Obscene calls

Battlejuice

I was receiving calls on my mobile from some pathetic Eunuch in the dead of night from a 'private number'. Called my mobile company and they advised to call the cops as they had the caller's number on record but couldn't give it to me.
Fair enough.
Called the 999 swicthboard and was greeted by a less than pleasant operator who transferred me to an even nastier local Garda station.
The cops told me that I had to go the station in person and speak to the superintendent.
Again fair enough.
I wasn't too bothered by the calls and it was more my sense of justice (get the anonymous little f**cker back) that spurred me on, but I couldn't help think about what happens to someone who might be alone and afraid? Sure they could put their phone on silent like I did but then what? Try and sleep until you have the courage to head out to the local garda station?
That seemed to be the only choice.
Now maybe it's because i'm a fella but the Guards really didn't like me trying to lodge a complaint about this the following day. The first question asked after I told my story was "Where do you live?". The glee on their faces when they discovered I lived on the periphery of two station jursidictions was evident as they stuck the kettle on and reached for the Hob-nobs before closing the shutter and pointing me to "d'other" local garda station.
At this stage i'm not impressed but still determined, so trudge through the rain to the other station (my very own garda station apparently) where, after irritably listening to my story, again asked "Where do you live?".
I pointed out that the call came to my mobile, not a landline so I could have been in Cork, Donegal or Wexford at the time it really didn't matter and could you just please stop this guy.
"You need to go to the other station" was their declaration.
"They told me to come here" I managed to say as the shutter once again shut in my face.
I let it go.
Eunuch-boy is still free to call me about his prepubescent issues during his night-shift and the Guards just don't give a f*ck. I never had anything against the Guards my entire life until now. In such circumstances what does one do? Anybody else had this sort of sh!te?

ST*

Battlejuice wrote:

Called the 999 swicthboard and was greeted by a less than pleasant operator who transferred me to an even nastier local Garda station.

You called the emergency services over prank phone calls.... :eek:
No wonder they weren't happy with you.

Battlejuice

Believe me I didn't like dialling 999 but that's the procedure that had to be followed according to my mobile phone provider.:(

tman

you could just not answer calls from private numbers...
i went through the same thing recently and they eventually got bored of me not providing any entertainment. (this was after they made a couple of death threats...)

give these ****ers an inch and they'll take a mile
be a boring bastard and they'll soon find someone more provokable to bother

Bettyboop

i have been getting call at exactly 2.30 in the morning for the past week
heavy breathing with backround music.the number is always displayed
asked everyone i know about this number in case it was one of them but
its not I just let it ring away asI dont know what can be done about it.
I need the phone on as a neighbour of mine is very ill and as she might take bad during the night left her my mobile and homephone number.
Can anything be done?? Cant really bother guards with it can I ??

giveth

Does anyone else think that Private numbers shouldnt be allowed? I dont see why people should be allowed to keep their identity private when making calls.

RedPlanet

start prank phone-calling the local garda station?

Hobbes

Battlejuice wrote:

Believe me I didn't like dialling 999 but that's the procedure that had to be followed according to my mobile phone provider.:(

You might of gotten a better response if you phoned your local gardai station first. With regards to not getting settled by both gardai stations go back to the first and (without screaming, being rude, etc) point out that the other station sent you back to them and if neither station is responisble to ask where to contact.

ST*

Getting prank phone calls is a bit of a b1tch. Police do not hold records from mobile phone companies, they have to request the information from them. When that is done, then the offender must go to court and be issued with a warning. Its a bit messy to be honest. If this person is threatening your life, I'd go ahead with it. I was told I'd be better off changing my number, but I didn't. Answer your phone, place it down somewhere without disconnecting the call and walk away - do *not* listen. The obscene caller will soon get p1ssed off that they are not getting the desired response from you, aswell as being charged for the calls.

BuffyBot

Believe me I didn't like dialling 999 but that's the procedure that had to be followed according to my mobile phone provider.

They advised you to specifically call 999 and not your local Garda Station?

You do know 999 isn't a general access number for the Garda. It's an emergency number..

giveth

giveth wrote:

Does anyone else think that Private numbers shouldnt be allowed? I dont see why people should be allowed to keep their identity private when making calls.

No way.

They are very useful if you make alot of out going calls and you want to control who is able to ring you back. (And annoy you with stupid questions at all hours of the night)!

Sleipnir

ST* wrote:

somewhere without disconnecting the call and walk away - do *not* listen. The obscene caller will soon get p1ssed off that they are not getting the desired response from you, aswell as being charged for the calls.

