# Need suggestions: "Private Call"er calls repeatedly and hangups, **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 14, 2005, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-suggestions-private-call-er-calls-repeatedly-and-hangups/331013 "2005-11-14T17:13:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![pace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c2a13f/32.png) [@pace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pace)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2005, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-suggestions-private-call-er-calls-repeatedly-and-hangups/331013/1 "2005-11-14T17:13:30Z")
for past two days someone has been calling and once we answer, the person hangs up. You can’t do a \*67 on a “Private Call” so no way to find out who it is, or to stop it–short of changing our number. I am a primary caregiver for my mom and I can’t risk NOT answering the phone, or having the line busy wtih some nitwit who apparently has no life. Suggestions greatly needed and appreciated! ---
**Author:** ![douglips](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@douglips](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/douglips)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2005, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-suggestions-private-call-er-calls-repeatedly-and-hangups/331013/2 "2005-11-14T17:16:36Z")
Call your phone company’s customer service and ask what to do. They should have an “annoyance call bureau” or similar. In my case, they set up a trap to monitor calls, and when I got one of these calls I had to call a number and report the time of the call. You need to make sure your clock exactly matches the phone company’s, though, because if it’s off by a minute or two they won’t be able to confirm it for some stupid reason. Anyway, if they trap and you report N such calls, then they do something about it, like contacting the person at the other end. I do not know if they can block the number from calling you, but I presume you could find that out from them. Good luck! ---
**Author:** ![FatBaldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecd19e/32.png) [@FatBaldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FatBaldGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2005, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-suggestions-private-call-er-calls-repeatedly-and-hangups/331013/3 "2005-11-14T17:22:09Z")
A lot of telemarketers do this. Their autodialer calls a huge block of numbers and keeps track of which ones are answered along with the time of day, so that real live telemarketers can call back later and not waste their time with disconnected numbers, answering machines, etc. If you are in the US and are not on the National Do Not Call List, [get on it now](https://www.donotcall.gov/default.aspx). It will stop a lot of this type of calls. ---
**Author:** ![olpeculiar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/34f0e0/32.png) [@olpeculiar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/olpeculiar)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2005, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-suggestions-private-call-er-calls-repeatedly-and-hangups/331013/4 "2005-11-14T17:24:30Z")
Look in the front of your local white pages. Around here (southern New England) there is another \*xx number you can dial after the offending phone call. (I use “\*xx” because I can’t remember what the two digits are right now.) Dialing this \*xx number creates a private log within the phone company of the previous call into your line. According to the phone company, this process cannot be blocked - no matter what sort of caller ID blocking the caller uses, the phone company will trace the number of the call. It costs about $6 per \*xx usage. And you are NOT given the number of the offending caller. However, if you log three calls from the same offending caller, a police investigation is automatically started against the offending caller. If the caller is doing this repeatedly, you could log three strike against this guy in just one day. That’s how it is described in the phone book. The details are a little sketchy, and who knows how fervently the police will actually investigate this. The front of your white pages directory may offer other ways to handle unwanted calls. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2005, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-suggestions-private-call-er-calls-repeatedly-and-hangups/331013/5 "2005-11-14T17:25:38Z")
For a small fee (1 or 2 bucks a month) you should be able to get your phone company to screen “Private Caller” calls. Instead of ringing thru, the caller will get a message that says you don’t receive Private Calls and that he he/she should redial after first unlocking the caller ID function. In this day and age, no one should answer the phone unless you know who is calling. And I question the motives of anyone who has his Caller ID blocked. ---
**Author:** ![vetbridge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5e925/32.png) [@vetbridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vetbridge)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2005, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-suggestions-private-call-er-calls-repeatedly-and-hangups/331013/6 "2005-11-14T17:35:56Z")
> [@John Mace](#): > > For a small fee (1 or 2 bucks a month) you should be able to get your phone company to screen “Private Caller” calls. Instead of ringing thru, the caller will get a message that says you don’t receive Private Calls and that he he/she should redial after first unlocking the caller ID function. In this day and age, no one should answer the phone unless you know who is calling. And I question the motives of anyone who has his Caller ID blocked. You should make sure that this will not stop important calls from going through. If one of my clients has an emergency, they can have me paged via my answering service. However, my cell phone has caller ID blocked. About one out of 20 calls I make to clients cannot go through, and I _will not_ unlock caller ID. ---
**Author:** ![arrosen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@arrosen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/arrosen)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2005, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-suggestions-private-call-er-calls-repeatedly-and-hangups/331013/7 "2005-11-14T20:31:57Z")
> [@pace](#): > > for past two days someone has been calling and once we answer, the person hangs up. You can’t do a \*67 on a “Private Call” so no way to find out who it is, or to stop it–short of changing our number. I am a primary caregiver for my mom and I can’t risk NOT answering the phone, or having the line busy wtih some nitwit who apparently has no life. > > Suggestions greatly needed and appreciated! Check with your local phone company. In SoCal, with SBC, I have something called “Privacy Manager”. If a number is blocked (ie: Private Number), the caller is given a message where he can either choose to reveal his number, announce who he is, or hang up. If he announces his name, the service calls me and says “xxxxx” is trying to call you, and I have the choice to answer the call, send the call to voice mail or have the system inform the caller that I am not available. It only costs a few bucks a month, and it is really a pretty cool service. The number of “crank” and telemarketer calls have been reduced to almost 0. Also, getting your self on the national do-not-call registry is a great idea. ---
