Harrasment/Phone Calls

LegacyUser

Over the last 10 days or so, I have received just over 90 calls from a private number , I did answer the first few but the person never spoke, all I could hear was slight background noise. The calls are at any time of the day and night.

Has anyone had any experience of this? I could go and report it to the guards, but Im thinking as its a private number there is not much they could do?

Any advise is much appreciated.

porsche boy

Send a txt to your family/friends telling them you wont be contactable on you phone for a few days and give an alternative number for emergencies. Turn your phone off for a few days, they'll soon get bored.

tomwaterford

Answer it when possible...let them burn their credit...don't say anything...just straight back into the pocket


Also if possible turn it off at night (unless you are on call from work etc)

Though afaik there is a way to trace the numbers (haven't the foggiest to know how though)

Valentina

If you have a smart phone you can block private or unknown numbers.

blatantrereg

Buy a loud whistle. Blow hard on loud whistle down phone at pest.

LadyAthame

anyadvise? wrote: »

Over the last 10 days or so, I have received just over 90 calls from a private number , I did answer the first few but the person never spoke, all I could hear was slight background noise. The calls are at any time of the day and night.

Has anyone had any experience of this? I could go and report it to the guards, but Im thinking as its a private number there is not much they could do?

Any advise is much appreciated.

Yes I have personal experience of this. <Snip>

I would say get a new phone. The thing is you are always scared it is someone you know or have given your no to.

The guards can't just force the phone company to hand over private details. They need or used to need a court order. The company can try and help you. It depends on how the person is going it.

In my experience even when I had witnesses who were willing to help me and saved threatening messages and actually played it to the guards the process is painfully slow.

Ringing the company they only seemed concerned when my credit was stolen. They didn't seem concerned about the calls.

I just got a new phone thats my advice. Eventually the calls on my old phone stopped.

If you think it is someone you know give your new no slowly out. But the people who stole my credit didn't even have to be in Ireland it's scary though. They might be doing it to many people.

zoobizoo

Happened to me.

Go to the gardai and they will follow it up.

Even if it is a private number, they can chase phone records. It goes high up the chain of command.

The number that was harrassing me turned out to be a pay as you go and so couldn't be traced but they may be silly enough to be using their own phone

Toots

This happened to me about 10 years ago when I was in my late teens. Some weirdo kept calling and breathing down the phone, then I got a lovely voice message which was heavy breathing and some, erm, background noise, that indicated that he was definitely getting off on the situation. Weirdly enough, they never blocked their number.

My dad brought me down to the garda station and the garda on the desk quite astutely guessed that I'd have died of embarrassment if I'd had to play the message in front of my dad, so she brought me into the back and listened to the message and filled out a report. There was a detective at the station who had heard me talking to the garda, so he rang the number, and left a message saying who he was, and that he could find out where the caller lived and if he didn't stop calling me, he'd be round to his house in a squad car. He told me that there was probably no way they could find out who owned the phone, because they'd need a court order for the phone company to give the details, and even then if it was pay as you go, back then you didn't even need to give your name to buy one.

Thankfully the calls stopped after that.

LadyAthame

He told me that there was probably no way they could find out who owned the phone, because they'd need a court order for the phone company to give the details, and even then if it was pay as you go, back then you didn't even need to give your name to buy one.

That was the same issue i had, it's the court order and pay as you go mobiles can be hard to trace. It did stop but i just got a new phone. I do think tell the guards is a good idea eve if you might be disappointed. But do consider a new phone. If it stops you can use the old one again. Try the phone company too.

Big Bag of Chips

LadyAthame, I've snipped a very large chunk of text from your post. Please keep more to the point of the OP when replying.

IlmoNT4

Next time they call, answer and leave the phone on the counter and let them rack up a bill, every so often go back and say hello are you still there....

Or else pop into any phone shop and you can buy a new SIM for I think around 20 euro with a new number. Problem solved.
This happened to me a few years ago, there are people out there that just randomly call numbers until a woman answers...I did the counter thing, after a few calls and being left on the counter for hours they got bored and stopped. If it didnt stop I would get a new SIM.

irishgirl19

You can actually download apps that block all private number calls