That's the thing to do alright. Somebody was doing this to me but after I started putting the phone down beside the radio and walking away, they soon quit.

Sam Vimes

the solution to prank calls: dirvert all calls to the local dominos after a certain time. or better yet the local garda station. they'll start to care if they get called every night

Lux23

I used to get about 15-35 texts a day from someone and I reported it to the Guards but they wouldn't do anything about it. Now basically this person was threatening to tell people all sorts of stuff I didn't sleep with them which I thought was serious but they didn't. I think the person has to be texting/ ringing you all the time and threatening serious phyiscal assualt before they will actually do anything.

@Betty If you have the number may you could get a sim card and then ring the person to see if they give anything away about who they are. It does like it may be an ex or something.

Ring from a private number and get someone to pretend to be from o2 or vodafone and promise free credit.

See if you can get any personal details.

LB6

It's definitely not amusing, when someone calls like that. I had calls to my home phone for 3 weeks, every couple of minutes for a couple of hours. Couldn't take the phone off the hook as it was a walkabout. Eventually I'd have to disconnect the line from the wall and hope that no one would be looking for me in an emergency during the night.

I spoke with the gardai, who told me to firstly try the whistle method. This had no effect.

My second option was to allow eircom & gardai to put trace on phone for couple weeks so they could find the caller. That would have meant another 14 days and nights of torment.

Final option was to call the Eircom office for phone misuse. They quizzed me regarding the problem and within four hours I'd received a new number.

You can also contact any of the mobile servers as well and state your case. They have been known to be co-operative on this type of problem and will change your number pretty rapidly.

Good luck.

Battlejuice

I wasn't too rattled by the call, just annoyed at being woken up by a fool. I can't really afford to leave my mobile on silent or switched off so that isn't really an option.
Again, ringing 999 wasn't what I wanted to do at all. I am aware it is an emrgency number for serious incidents and I wasn't in any sort of emergency at all, but that was the advice given, yes, specifically given, so I perhaps sheepishly followed it.
I'm a little startled at how difficult it is for the authorities to deal with this sort of thing. I know of people who really have been upset by these sort of muppets and it can make them terribly paranoid. Given that the mobile ophone company have the guy's number I assume they have some more details.
Not really willing to drag this issue into court so I won't be walking back into the pin-ball effect of my two local Garda stations (I was nothing but civil on each occasion as I appreciate attitude doesn't help in these circumstances).
Will just let the freak talk to himself, as I did before and wait for him to move on to someone else.

Femelade

just answer the calls, say nothing, they will soon get fed up of using all their credit on you.

ferdi

just answer the phone and then put it down and go about your business leaving the call running thereby wasting his money

Alun

Why does something like this have to go as far as going to court? Guards ring mobile phone company, get number, ring up said perv and read him the riot act, end of story. Would take all of 10 minutes of their precious time ... lazy gits.

ferdi

privicy laws are very strict.

Alun

ferdi wrote:

privicy laws are very strict.

Your point being what exactly? The OP doesn't have to know who the perpetrator is, only the Guards, and as we all know, they're the soul of discretion

takola

RedPlanet wrote:

start prank phone-calling the local garda station?

I just LOVE this idea!!!! HEHE
Ah go on, do it and then you can let us all know how long it took them to trace your call and arrest you for wasting time!!!! Lazy Gits!!!!

EWheelChair

Answer and put the phone down. Its their credit and they'll get bored if you just leave them hanging on the other line.

I used to get them (i think i texted a wrong number in my phone, i think it belonged to the person i bought the phone off) and i used to love getting abused. I'd sit back, put it on loud speaker and just laugh with my mates at what they were saying.

Civilian_Target

giveth wrote:

Does anyone else think that Private numbers shouldnt be allowed? I dont see why people should be allowed to keep their identity private when making calls.

What would drug dealers do then?

On a serious note: Phoning 999 to complain about harassing phonecalls is a criminal offence, as is any non-emergency call to the number.

Sam Vimes

Femmy wrote:

just answer the calls, say nothing, they will soon get fed up of using all their credit on you.

two years later and my pranker hasnt given up. i even got his number blocked before by calling meteor, pretending to be him and saying i lost the phone. no effect

FillSpectre

My phone was stolen in Portugal. I was annoyed but not that bothered. I had a few things set in the phone such as pictures attached to people which show up when they ring. Now my wife and a few of my female friends started getting texts from a Portugeese speaking country (can't remember which one). I am guessing that is where my phone is now. General "hey baby" type texts.

