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How to stop private number harassing you?

charrona
Great Neighbour / Super Voisin
Hey all,

For the past month I've had a "private number" call me between 1 and 4 times a day. When I pick up there is just silence. I don't think it's a robot because the time before they hang up isn't consistent, sometimes right away, others they wait 20-30 seconds like they're trying to talk to me and I can't hear them.

I thought it was because I didn't have long distance, so I bought the long distance addon and it didnt help. *69 said I couldn't call long distance before, and now it just says it's unavailable.

I heard of an app called trapcall that will tell you the number, but the app store says "not available on your provider".

It's very annoying and I don't want to block all private numbers in case it's something important. I do not want to change my number as I have been using the same one for 16 years.

Any ideas on what I can do? Can public mobile provide the number somehow?
21 REPLIES 21


@LurganIeUk wrote:

😀ok. But now my mother-in-law won a prize on a cruise as they were all asked who was married for over 65 years. She put her hand up and won!  But they did not ask if she was married to the same person. 


LOL @LurganIeUk  so, is that why you want to suspend your service for 5 days?  You and your wife are taking the free cruise?  Lucky duckies!

😀 ok. But now my mother-in-law won a prize on a cruise as they were all asked who was married for over 65 years. She put her hand up and won!  But they did not ask if she was married to the same person. 


@LurganIeUk wrote:

@kb_mv wrote:
That’s going to cause a lot of work and hassle and even though you can do every 30 days, it should be last resort.  I can see, for some professions, the option to change a number every 30 days is handy. 

@LurganIeUk I have moved a lot (and I mean a lot - 8 different provinces at least once, 16 times since married 35 years). In the past 20 years since cell phones became more common, I have moved 7 times including 3 different provinces. Today it is super easy updating people. A group email and / or SMS updates everyone I need to at once. Most others like banks can be updated online. Other than doctors office, schools and maybe a few others that will require a bit of effort, it is pretty easy.


@kb_mv wrote:

@kimberley1 You can change your number for free once every 30 days. Go in self serve as shown in a previous post and change it. You just have to make sure he doesn't find out the new one from someone.


That’s going to cause a lot of work and hassle and even though you can do every 30 days, it should be last resort.  I can see, for some professions, the option to change a number every 30 days is handy. 

@charrona @kimberley1 

 

To take a new number is not the best idea. The new number may have been a “problem” and that is why it may have been relinquished. 

 

So so far no one has said what kind of phone you have. 

 

Some helpful steps:

Have an up to date contacts list

Religiously keep adding to it

Leave true “enemies” out of your contacts list 

Any call that shows a number only, be cautious to answer or let go to voicemail

If you have “do not disturb” you have many options such as:

Set time frame for no calls accepted or calls from favourites only or calls from contact list only and/or if a caller not in your contacts that calls 2 or 3 times in a 3 minute time period. 

I would caution the use of the latter. Or set phone to not accept calls 24/7 from a number is NOT in your contact list. 

 

Sure you don’t want to be harassed. If push comes to shove visit your local police agency. 

Sure you don’t want to miss a call.....but you won’t If voicemail kicks in. And if some one won’t leave a message..... then it’s not important. 

And a new number might have had previous  problems or was owned by a drug dealer or pizza delivery. 

What happens when a friend or acquaintance  leaks your new number to a friend to NOT a friend?

Bottom line it will cost “you” some time to build  good contacts list to protect you and peace of mind. 

 

Once done....make sure you occasionally back up phone.  

 

Need contacts....ask your friends and family to text or email contacts in vcf format that they think would  help you. 

 

I don't know how this would benefit but will mention in case you can incorporate it.....a free Fongo number allows you to direct all calls from the Fongo dialled number to your PM number. 

 

Edit. 

And of course....block the obvious numbers from CRA, Westjet and Telus Chinese division....they are all scam calls. 

@kimberley1 You can change your number for free once every 30 days. Go in self serve as shown in a previous post and change it. You just have to make sure he doesn't find out the new one from someone.

kimberley1
Great Neighbour / Super Voisin

my x calls me from a unknow number

@kimberley1  PM allows one change per 30 days. Log into your account and click change number.

 

Orange arrow on pic below.

