

@toast

Here is hoping that the more you ignore it, they WILL stop calling eventually!

Agreed - That is very frustrating. 😣

Re: Spammed by automated phone call every 6 hours

geopublic — Mon, 20 Jul 2020 13:49:09 GMT

@toast Best to block calls from unknown numbers the majority of legit callers will not hide their numbers. Also check your call history does the number show up? If yes, block it.

Re: Spammed by automated phone call every 6 hours

Lorca — Mon, 20 Jul 2020 14:04:57 GMT

@maximum_gato Great link from @Nezgar

Re: Spammed by automated phone call every 6 hours

winston11 — Mon, 20 Jul 2020 14:16:13 GMT

I heard many people are getting fraud calls from Service Canada, could be that

Re: Spammed by automated phone call every 6 hours

maximum_gato — Mon, 20 Jul 2020 14:51:52 GMT

@cavemantoronto

More specifically this paragraph is what i had in mind for @toast seeing as the calls are like clockwork.....where the call goes is entirely up to the OP but would not effect other more important calls..........

@Nezgarwrote

I found that the "Busy" conditional forward is enacted when you choose to "Decline" a call. This is an easily apparent option on my Android phone, but requires a non-obvious double-tap of a side button (I think) on an iPhone (I'd love it if someone could confirm exact steps for me). If you set this conditional call forward to go to some disconnected number, FAX machine, company automated attendant, or your local pizza parlour, you may find the spam calls slow down as your number becomes flagged as 'not active' or 'business' and it keeps them away from your voicemail box. Unlike 'unconditional' call forwarding, you also have a chance to screen the call, so this forward will only happen if you actively decline it. If your phone is off, or you let it ring through unanswered, it will go to voicemail like usual.

Re: Spammed by automated phone call every 6 hours

LurganIeUk — Mon, 20 Jul 2020 15:19:09 GMT

@toast wrote:
I've been with public mobile for a few years now. I've recently been receiving a phone call exactly every 6 hours for over a week now: 4:18AM/PM and 10:18AM/PM. When I pick up, it disconnects. When I leave it, it logs a voicemail with silence for about 20s. The number is shown as a Private Number and anonymous when it forwards to my voicemail.

This is extremely irritating because blocking anonymous calls also blocks some legitimate calls, and I still get the voicemail recorded.

What can I do about this? Is this something PM can track down and put a stop to?

I get some like that on my voip phone. I then look it up on my account and sometimes it shows the real number that I can block. On my voip I an actually block all anonymous calls and set up a message for that specific block and could suggest for the legitimate caller to use a different phone or email. But so far we only get 2 callers from anonymous and they are legitimate.

Have you checked your PM account to see if it gives you a REAL number? Unfortunately Shaw home phones are often the culprit and most home owners with Shaw home phone don't complain to Shaw about it and while the home owner does know that often their calls are not answered at all due to the fact they know their caller id is ANONYMOUS. If that is the case ask your legit callers to work with their phone carrier as it is unlikely your phone has the capability to block AND give a message to call from another phone with proper caller iID. Or better yet, if it bothers you that much, block all anonymous calls and suggest that those callers resolve THEIR issue as it is not yours to fix!!

Since the calls go to your voicemail are you sure that you don't have the number blocked already? My CRA and calls in Chinese are all blocked but some come to voicemail...and the phone never rings. Blocking only blocks the call and from your phone ringing and unfortunately you are still open to having to accept a voicemail.

Re: Spammed by automated phone call every 6 hours

computergeek541 — Mon, 20 Jul 2020 15:25:14 GMT

@winston11 wrote:
I heard many people are getting fraud calls from Service Canada, could be that

If there's fraud calls, they're not really from Service Canada, but rather from people pretending to be from there. It is unlikely that the government employees would be behind this and risk losing their employment.

