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Spammed by automated phone call every 6 hours

toast
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

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?

29 REPLIES 29

Sadi79
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

Just block that number, you never know it could be a scammer who wanted to hack your data.

toast
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

I returned a few days ago and the calls finally stopped! 😁 Unfortunately, I didn't find any further information about the source of the calls or their purpose, but I'm just happy to be rid of that nonsense.

 

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions and assistance!

toast
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

@Nezgar 

Thanks for all the suggestions.  Unfortunately due to overwhelming work commitments this past week and now traveling to a location without stable data / connection, I'll have to troubleshoot this issue further later in the month when I return to civilization. I set my phone to "block" anonymous calls for now (which then go to my vm) but it's a minor annoyance now.

 

I can work with you when I come back to see if we can get to the bottom of this.

@Nezgar 

You are TOTALLY AWESOME!!  Thank you for putting in so much work for the OP.

 

@toast 

When you check in next.....take @Nezgar  offer to help identify and root out your spam caller. Teaming up like a monday night murdoch mysteries.....whose behind those spam calls?

@maximum_gato  Hehe, Lenny is great, but wont be terribly effective against a system set to dial and hang up after 30 seconds of silence... so I didnt suggest that immediately...

 

@toast  - I am thinking of some more devious tricks to help you identify the caller. One idea is to temporarily forward your phone to a voip.ms DID which I have found sometimes can "decloak" caller ID information in the call logs. Im willing to work with you to use my account to test this theory, or help you setup your own account.

 

The other idea, also via voip.ms is to take your forwarded call to a voip.ms DID then immediately forward it to a ANI (Automatic Number Identification) service, such as this one run by MCI:

 

800-437-7950

 

Then, I would setup call recording on the incoming DID so we have a recording of what the ANI system announced, revealing the callers number.

 

At minimum, using voip.ms to receive your calls for voicemail gives you the option to present a requirement to press 1 or some other number to leave a message, which will prevent automated calls from leaving empty messages...

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Using-Your-Service/Lenny-the-Telemarketers-worst-nigh...

 

@toast 

Heres another gem from @Nezgar ....if it doesnt help you if should provide a stress relieving laugh!

*

toast
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

Thank you for the suggestions. I'll give some of them a try and reply back here with the results.

Just keep blocking. Eventually you will get it under control.

 

Keep in mind you may be blocking legitimate numbers as these callers “may” use legitimate numbers. It is called “Spoofing” which consists of altering the caller ID to show a different numberthan the one actually being used for making the telephone call. This is frequently done to mislead the person receiving the telephone call into believing that the call is either local, or from a trusted organization.

 

So before you block check your contact list to make sure you are not  blocking a number you would expect a call from. Also Google 800Notes and can confirm, sometimes, if it is a call that you absolutely don’t want. I have had a call from my own number. They spoof a number that is in your calling area to make you feel more confident to answer. 

 

I don’t recommend registering with a DO NOT CALL LIST. It puts your number on a list that callers CAN call you. SEE HERE

 

THE BEST WAY TO CONTROL IS TO CONTROL YOURSELF.

 

Also....be very suspect of a SCAM call if your caller ID only shows a number and no name. The name often comes from YOUR contact list on your device.

 

Keep your contact lists up to date AND block, block and block some more!!

 

😀Changing your number is not a good idea if it was previously used. 😀

 

I too would also suggest to use the DO NOT DISTURB settings on your phone as well and make sure you set what options work best for you. If iPhone see here. 

 

LurganIeUk_0-1595543579776.png

 

 

 

Also SEE HERE for more information on blocking calls on both Android and iOS devices.

 

https://mobilesyrup.com/2019/11/15/how-to-identify-block-spamc-calls-ios-android/

 

Copyright 2020

@AE_Collector 

   Good point.....and another avenue @toast can investigate. Maybe its an alarm company or security check in automatic dialer.....telus being the parent company would be the best to call for more info or tracking of the caller/private number?

Danchvn
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

@LurganIeUk That's pretty much what I do and only allow calls/texts from my contacts through in that time frame.

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


@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. 

@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?

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#

@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?

toast
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

 


@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.

 

 


@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.

LurganIeUk
Mayor / Maire

@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. 

@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.

winston11
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

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

Lorca
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

@maximum_gato   Great link from @Nezgar

geopublic
Mayor / Maire

@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.

esjliv
Mayor / Maire

@toast 

 

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

Agreed - That is very frustrating.  😣

@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. 

@cavemantoronto 


@maximum_gato wrote:

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Using-Your-Service/Fun-with-Conditional-Call-forwardi...

 

@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?


 

@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.

maximum_gato
Mayor / Maire

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Using-Your-Service/Fun-with-Conditional-Call-forwardi...

 

@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....

gpixel
Mayor / Maire

@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

cellphoneuser1
Mayor / Maire

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.

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