 

Screenshot_20200629_182641.jpg

kimberley1
Great Neighbour / Super Voisin

im recieving harassing phone calls from a unknow number i would love to change my number please

charrona
Great Neighbour / Super Voisin
@DragonSpecV

An app does exist, it's called trapcall and works by routing your number through a 1-800 number. However it doesn't work on public mobile for some reason.

I really wish I could tell who is calling me 😞

jpar
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

@DragonSpecV wrote:

@jpar

If it was true that the carrier would still be able to see the number, when the caller goes to voicemail, it would read back that number.  Unfortunately it just comes back as "... from an unknown number" or "caller".

 

But I think it would be safe to assume @charrona doesn't own a toll-free number, so ANI won't apply in this case.  But good find none the less!

 

If it was easy for anyone to reveal blocked / private numbers, I'm sure someone would already be making millions creating an app for smart phones as I'm sure a lot of people would pay for such an app.


The carrier technically can, though, and it's nothing to do with having or not having a toll-free number. They just choose to respect the 'private caller' tag that's sent when a call comes in with that enabled. An app wouldn't have access to any of that information as the carrier wouldn't be disclosing it with the incoming call anyway. I'm just saying that if it were a significant enough issue, there is a way to trace the origin of the call, but it's something a network team would have to do. It certainly can be done.

DragonSpecV
Great Citizen / Super Citoyen

@jpar

If it was true that the carrier would still be able to see the number, when the caller goes to voicemail, it would read back that number.  Unfortunately it just comes back as "... from an unknown number" or "caller".

 

But I think it would be safe to assume @charrona doesn't own a toll-free number, so ANI won't apply in this case.  But good find none the less!

 

If it was easy for anyone to reveal blocked / private numbers, I'm sure someone would already be making millions creating an app for smart phones as I'm sure a lot of people would pay for such an app.

jpar
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

@DragonSpecV wrote:

@charrona

Unfortunately that's the beauty of "Private caller" is that you can block your # from showing up to anyone else.  Nothing thus far exists to change that option to display the true caller.

 

Since you do not want to change your number, the only true option is to push the "private caller" to voicemail.  As you say, you don't want to miss an important call, so if it's important, they will leave you a voicemail.  If no voicemail, must not have been important at all!

 

Good luck!


The carrier can still see the number through ANI though, the whole call display blocking feature is not 100% supported worldwide (toll-free numbers, for example. use ANI to see your number anyway), so they (PM/Telus) may be able to find something that way.

DragonSpecV
Great Citizen / Super Citoyen

@charrona

Unfortunately that's the beauty of "Private caller" is that you can block your # from showing up to anyone else.  Nothing thus far exists to change that option to display the true caller.

 

Since you do not want to change your number, the only true option is to push the "private caller" to voicemail.  As you say, you don't want to miss an important call, so if it's important, they will leave you a voicemail.  If no voicemail, must not have been important at all!

 

Good luck!

Blocked number showed up as blocked caller in spam folder but you can manually set like phone won't ring on blocked or spam calls.
** I am not a Mod, please do not include any private info in a private message to me.**

But does true caller show blocked numbers?

 

I was under impression only CQS could do this (and Bell / Telus pretty much banned that app, unless you have an old copy)

 

Only have 2 options AVAIALBE.
Either change your number to new one. Or I personally like true caller app I m using it as well you can set your priority on setting like block all spam and private and unknown numbers as well. Work pretty good also come with sms app too and provides real time caller id.
** I am not a Mod, please do not include any private info in a private message to me.**

pratchak
Great Citizen / Super Citoyen

I am interested to see what is the solution for this issue. I get random calls from US. They dont talk after I receive the call. They just hang up. Not sure what that was about.

Raven_Jet
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle
This is definitely an issue... but the question is, do you have people who have private number that will call you?

If there isn't then you can cancel the call when it rings to forward it to voicemail. That's what I do.

mimmo
Retired Oracle / Oracle Retraité

are you using android or iphone?  you could try truecaller app.  i thibk that i rthe one that has been suggested on the forums before

CaNuCk07
Mayor / Maire

Best thing to do is message the moderators, see if there is any way for them to trade it in the background.  I doubt there is anything that can be done from self serve.

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