(I wish there was a Post Icon of a guy gnashing his teeth in anger, because I'd use that for this post)

So, for the past 5 days, I've been receiving a calls from a nearby Verizon Wireless cellphone user. No biggie, right, except that the cell calls me EVERY 40 minutes AROUND the clock. Yet when I pick up, all I hear is dead air for 2.5 minutes until it hangs up. And though it lets the phone ring 4 times, it never a dead air message on my (phone company managed) voicemail.

A call to Verizon quickly revealed that, yes, this is a cell phone calling me. However, the rep could not do anything about it, and only sort of said that my local police could contact Verizon to help stop it.

Call to my local police have yeilded nothing but passing the buck for days and days. They suggested that I use Sprints *57, but couldn't tell me what to do with it once I did. And Sprint's *57 service quaintly disconnected me before telling me what I needed to do. A call to Sprint's customer service reps tomorrow might help, but they may just tell me to keep pressing *57, which costs $1 every time; as if Sprint doesn't nickel-and-dime me to death already (but that's another, much more angry rant).

So, I wonder three things:

1. Does anyone know of a feature on a Verizon-able cell phone that calls a number every 40 minutes for days on end?

2. Does anyone here work at Verizon that could help me stop this insanity?

3. Is it helping suck up the caller's minutes and generate a huge bill because I pick up the calls and let them sit for 2.5 minutes? And does it suck up their minutes simply to dial me even when I can't pick up?

I really hate having to take my phone off the hook every night for fear of missing a legitimate call. I'm basicaly being DoS'ed by someone or something, and it's making me kind of mad. Thoughts? Thanks everyone.

What happens if you call the number ?

I bet *57 is free if the police actually use the info from it.

Quote:
3. Is it helping suck up the caller's minutes and generate a huge bill because I pick up the calls and let them sit for 2.5 minutes? And does it suck up their minutes simply to dial me even when I can't pick up?

Yes and maybe, so maybe take some consolation from this!
Sounds like a configuration problem. Surprised that Verizon can't/won't pursue based on abuse of service. Have you politely, but unhappily asked to speak with a supervisor...and the supervisor's boss?

Last time this happened to me, it was Loren calling.

See, as part of one of the Bay Area meets, I'd given the cell phone number to him, and he had put it on one of his speed-dial buttons...

Basically, I'd get calls where all I heard was the sound of his car driving along the highway... from the point of view of his back pocket...

In the UK there is a fixed line service called "Choose to Refuse" - it lets you block any number from calling you, even if the CLID is witheld. If you want it you normally need to pay but if you are receiving nuisance calls it is offered free.

I suspect there is a similar block that your phone company can put on it, perhaps until you find out a permanent solution from Verizon.

Gareth

What about something like *69 to try and call them back? At least to find out who they are.

If he is calling verizon trying to get info about the call I figured he must know the number ?

Oh, I've got the number. Written plain as day all across my Caller ID logs. It's so local I could probably throw a stone and hit the perp. But no amount of looking on the internet has found out who it belongs to. I'll be trying Verizon again, then maybe Sprint (who will probably sign me up for $5/month "DataLine Guard" just for talking to them).

And g_attrill, we have those services in the US, but they rarely work against cell phones. Cell phones seem to be immune to alot of things for one reason or another. It's both a blessing (you can't get unsolicited business calls on your cell) and a curse (you can't block unsolicited / harassing cell calls).

Into day 6 of nonstop calls every 40 minutes. I hope someone has to fit that bill.

what happens if you call the number?

Here's an idea: hang a modem on the line and let it answer. If it's a data call, it will pick up and squeal back: if it's fax, then it can be received and cleared. If it's voice, then eventually the noise will get someone's attention.

Why don't you post the number here and we will all dial it with re-tries every 30 seconds from our modems? THAT will wake the bugger up!

If I call the number, it rings 6 or 7 times before James Earl Jones picks up and tells me that the Verizon user has not set up their voicemail yet. No way to identify the caller based on voicemail message.

Rob, it may very well be some sort of machine waiting for a connect noise. I would hook up a listening fax and listening modem in a heart beat, but the victimized line is my primary house phone which is also used by my sisters business. I can't get in it's way. But, hm...... at night....... turn the ringer off, put a fax or computer on it......

See ... I knew you'd get pissed off enough at some point

So you can't get the name back from a reverse-lookup on a site like superpages.com?

Cell (mobile) phones are generally unlisted, and don't show up in those directories.

