# Finding my UK phone stalker **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 3, 2008, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-my-uk-phone-stalker/432081 "2008-01-03T02:59:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2008, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-my-uk-phone-stalker/432081/21 "2008-01-03T15:27:53Z")
I reckon it’s Gordon Brown. ---
**Author:** ![Jean\_Gray](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7feea3/32.png) [@Jean\_Gray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jean_Gray)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2008, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-my-uk-phone-stalker/432081/22 "2008-01-03T15:52:09Z")
What, he hasn’t anything better to do? ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2008, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-my-uk-phone-stalker/432081/23 "2008-01-03T17:01:14Z")
From London, eh? If it were calls made during June, July, and August from Clydeside, Inverness, Selkirk, etc., I’d hazard a guess that it’s someone enamored of Scot summers. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2008, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-my-uk-phone-stalker/432081/24 "2008-01-03T17:12:33Z")
[QUOTE=Jean Gray] I think this just confirms though that I’m not likely to ever get London geography straight in my head unless I go live there myself… [/QUOTE] Bill Bryson once wrote, quite rightly, that you can live there for years, yet still open the Evening Standard and read a story about something in a part of the city you’ve never heard of. ---
**Author:** ![Jean\_Gray](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7feea3/32.png) [@Jean\_Gray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jean_Gray)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2008, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-my-uk-phone-stalker/432081/25 "2008-01-03T17:26:50Z")
[QUOTE=Polycarp] From London, eh? If it were calls made during June, July, and August from Clydeside, Inverness, Selkirk, etc., I’d hazard a guess that it’s someone enamored of Scot summers. 😉 [/QUOTE] If I had any thought at all that Gerard Butler, say, were on the other end, I’d be waiting by the phone with bated breath. 😉 But no, the calls are from London area, and have been coming in recently, so I guess other possibilities have to be entertained. I looked up the person I was thinking of in LinkedIn, and it seems he works in Hayes, Middlesex these days - close enough to the other places mentioned up thread that I have to consider him a real possibility as the caller. :smack: > [@GorillaMan](#): > > Bill Bryson once wrote, quite rightly, that you can live there for years, yet still open the Evening Standard and read a story about something in a part of the city you’ve never heard of. Sounds fascinating and bewildering at the same time. I’d love it! ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2008, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-my-uk-phone-stalker/432081/26 "2008-01-03T20:47:04Z")
[QUOTE=jjimm] Have you tried just googling the number? Bear in mind that 0208 is the code, but it can be broken into 020 8XXX XXXX or 0208 XXX XXXX. [/QUOTE] For Googling purposes, yes, but officially the area code is 20, so the “correct” way of writing it (including the dialling prefix) is 020 8XXX XXXX. Many people erroneously tack the 8 (or 7) to the end of the 020, thinking that it’s a separate area code, because until a few years ago London telephone numbers were only seven digits long. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2008, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-my-uk-phone-stalker/432081/27 "2008-01-03T20:52:46Z")
That’s what I meant to write, **psychonaut** , but I screwed up. **Jean Gray** I can’t tell if you’re in the UK or not, but come to think of it I have had a few calls from London numbers recently to my mobile, and they’ve been call centres saying “Hi! As an Orange customer, you’re eligible for an upgr…” to which I always reply “I’m with Virgin. Goodbye.” ---
**Author:** ![Jean\_Gray](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7feea3/32.png) [@Jean\_Gray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jean_Gray)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2008, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-my-uk-phone-stalker/432081/28 "2008-01-03T21:23:48Z")
jjimm, I’m in the US, and on the Do Not Call registry here w/r/t marketing calls - which probably means nothing to companies outside the States, but then it also strikes me as unlikely that anyone in the UK would want to try to sell me anything. 😉 Calls to the US from Britain would have to start with 00111 for international dialing + country code, no? Doesn’t seem like this could be happening _entirely_ by accident… though I would be happy to find that was the case. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2008, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-my-uk-phone-stalker/432081/29 "2008-01-03T21:29:23Z")
Might be my brother. He’s in the Richmond/Twickenham area… ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2008, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-my-uk-phone-stalker/432081/30 "2008-01-03T21:38:55Z")
Just to clarify - what exactly are the nature of the calls? What is the other person actually doing to you? ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2008, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-my-uk-phone-stalker/432081/31 "2008-01-03T21:41:22Z")
[QUOTE=Jean Gray] Calls to the US from Britain would have to start with 00111 for international dialing + country code, no? Doesn’t seem like this could be happening _entirely_ by accident… though I would be happy to find that was the case. [/QUOTE] No, they’d start 00 for international, then 1 for the US - then the US area code etc. Just 001 to start. However, I too seriously doubt that a telemarketer in the UK would call a US number. ---
