Mysterious phone calls
 

I have an AT&T GoFone.

I have been getting phone calls from a number that is not listed.

The calls are only 1 cent, but it is still disturbing.

Any ideas as to how to stop them ?

They may also be illegal.

Assuming you are in the States, check the FCC website. You might also contact your carrier and ask them whether they can help.

If they show in your call history, there might be a way of blocking them, but that would depend on the phone, your plan, and whether "unknown" calls can be blocked in any way. I've never needed to and I rather doubt it, but it is certainly worth a look.

Thanks.

The calls do not show in my call history.

I will check the FCC.

They may not show in your call history, but for sure your carrier knows where they came from. I don't think there is any way they can transmit the calls to your phone and not have some kind of record of them. Whether they will be willing to help is a whole nother story.

Let us know what happens.

My experience with AT&T is that they give excuses as to why they do not know who called.

They are lying of course. :-)

"Holiness is in right action, and courage on behalf of those who cannot defend themselves, and goodness."

Legality is a moot point. If they are coming from overseas (most likely), or even if it is within the country clearly who ever is calling you doesn't give two s**** about the law. With the advent of VOIP it is also not that hard to obfuscate your location, and even telcos like AT&T , Vonage let you port your home number even if it is from a state that you moved from, i.e you live in CA but moved from say NY or where ever.

It is weird that you are being charged though just to be called, even if you don't even answer that makes no sense to me. With these situations also, it is pretty much a cat-and-mouse game, because those parties will try to find ways of circumventing blocks, also it won't even matter if the blocks are working. If they are using some kind of autodialer, it is possible you just got hit because of it, which is nothing new since the autodialer is trying every combination of numbers for an area code.

-edit

Oh yes I forgot, also it does not matter if your number is 'unlisted' - it will get hit if it is an autodialer.

All cell phones I know charge even if you do not answer.

The calls are only a penny, but they are still upsetting.

Standard calls are 10 cents a minute.

Since I am only charged a penny, maybe AT&T is making some attempt to block the call or minimize my charges.

I am hoping whoever is doing it will get bored and quit. :-)

I called AT&T.

They refunded 14 cents and gave me a year on my minutes instead of the usual 3 months.

They said I was pushing some button that accessed a data plan.

Which was not true. I had them disable any internet functions.

Thanks for the update. You might have been crammed: https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides...our-phone-bill

I got crammed once. Once I figured out something was screwy and called my carrier, support looked at my account and said, "We'll take care of it," with no finger-pointing or protest (I use a different carrier).

I do not know if it would effect your problem; but here in New York state the Attorney General has been going after companies that violate the federal " do not call list " and getting monetary judgements against them!! I got a new phone number a few years ago and I was getting swamped with unwanted calls!! Threatening legal action was the only thing that eventually stopped them!!

I think unsolicited callers should be "massaged" with a stiff rubber hose.

I had to call an ex-doctor who was robocalling me. :-(

Any doctor who overbooks and I have to wait more than 15 minutes past my appt. time, gets a anonymous note posted in the waiting area.

"Patients time is just as valuable as yours.

Overbooking tells patients that you do not care about their time."

May be related, but I've been getting calls with only 9 digits instead of 10 (US numbers). The calls do show in my call log, but since they are missing a number, can't call back or trace them. I just recieved one, and it shows as 777576037. Unfortunately, I can only block them as they come in.

You can't stop them. The crooks have figured out ways to bypass the entire phone system.

A very slight improvement might be to use do not call both US and your states list and file every time someone bypasses do not call.

(If I get another call from "Cindy with Florida Getaways can you hear me okay" I think I shall scream.)

So far I have 3 numbers blocked. The first 7 digits of those numbers are the same. Unfortunetly my phone doesn't allow wildcards in the numbers being blocked. So far there have been no voicemails after the call.