If my phone operator suggested rininging 999 over this I wounldn't do it. In fact I would report it to the police and hope they bring them to court for wasting police time. Which operator are you with? They are messing with my service which I want used for emergencies only

Paddy_Irishman

The rest are all guessing or making educated guesses on what to do. It's simple really.

Go down to the local station, ask the name of the garda. Tell them you intend to make a written statement of complaint on the issue and you intend to go ahead with a prosecution on the offender.

Few things you will want to make sure you have.
- Make sure you have 30-60minutes free to give them a statement.
- The dates and times it has happened to you.
- Be willing to allow the gardai to gain access to your personal information from your phone subscriber.

The reason you are probably meeting a lack of interest is because this is alot more common than you think and 99% of people do not intend to go ahead with a prosecution for several reasons. This wastes Garda time and your money as a tax payer. Also alot of people use this method as a way of revenege on other people and gardai are the innocent weapon used against them so thats why u may meet some apathy towards your problem.

If you try it the way I suggest I think you will have more success. If you mention the superintends name while talking to the gardai in question they will **** them self and help you believe me.

As for the rest posting here, typical. Clueless ranting with very little help to the OP's question / predicament.

deisemum

Paddy Irishman is right. When I worked for BT (in UK) the nuisance call bureau couldn't reveal info until the police were involved. Then it was normally very straight forward.

daram

My girlfriend had a caller a few months back who kept calling and ranting off some ridiculously sexual stuff on the phone to her. She'd hang up on him, but he was doing it throughout the night so it was irritating her a lot. He wasnt hiding his number so I called him to have some words, he tried some similar stuff with me telling me all the stuff he's been doing with her when I'm not around. Ssssure.

Anyway, after a few weeks I convinced her to go to the garda station with me and report it. The garda said they get a lot of cases like that and that usually very little can be done bar changing your number. However, he called the number himself and talked to the guy, who, then pretended he wasn't the caller but had borrowed the phone from a friend and some other bull****. Either way, she hasn't got a call since.

swingking

The next time the sick bastard calls you get a whistle and blow it like mad. It will deafen him and I don't think he will ever call you up again!!:D

arctic lemur

ferdi wrote:

just answer the phone and then put it down and go about your business leaving the call running thereby wasting his money

I agree with Ferdi on this one. I did the same thing years ago when i was receiving them in college from a possessive fool who thought he was my boyfriend (and still does). It really annoyed him and it worked answer the phone, leave it on a table and let him waste his credit,

WhiteWashMan

well, you should be able to get unknown numbers blocked if you want.

at least if someone phones you then, you have their number.
service provider shoudl be able to do something about it then.

chump

eircom have a nuisance call bureau that liaise with the Gardai, the mobile operators probably couldn't be bothered spend the money on getting one, and the Gardai are notoriously lazy to do anything about anything really :eek:

segadreamcast

swingking wrote:

The next time the sick bastard calls you get a whistle and blow it like mad. It will deafen him and I don't think he will ever call you up again!!:D

That one doesn't work at all at all sadly - seems as though noises of a certain frequency/volume just don't come through over a phone.

Chucky the tree

arctic lemur wrote:

I agree with Ferdi on this one. I did the same thing years ago when i was receiving them in college from a possessive fool who thought he was my boyfriend (and still does). It really annoyed him and it worked answer the phone, leave it on a table and let him waste his credit,

But i am still your boyfriend.


Whenever i got them i was always very friendly to them. Would be very polite and tell them they had a very nice voice. Then i would enquire what they were wearing and informed them i was in my boxers. Just to try and get the conversation going obviously.

didnt get calls after that.

jimmycrackcorm

Commander Vimes wrote:

the solution to prank calls: dirvert all calls to the local dominos after a certain time. or better yet the local garda station. they'll start to care if they get called every night

If they get through to the garda station that will piss them off as they will be sure then the cops will follow it up.

Ruu_Old

Airhorn to the speaker and you're all set I dont answer private numbers at all, blocked them from my phone. I use Call Control on my nokia ngage (series 60 app)

EDIT: Great idea bout diverting to the gardai or local pizza place.

Hail 2 Da Chimp

Commander Vimes wrote:

two years later and my pranker hasnt given up. i even got his number blocked before by calling meteor, pretending to be him and saying i lost the phone. no effect

Man... thats one persistant little pr!ck.... :eek:

Sam Vimes

NoelRock wrote:

That one doesn't work at all at all sadly - seems as though noises of a certain frequency/volume just don't come through over a phone.

this is true. everything above 4 kHz is blocked on a phone to save bandwidth. less on a mobile if i recall correctly

Battlejuice

Paddy_Irishman wrote:

The rest are all guessing or making educated guesses on what to do. It's simple really.