-jk

That's just crazy - over here you call BT's Malicious Calls Bureau and they instantly add the service to your account, then when the number calls again you hang up then dial 14258** and it's blocked.

The amount of hassle to actually get the calls stopped is probably about the same (paperwork, police that care etc..) and you are just as unlikely to get their name/address, but the physical problem would be sorted.

Gareth

A related story:

A friend of mine one day started getting similar calls to his cell phone. If he answered the call, he'd hear either nothing or faint muddled noises. They were always from the same number, and calling the number back did no good; the other end never answered and went straight to a non-configured voice mail box.

These calls didn't have a set frequency, but happened at least a few per day, and sometimes several in an hour. All times of day, too.

From the number and the voice mail recording, my friend figured out it was a Sprint PCS number calling him, and called Sprint for some help. A couple of calls didn't get him any information, but finally one day he got a rep who told him that number wasn't assigned to an actual customer, but was assigned to a Sprint PCS store.

My friend immediately went down to the local Sprint PCS store to see what he might be able to find out there. After talking to several employees and having them all put their heads together, they finally stumbled upon the following:

Seems that one of my friend's friends had apparently called my friend once from one of the demo phones at this Sprint PCS store. That particular phone was fastened to its display stand with a zip tie that partially obscured one of the buttons (the talk button?), that when held down became a last number redial button. Apparently there was just enough pressure on the button that a temperature fluctuation or a breeze or something would make it actually make contact and dial my friend's phone. So, for days, this phone was just sitting in some out of the way corner of the store, making these repeated calls to my friend's phone with no one in the store even noticing.

As I recall, since my friend also had service with Sprint, he convinced them to give him some free minutes for his trouble or something.

Either way, I think your situation must be similar. Someone has a piece of equipment with a modem that needs to dial every 40 minutes and they've entered the dial up number wrong or something. Don't know why it's dialing out over a cell phone, though...

Have you tried plugging a fax into the line yet ?

Actually, these days there are credit card machines that work that way.

adavidw, good good story. My caller could easily be a phone in a Verizon shop, plugged into the wall for power and plugged into a computer for testing, burried under a stack of junk or something. I have garnered that it's registered to a business and that the phone is very very rarely used. And, interestingly, I have also found that I did receive one call from that number just under two months ago... at 4am. Some kid pushing buttons on a store demo? Maybe not, but it could be a similar situation.....

andy, I didn't hook up a fax yet. Every calling fax machine I've used will issue their connection beep about every 3 seconds. This hits the receiving fax line's squeeling and the communication begins. But like mtempsch and dbrashear say, it could be some other machine waiting for the recipient to start the connection handshake. If it's a vending machine that needs restocking, that would explain why it's used only a few minutes a month. It might just be having some kind of failure.

Thanks for the great suggestions everyone; that the outside-the-box thinking that I didn't see. I'll add this to my notes and see if it helps me with further calls to Verizon.

You should definitely immediately find the website for your state's Public Service Commision.
Usually, the URL looks something like this:
http://www.psc.state.fl.us/
Often you can just replace FL with your state's two-letter code, and find it. Otherwise, just hit up Google.
Once you file a PSC complaint, the carrier (Verizon) has 24 working hours to respond, or else they start getting fined.
You WILL get your situation resolved, probably by some high-tier CSR inside Verizon. I've had similar things happen, and the PSC has always come through for me.

Wow, thanks for that tip. I like Verizon Wirelss, I really do. I don't want to cause them too much trouble because it's probably not their fault. But I may try this to light a fire under someone's tail.

Haha, now every time I get the call, I just picture this soda machine sitting outside some building facing an empty parking lot at 3am... calling me because it's out of Pepsi.

I don't know why a single call to Sprint didn't work. Maybe you didn't say the magic words:

"If these calls are not blocked by tomorrow morning, I'm cancelling my service."

Bruno

<not a rant at you, but at Sprint>

Ha, I twitch with insane laughter at the thought of that phrase. Oh, how I'd say that to every Sprint "customer service" rep that's signed me up for services without my acknowledgement. I can't count the number of times I'd say it to all the "solutions providers" who have been flat-dumb unable to help me setup my office phone line setup.

Why, Sprint has the monopoly in my area. I have no choice. I just spend a few hours tonight (the last of MANY) totalling up over $400 in unnecessary charges from the past 6 months that they snuck on my bills while I was trying to modify my setup. Not to mention the hundreds and hundreds of dollars in long distance charges since they "slammed" me; taking my local toll and long distance from 18 cents/minute MCI to their FOURTY cents/minute plan. Um, that's how much I pay when I'm over my cell phone minutes, and they want me to pay it all the time?

