General Chat

We are getting phone calls at 3 am in a morning, when the phone is picked up silence when we dial 1471 it's number with held. As my husband has cancer and I need my sleep has anyone any advice. We are with tiscali which is now talk talk. HELP! Elaine. :-S

Get in touch with the providers - they may be able to put a trace on the line, resulting in the organisation which places the calls getting a hefty fine.

BT used to (and possibly still does) offer an interception service - they answer the phone on your behalf,and once they identify the caller, contact you to see if you wish to accept the call. I'd imagine there is a charge. Worth asking?

If your OH is living at home, you could always unplug the phone at night. If he is not, assuming you have a Mobile, make sure that in an emergency, people will know to contact you during the night on that.

Short term you could unplug your phone when you go to bed

but their used to be a web site you can go on to have your number taken off any list these people use but it only works for british companies,

I do not remember the web site but if you try to google for it

Roy

get you provider to block incoming withheld number calls

Porkie Pie - http://www.tpsonline.org.uk/tps/index.html

We are on that, but have been plagued by cold calls..........all because we used a comparison site LAST YEAR!!!!

It sounds as ~flying doctor~ is getting ghost calls, rather than a cold call, perhaps a computer server trying to contact another?

Its possible that someone's trying to automatically send a fax to your number by mistake if its exactly the same time each night. Not sure if you have to just let it ring rather than pick it up so it finishes sending, but that's not ideal at 3am. :-(
You can block withheld numbers, however as your hubby is unwell I wouldn't advise this as some hospitals etc withhold their number to outgoing calls. My dad was at an app once & tried to ring me from the hozzie & he couldn't get through to us on their recept phone they let him use.We took the block off after that.

I would contact your provider. They may be able to advise better. . :-)

Found this on the TPS site, on the right of the home page - various option with 'read more' are scrolling through.

'If you want to reduce these types of calls, there is a separate service called Silent CallGuard. You can register with them by calling 0844 3722325'

(Sorry, my Copy and Paste has decided it needs a rest)

Thanks everyone I will take the plug out at night, however, OH is sometimes on the net until the small hours and may not remember so I will look at the alteritives. Elaine. :-)

Simlpy get hold of the provider and log it......they can internal log it and also check back at your incoming call at this time of the morning ,,,,,,,,,also they have a duty to act once you make a formal complaint...only they can intervene and sort it.

We are with Virgin media and for £1 per month we have blocked calls with number withheld , saves all the marketing calls as well as any with other motives!! We are on the telephone preference too but like to go with all options .

We went no number withheld calls when we were getting malicious silent calls fro an ex of our grandaughter who lived with us at the time

If it were me I would get a whistle and next time phone goes at 3. a.m. blow the whistle down it - they will have a very sore ear. BT engineer told me this over 30 years ago.

I had the same thing the other weekend here in NZ, of course it would be the day after I had been talking to mum about what to do if she had to call me in an emergency - which is to ring me on my cell phone as that is what I have in the bedroom (back up wake alarm if I don't hear the clock/radio), as it took me awhile to work out that I wasn't actually imagining the sound by the time I got to the phone (at the other end of the house) it had stopped ringing. Don't know if this is true or not, but I was told that a lot of people have had early morning calls lately and that it is overseas (Asian??) telemarketers running blocks of numbers to see if they are getting live numbers

Michelle

My daughter had a stalker who always phoned in the middle of the night.

We are with Talk Talk who initially said they did not block calls, but after several conversations I paid £1.50 a month to block all calls that with held their number.

Unfortunately it does not work on oversea calls but after the stalker they are small fry.

Carol