**Author:** ![Jean\_Gray](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7feea3/32.png) [@Jean\_Gray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jean_Gray)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2008, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-my-uk-phone-stalker/432081/32 "2008-01-03T22:16:37Z")
[QUOTE=jjimm] No, they’d start 00 for international, then 1 for the US - then the US area code etc. Just 001 to start. However, I too seriously doubt that a telemarketer in the UK would call a US number. [/QUOTE] Ah okay. FWIW, I was thinking of calling home from Australia and assumed it would be the same from the UK too. Peter Morris, right now the calls are only hang ups, no message left - I just see them as missed incoming calls. The outgoing message on my landline phone is the voice of a male friend of mine, because as a single woman living alone I’d rather not advertise the fact. That message may be discouraging the caller from leaving a message of their own. The reason I’m curious about the source is because there’s a chance the calls are coming from someone I used to know a few years back, whose sorry ass I dumped when it came out that he had a wife and infant daughter. (So, Really Not All That Bright, I hope it’s not your brother!) He’s emailed me a few times since the fall and I haven’t responded. Just wondering if in fact he hasn’t tracked me down and is trying to get me on the phone. ---
**Author:** ![ticker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@ticker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ticker)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2008, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-my-uk-phone-stalker/432081/33 "2008-01-03T22:27:18Z")
If you consider this to be a nuisance you can contact BT if you are a customer. I did this when I got repeated calls from either a fax machine or a computer somewhere. They gave me two months free call-barring which was long enough for the offender to get the message. ---
**Author:** ![Lo-Slung\_Denim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f6c823/32.png) [@Lo-Slung\_Denim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lo-Slung_Denim)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2008, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-my-uk-phone-stalker/432081/34 "2008-01-03T23:05:33Z")
> [@](#): > > I think there are some fairly scrubby bits within 500 metres of the Houses of Parliament, never mind 500 metres of Lambeth Bridge. One of the random things about London is the way you can walk down a street full of million-pound flats, turn a corner, and walk past a bunch of oiks sitting on the stairs of some ratty building swigging Super-t and arguing about who got Sharmaine preggers. That’s true. I live in a flat around the corner from [Joanna Lumley OBE](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joanna_Lumley) and similarly around another corner to crack dens. ---
**Author:** ![Lok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e8c25b/32.png) [@Lok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lok)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2008, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-my-uk-phone-stalker/432081/35 "2008-01-04T00:44:59Z")
[QUOTE=Polycarp] From London, eh? If it were calls made during June, July, and August from Clydeside, Inverness, Selkirk, etc., I’d hazard a guess that it’s someone enamored of Scot summers. 😉 [/QUOTE] _I_ got it Poly, you did not post in vain. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2008, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-my-uk-phone-stalker/432081/36 "2008-01-04T00:58:51Z")
[QUOTE=Jean Gray] [QUOTE=GorillaMan] Bill Bryson once wrote, quite rightly, that you can live there for years, yet still open the Evening Standard and read a story about something in a part of the city you’ve never heard of. [/QUOTE] Sounds fascinating and bewildering at the same time. I’d love it! [/QUOTE] Well, a good game of Mornington Crescent is a way to get to know your way around, and I’ve already played the opening move (come on, guys, I expect better 😉 ). ---
**Author:** ![Jean\_Gray](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7feea3/32.png) [@Jean\_Gray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jean_Gray)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2008, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-my-uk-phone-stalker/432081/37 "2008-01-04T01:41:49Z")
[QUOTE=Lok] _I_ got it Poly, you did not post in vain. 🆒 [/QUOTE] Ah, so that \*was \*a whooshing sound I heard earlier. Can someone explain? GorillaMan, I’m pretty sure I’d be lost within three steps, even with a map handy. :o What’s your starting point, Trafalgar? ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2008, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-my-uk-phone-stalker/432081/38 "2008-01-04T01:48:51Z")
[QUOTE=Jean Gray] GorillaMan, I’m pretty sure I’d be lost within three steps, even with a map handy. :o What’s your starting point, Trafalgar? [/QUOTE] The best way to learn is to play. We’ll be kind, and we’ll avoid all diagonals. Trafalgar puts you in **Charing Cross** , and without making the obvious shunt I’ll opt for **Blackfriars**. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2008, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-my-uk-phone-stalker/432081/39 "2008-01-04T01:58:01Z")
[QUOTE=Jean Gray] Ah, so that \*was \*a whooshing sound I heard earlier. Can someone explain? [/QUOTE] June, July, and August = Summer Clydeside, Inverness, Selkirk, = Scotland Scott Summers and Jean Gray are characters in X-Men (didn’t you know?). Oh, and I’ll play the infamous **Pudding Lane** loop, which is always risky, but fun. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2008, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-my-uk-phone-stalker/432081/40 "2008-01-04T01:59:49Z")
[QUOTE=Peter Morris] Oh, and I’ll play the infamous **Pudding Lane** loop, which is always risky, but fun. [/QUOTE] Fun? I’ll show you fun! **Theydon Bois**!!! Hah. Don’t forget, no diagonals 😛 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-my-uk-phone-stalker/432081.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finding-my-uk-phone-stalker/432081.md?page=3)