Go down to the local station, ask the name of the garda. Tell them you intend to make a written statement of complaint on the issue and you intend to go ahead with a prosecution on the offender.

Few things you will want to make sure you have.
- Make sure you have 30-60minutes free to give them a statement.
- The dates and times it has happened to you.
- Be willing to allow the gardai to gain access to your personal information from your phone subscriber.

The reason you are probably meeting a lack of interest is because this is alot more common than you think and 99% of people do not intend to go ahead with a prosecution for several reasons. This wastes Garda time and your money as a tax payer. Also alot of people use this method as a way of revenege on other people and gardai are the innocent weapon used against them so thats why u may meet some apathy towards your problem.

If you try it the way I suggest I think you will have more success. If you mention the superintends name while talking to the gardai in question they will **** them self and help you believe me.

As for the rest posting here, typical. Clueless ranting with very little help to the OP's question / predicament.

Thanks Paddy_Irishman, that's the info I was looking for. Bit of an eye opener that it seems to be so common.
Disturbing really, and it seems to be quite a laugh to a lot of people (my mate laughed his head off when I told him about the calls I got), but I do know of some people who found this sort of experience extremely harrowing.
I've never had to deal with the cops before (and never again, touch wood) so it was a whole new experience to my sheltered little life.

peepsbates

Commander Vimes wrote:

this is true. everything above 4 kHz is blocked on a phone to save bandwidth. less on a mobile if i recall correctly

or how about the brown noise that makes ya sh!t yerself:eek:

Sam Vimes

peepsbates wrote:

or how about the brown noise that makes ya sh!t yerself:eek:

the funny thing about that is when it was transmitted on brainiac it couldn't possibly work. they said its about 100 kHz and tv speakers generally only go up to 20 kHz

Hagar

I'm calling collect... please say something dirty...

Zulu

It's really quite simple. Buy a whistle. When they ring, answer and blow the whistle really hard. It'll hurt their ear. It'll hurt lots.

Owen

Zulu wrote:

It's really quite simple. Buy a whistle. When they ring, answer and blow the whistle really hard. It'll hurt their ear. It'll hurt lots.

Have you read the previous posts? The reason your voice sounds nasally on a phone is that it only transmits parts of the audible sound envelope. Otherwise people would go to outdoor concerts, and ring their home phone to record the gig. It just doesn't work like that.

cargrouch

Zulu wrote:

It's really quite simple. Buy a whistle. When they ring, answer and blow the whistle really hard. It'll hurt their ear. It'll hurt lots.

Apart from previous posters response about phones in general not transmitting the whole frequency range, mobiles will have auto-volume adjust on the microphone. This amplifies whispers and reduces shouting etc.

OP - I've had one or two mobiles in the past that could record a few minutes of conversation. Nokia 6310, Nokia 6600. I presume 6680 and several other models would be able to do this. Might be a useful tool for collecting stuff for the Gardai.

For home phones you can buy a type of microphone with a suction connection that you can use to tape conversations. Supply your own tape recorder, if you can find one these days, or mp3 player/recorder with line in!

The above two definitely work, a dictaphone might be another way.

Zulu

ned78 wrote:

Have you read the previous posts? The reason your voice sounds nasally on a phone is that it only transmits parts of the audible sound envelope.

Naturally you know this for a fact, because you've tried it? I suggest - before you knock the idea - that you try it. Ok it mightn't "hurt lots" but it's still a long, unbroken, unplesent, sound which will deter the caller. It works.

As for your whole "record the concert over the phone idea". If you stood in the crowd with the had the best mic in the world and recorded, the sound would still be sh1t and sound "nasally" ...but anyone with half a brain, a basic understanding of physics, or common sence whould know that.

...but thanks for your input.

Tha Gopher

FillSpectre wrote:

My phone was stolen in Portugal. I was annoyed but not that bothered. I had a few things set in the phone such as pictures attached to people which show up when they ring. Now my wife and a few of my female friends started getting texts from a Portugeese speaking country (can't remember which one). I am guessing that is where my phone is now. General "hey baby" type texts.

They must be fairly savage for some tit out in Portugual to spend what, 50 cent-1 euro a time texting them

Yid think phones would have a feature to divert private calls. The noise down the phone idea is brilliant though, it would work.

Hagar

I'd say there is a possibility that you might damage the mic in your own phone with a loud shrill whistle. I doubt think they were designed to handle noise like that.

Zulu

Hagar wrote:

I'd say there is a possibility that you might damge the mic in your own phone ...

...you won't, it'll be alright. Honestly