So no, the only thing that a call to Sprint will get me is some loose-cannon comission-sharking predatory sales representative signing me up for "perminant harassing call trace service" at the slightest mention of the subject.

Verizon, on the other hand, are great, and I hope they continue to do so. I will have more luck with them.

Do you have cable service in your area? Get cable-based high-speed internet and then sign up with Vonage or other VoIP provider. Then tell Sprint to kiss you ass.

I'll be doing this with Bell Canada. Dropping their DSL and local phone service completely. The "Phone Company" is going to be in a world of hurt in most of Canada over the next few years.

Bruno

You guys all totally rock! This is why I love this place so much.

dbrashear: I'm very very sorry, I wasn't clear. Only Verizon Wireless is good, the rest is horrible! I've known techs on the inside at Verizon and the can attest to just how horrible their phone and DSL service is.

PaulWay: Amen!

hybrid8: That is totally my Plan B. Vonage seems great, but I'm not entirely comfortable with having a set number of minutes on my "land line". That, and my neighborhood (and entire state; NJ, the most densly populated state) is, well, densly populated. I worry that cable speeds would be slow compaired to the steadfast "guaranteed" DSL rates.

I'm also considering replacing my fax system with a computer containing a modem. Let the computer take the fax, turn it into PDF, and e-mail it (via home network) to everyone that needs it. Send faxes by e-mailing them to the machine, or something. I haven't looked TOO hard, but that software must exist somewhere. And it saves trees too! If the fax # wasn't printed on business cards, I'd ditch the phone line and get some kind of eFax (but security issues worry me there).

andy: Yes, text messages are the epitome of "sell phone" technology. Why would someone take minutes to type out a sentence (or unreadable acronyms) using 9 buttons when they can take half the time to just CALL. And "push to talk" "walkie talkie" is even worse. Why would you carry on a half duplex conversation when you could have full duplex if you just CALL. Oh, then there's ring tones, games, camera phones, and all those other sales tricks. Forget it; StarTac 7868W forever!

Yes, phone companies in America are dying too. They are just outdated. VoIP, wireless, chat, e-mail, etc have taken over. But, those internet services are prone to security problems. However, there's those convenient government regulations that allow all phone lines to be tapped. Pah, I'm going back to smoke signals.

Vonage has unlimited service for either 25 or 30 dollars a month including long distance.(can't remember which)

I currently have Vonage and I think it works fine but I have been thinking of dumping it and just getting a cell phone.

My housemate has Packet8. It seems to work really well and is only $20/month for unlimited calling to US and Canada. He chose that over Vonage because the monthly fee is obviously cheaper and you don't have to pay for the "device." They also sent it overnight and from what I remember there was no shipping fee.

.................. I think I figured out who the caller is.

While eating dinner with my sister and her boyfriend, my rattling off the list of possibilities finally clicked something in both of their minds.

Now I just have to get to Verizon before the police get to the owner of the phone. I potentially have a DEEP hole to dig out of.............. about $435 dollars deep.

Come on, Spill the beans.

Call forwarding from somewhere?

Is it your bookie?

Or should we give up on the idea of getting transparent buttons from a now very angry caster?

Last time I checked out packet8 they didn't have local numbers in my area but it looks like they do now. I have the 25.00 unlimited plan from Vonage and I got it a while ago before they were selling it in stores and I can't remember if I had to pay for hardware or not.

What I would really like is a cell phone with the device they showed on techtv that let you use a land line phone to call out on a cell phone. The bad part is they only had it for some motorola phones.

Okay, we're DYING to know what this is about.

Over dinner with my sister and her boyfriend, I was rattling off all the information that I had pieced together about these calls. It suddenly clicked with all of us that we should have thought of it WAY sooner than we did, since each of us was familiar with the responsible party.

It was a phone-enabled alarm notification from a water pumping station that my sister manages. We didn't know about this one, there were no alarms at the pump to indicate that it should be calling, it didn't speak a message indicating a problem like the other phone-enabled alarms do, and it continued to call after the alarm condition had been resolved. So, it suffered multiple failures and we're trying to track that down now.

So, now there's a $900 bill pending (according to my calculations). It's going to take some doing to resolve this peacefully, but I think it's possible.

Thanks so much for all your tips. I honestly wouldn't have gotten to the bottom of this without them! Ah, finally, silence in the house (except for the damn telemarketers, which finally pushed me to sign up for the Do Not Call list).