Re: Spammed by automated phone call every 6 hours

toast — Wed, 22 Jul 2020 07:30:05 GMT

@gpixel wrote:
@toast next time dont pick up the call, they are probably testing to see if you have a live number. if it's important they will leave you a voicemail

Picking up the call or ignoring it makes no difference because they keep calling regardless. If it was working properly or legitimate (a check to see if my number was active) it would've stopped by now. I thought I could wait it out but there's no sign this is going to stop unless the source is blocked or disconnected. It's pure harassment at this point, intentional or not. Even if I set my phone to block anonymous calls, it still gets forwarded to my Fongo voicemail. I'll try disabling forwarding to my voicemail for a while to see if it helps, or forwarding to a not-in-service / some other number. Thanks for the link @maximum_gato .

The calls show up as "Private Number" but appear as #anonymous in my voicemail (I forward to Fongo but even their service of blocking anonymous callers leaving voicemails doesn't work on these). In my PM account usage, I only see some of the incoming calls logged, which is strange, but when it lists them the number and originating location are both "Restricted".

Is there any way to find out what the actual number it's calling from is without dialing back with something like *69 (if that's even a thing anymore)? Since they call at a very specific time on a defined schedule, surely there must be a way for Public/Telus or someone else to determine at least *some* information about the source of these calls through a trace. At this point, I'd pay a bit of money to get closer to a solution.

Changing my number is not an option.

Re: Spammed by automated phone call every 6 hours

maximum_gato — Wed, 22 Jul 2020 23:58:38 GMT

@toast

Im hoping @Nezgar will come up with something....maybe you could conditional call forward them to the CCTS or the WCC automated phone lines or a fax machine. Usually finding out restricted numbers would have to be done with a warrant but if you go thru telus they might be able to help. There used to be listings of different departments in the white pages and i remember getting a lot of help with a nuisance caller years ago.....perhaps they can at least identify the country of origin etc.....maybe @AE_Collector or @sheytoon can help?

Re: Spammed by automated phone call every 6 hours

Nezgar — Wed, 22 Jul 2020 23:33:15 GMT

Hey all. late to the thread.

My best solution is to set all "Declined" calls to a dead-end number, setting it by dialing this:

*67*8080000000#

Then, when these automated systems call and you know from the caller ID that it's likely a junk call, manually decline the call, and their call will be immediately "hung up" on. They will see the call status as some kind of failure in their logs, rather than having been "answered" - either by you, or your voicemail. In theory it might eventually cause them to discount/remove your number as not in service or something.

Caller ID numbers that you add to your phones "blocked numbers list" will also be immediately directed to this dead-end instead of your voicemail. Unanswered calls, and calls while your phone is out of the service area will still flow to voicemail as usual.

To undo it, and reset declined calls to go to Public Mobile voicemail as normal, dial ##67#.

The nice thing about this solution is, that if you are unsure if the caller is legit, all they hear by being declined is a fast busy tone or endless ring, so if you do it to them they may just be confused and call back again. In which case you have another chance to decide to answer or not.

Oh, another option is to forward them to a payphone number. This one plays the message "At the customers request, the number you have dialed has been equipped for outgoing calls only."

*67*3065458171#

Re: Spammed by automated phone call every 6 hours

maximum_gato — Thu, 23 Jul 2020 00:02:42 GMT

@Nezgar

Thanks i knew you would come up with something that might eventually end these calls. The 4am call is very inconvenient but the other 3 times a day can easily be declined. Is there any way to program the phone to decline the 4am call?

Re: Spammed by automated phone call every 6 hours

LurganIeUk — Thu, 23 Jul 2020 01:16:32 GMT

@maximum_gato wrote:
@Nezgar
Thanks i knew you would come up with something that might eventually end these calls. The 4am call is very inconvenient but the other 3 times a day can easily be declined. Is there any way to program the phone to decline the 4am call?

Yes turn on Do Not Disturb from 10pm to 8am or what ever suits you.

Re: Spammed by automated phone call every 6 hours

AE_Collector — Thu, 23 Jul 2020 15:09:22 GMT

Strange this is on such a tight schedule. One story of regular phone calls though maybe it was once a day was an old dialler connected to a fuel oil tank at a residence or business that called in to report the tank needed filling. This was from the 50’s or 60’s and the fuel oil supply company had been out of business for years when something woke the dialler up again and it started calling the number now assigned to a different person.

AE_Collector