First of all could it be a prank. Do you have an ex or something? What about your current partner? Could it be someone trying to get back at him through you? Have you interacted with a kid lately?
And remember it doesn’t have to be a joke against you. It could be a joke against someone else and you’re landline was giving out. Perhaps someone is giving your landline out as a fake number in a bar.
Most people are familiar enough with caller ID not to make a call and expect not to be found out.
Area codes are meaningless for some part as many people move and wait to change their numbers, especially if they don’t pay any roaming or long distance charges.
Have you Google’d your own land line (also Yahoo, Bing and Ask) to see if the number comes up there. Someone could’ve put something on a blog with your landline.
I recall hearing that this is a scam. It’s a recorded message asking you if you have a small dog, and if you answer “yes” then you’re authorizing them to put some kind of charge on your phone bill. For some reason, the first part of the recording often gets cut off.
Yes, I was thinking that the beginning of the message was cut off, because his inflection definitely indicated the end of a question. And I’m glad I never answered.
How did you trace the number? Caller ID? That can be spoofed (Cardmember Services is notorious for that, for one).
About 9 years ago, we got a call every weekday at about 1 PM. Caller ID was blocked. It was always a male voice, American accent, and he would immediately say “wrong number” and hang up. Very weird. The calls didn’t stop until we got Call Intercept, which basically forces anyone from an unknown number to announce their name to the phone system, then we get a special ring and an option to hear the name, then either accept or reject the call.