**Author:** ![lizardling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f4b2a3/32.png) [@lizardling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lizardling)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2005, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-suggestions-private-call-er-calls-repeatedly-and-hangups/331013/8 "2005-11-14T23:24:38Z")
Does this include work phones? I’ve had a particularly persistent clot of telemarketers ringing my mobile several times a week for the last month or so, even going so far as to leave their spiel on my VOICEMAIL. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2005, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-suggestions-private-call-er-calls-repeatedly-and-hangups/331013/9 "2005-11-14T23:34:05Z")
I believe anyone who uses an internet phone sevice (VOIP) like Vonage gets a “Caller ID blocked” on the other end whether they like it or not. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2005, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-suggestions-private-call-er-calls-repeatedly-and-hangups/331013/10 "2005-11-14T23:49:27Z")
> [@olpeculiar](#): > > Around here (southern New England) there is another \*xx number you can dial after the offending phone call. (I use “\*xx” because I can’t remember what the two digits are right now.) Dialing this \*xx number creates a private log within the phone company of the previous call into your line You’re thinking of the Call Trace feature, \*57 in most areas. ---
**Author:** ![MannyL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@MannyL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MannyL)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2005, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-suggestions-private-call-er-calls-repeatedly-and-hangups/331013/11 "2005-11-14T23:58:17Z")
> [@BobT](#): > > I believe anyone who uses an internet phone sevice (VOIP) like Vonage gets a “Caller ID blocked” on the other end whether they like it or not. Nope I have Vonage and when I call it shows 7–2–1— ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-suggestions-private-call-er-calls-repeatedly-and-hangups/331013/12 "2005-11-15T01:39:44Z")
With the plethora of cell phones, most hangup calls are phantoms-errors in transmission. ---
**Author:** ![pace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c2a13f/32.png) [@pace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pace)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-suggestions-private-call-er-calls-repeatedly-and-hangups/331013/13 "2005-11-15T02:32:18Z")
> [@arrosen](#): > > with SBC, I have something called “Privacy Manager”. If a number is blocked (ie: Private Number) … It only costs a few bucks a month, and it is really a pretty cool service. The number of “crank” and telemarketer calls have been reduced to almost 0. > > Also, getting your self on the national do-not-call registry is a great idea. THANKS EVERYONE! I really do appreciate all the great suggestions! Contacted my phone service and they also provide something similar to “Privacy manager” except that all “Private Calls” “Unknown” and any other number I want to block, will not ring through to my line! Goes into effect tomorrow, and this too is avail for low fee. arrosen, I didn’t realize there’s a national do-not-call registry, this is really cool! FatBaldGuy, thanks for providing the link with info to set it up. pace 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![rfgdxm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c0e974/32.png) [@rfgdxm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rfgdxm)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-suggestions-private-call-er-calls-repeatedly-and-hangups/331013/14 "2005-11-15T04:08:14Z")
> [@pace](#): > > THANKS EVERYONE! I really do appreciate all the great suggestions! Contacted my phone service and they also provide something similar to “Privacy manager” except that all “Private Calls” “Unknown” and any other number I want to block, will not ring through to my line! Goes into effect tomorrow, and this too is avail for low fee. WARNING! Certain sorts of calls by necessity will never show the phone number of the caller. Most notable are calls with prepaid calling cards. I have no affordable option for LD other than prepaid cards. Thus you may have collateral damage. If you can shunt all these calls to voicemail, you could always later call the person back. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-suggestions-private-call-er-calls-repeatedly-and-hangups/331013/15 "2005-11-15T14:50:19Z")
> [@arrosen](#): > > Check with your local phone company. In SoCal, with SBC, I have something called “Privacy Manager”. If a number is blocked (ie: Private Number), the caller is given a message where he can either choose to reveal his number, announce who he is, or hang up. If he announces his name, the service calls me and says “xxxxx” is trying to call you, and I have the choice to answer the call, send the call to voice mail or have the system inform the caller that I am not available. > > It only costs a few bucks a month, and it is really a pretty cool service. The number of “crank” and telemarketer calls have been reduced to almost 0. > > Also, getting your self on the national do-not-call registry is a great idea. Yeah - we have this same service - called “Call Intercept”. We were getting nuisance calls a few years back; every weekday at 1 PM the phone would ring, the caller was unidentified. We’d answer, and a male voice with an American accept would immediately say “sorry, wrong number” and hang up. The phone company was completely unhelpful; their suggestion was that I change my phone number. They said nothing about that “call trace” feature or “annoyance call bureau” :mad: I finally asked about the call-intercept, as I’d heard about it from someone from out of town. Sure enough, it had just become available. We never heard from the creep again. I have a theory as to who it was (former nanny, linked up with a fellow she met on the internet, turned out to be a low-level criminal sort, big part of why she’s a _former_ nanny). Do be careful to not accidentally set your phone line to block unidentified callers - that can be done independently of the call-intercept feature and the result is, no unknown callers can get through at all. I had this happen once when travelling on business; the hotel phone showed as unidentified, so I couldn’t call home. I wound up calling a friend, asking her to call my spouse, and have him call _me_ at the hotel :smack: