The caller ID just displays incoming call, nothing else

We keep getting called by a caller which is displayed as "incoming call". There never is any message, and the caller ID history does not register it. I'm too afraid to pick the phone up; I have a V-tech cordless phone. Any idea who this is???????

You are smart to ignore it.  
You did not say what country you are in.  But in the USA we now have a federal law that makes it illegal to have a misleading or fraudulent caller i.d.    Note that it    IS   legal to have NO caller i.d., it is just illegal to have a misleading one.

My philosophy is that it would be ok to suppress caller i.d. when calling in an anonymous crime tip or something, but why would anyone want to suppress caller i.d. when calling you?

Our entire staff knows to never bother answering the phone if the caller i.d. is blank, or  000-000-0000 or something else fishy.

I received one of these calls earlier today and did not pick it up, nor was any message left.  It seems to be just another form of harrassment going on with calls.  I am now receiving annoyance calls both on my land phone and my cellular phone of this nature.

any info on areas code069 or 809 ( iknow that is from the Carribean area, but not all of it are thee #'s scams if u are foolish enough 2 c/b

To report annoyance calls call 1-800-773-5550. Also, Register your phone # with The National Do Not Call Registry at 1-888-382-1222. These calls my be from Telemarketers and after 31 days of being on the list you can file charges against the company. Hope this helps and gives you peace of mind.

Annoyed as well!!!! replies to Myoman
     To report annoyance calls call 1-800-773-5550. Also, Register your phone # with The National Do Not Call Registry at 1-888-382-1222. These calls may be from Telemarketers and after 31 days of being on the list you can file charges against the company. Hope this helps and gives you peace of mind.

Sorry, I forgot to mention as well that the same exact thing did happen to me this morning and I also have Privacy Manager with At&t, this blocks any anonymous calls from coming through. Well, I was furious when this call came in so I called At&t and complained and asked to have my equiptment  checked. Well, everything was ok on their end and they gave me these phone numbers to call.

The past two days, and again this morning, we have been getting calls that show "NO CALLER ID" and "NO NUMBER" on one phone, and just "UNKNOWN" on the other phone. How can it help to call the number you give, and how can you exercise your 31-day limit when you have no idea who is pestering you? These slimes have called several times a day, never leave a message, we never pick up.

Possible reasons for lack of caller-id information that I know of:

1. Technical glitch / misconfiguration between carriers (rare)
2. International call - (this used to happen a lot to me, but doesn't any more)
3. Calling card (happens when my sister calls me from the UK)
3. Caller blocked caller id (*67)- (most telcos will show this as PRIVATE NUMBER or similar)
4. Bad phone line. If the line is bad the modem tones which transmit the information might be garbled.
5. Bad phone. (I had a VTech phone that would display "Ringing" rather than the caller id information
  about 50% of the time.

Don't assume it's the telemarketer: if they could easily do this, calls without caller id would be a lot more common.

I haven't yet seen a telemarketer/lack of caller id correlation. Telemarketers seem to prefer 1-800 numbers or "ordinary" numbers with no caller name.

Since we have strated receiving phone calls from Cardholder Services using numerous numbers my phone has gone dead as my voice messaging picks up. We have no dial tone & you can't place an outgoing call & incoming calls go directly to voicemail.  I called Comcast & because they have never heard of this directed me to call their legal department.  Today I received a phone call with are code for Mongolia & after that the phone kicked back in.  This is scarey.

I get these too. I have Verizon.  There is never anyone on line when I do pick up and sometimes the phone just rings once, sometimes it rings 6 times.  It varies.  Verizon has come out and said they fixed it, but it still is happening.  All my caller id says is "incoming call".  Very frustrating. SOmetimes it happens once a day, sometimes several.  If you find out what it is, please post, as will I.

I get weird calls that my caller ID doesn't even show anyone is calling, the phone just rings.  The first time it happened it was the republican party calling with a recorded message from Newt (I am a registered democrat, so it was weird that Newt called me!).  I have gotten several since then and have not anwered the phone.  The caller ID does not show that a call came in.  I answered one today just out of curiousity and it was the Washington State Law Enforcement something or other wanting a donation.  Why can government sales calls bypass the caller ID altogether?  I know you can block your number, but how do they not even have the caller ID show a call coming in?

had this same problem i just unhooked the filter for my internet that went to my phone base and the problem was solved.

The wife of my north-side neighbor works for a collection agency. One of the attorneys in the house that is south-side to mine runs parttime an "anti-collection agency agency" to help people who have been "hit" by collection agencies to get their money back. What is important to note is that the attorney has, for almost a decade now, had the capability to link into a lot of these bogus phone call systems, and inundate his "enemies" with harassing calls such as are described here. And for fun, he likes to "fry" answering machines.

The best defense is Caller ID; if you see an ID or a number you do not recognize, don't answer the call. At night, turn off your cell phone if at all possible, and if you have a land-line phone, wrap it up in lots of pillows and put it into a box far away from where you are sleeping.

Walker,

What ARE you smoking?

Because whatever it is, you are blowing some serious smoke our way.  

I know a little about telephony, and what you claim just isn't grounded in reality.  No one, lawyer or otherwise, is remotely "frying answering machines", nor are they using their ninja super powers to "link into bogus phone systems" whatever those are.  

You can sometimes access an insecure PBX, or VOIP account, but that is a criminal act.  The kind where you aren't allowed to use the secret attorney handshake anymore, and end up in a jail cell sleeping next to an overly amorous 500 pound guy named "Dirty Kong".  

And you want us to believe a practicing attorney is trying to "get even" by wasting time breaking the law and putting his career and freedom in jeopardy, when he could do a lot more damage to them by hauling them before a judge?  

An attorney running 'an "anti-collection agency agency" ' ?  Hmmm.  I always thought it was called a "law practice", and that folks went to law school to learn to work within the legal system.  Instead, I gather this guy went to school by reading back issues of 2600 and using a yellow highlight pen to mark all of the good "script kiddie" stuff?  Is he 1337 nd k3w1 ?

If your "buddy" is "inundating his enemies" as you claim, i.e. engaging in a telephonic denial of service attack, he ought to be disbarred.  

Fortunately (or unfortunately), it is hard to disbar a loud mouth BS artist who doesn't know a tort from a tortilla.  

"The wife of my north-side neighbor works for a collection agency. One of the attorneys in the house that is south-side to mine..."

Why is your other neighbor's wife in this story?  Is she sleeping with the attorney?  Did he attack her employer's "bogus phone system"?  Are they partners in the anti-collection collection business?  Just curious.  I suppose having a sleazebag CA employee for a neighbor does contribute significant gravitas to your story...

But moving on from your friend Harvey the Hacker Rabbit, Esq., to your next topic...

Caller ID is NOT your best defense.  Educating yourself about the law and your rights under it is.  Knowledge of the FDCPA, FCRA, and TCPA will go a long way towards solving your problems.  

Caller ID is useful at times, but I am sitting in front of all the technology I need to call you from anywhere in the world, or to set the CID CNUM field to any number I like, including that of your relatives, your buddies, or your employer.  Since I can also find out who those people are by spending a few minutes on one of several paid resources, if I wanted to get you to pick up the phone, and didn't care about the legal niceties, I could do it.  

What are you going to do when the caller ID shows your mom is calling, your boss, your kid's school, a nearby hospital, or the local police?  Are you going to use the caller ID to ignore those calls?  Do you think there aren't CAs or scammers out there who will do this sort of thing?  Spoofing the IRS's phone number is something scammers have done a lot, what will you do when that one pops up (after you get fresh underwear, that is)?

As for POTS telephones, "wrap it up in lots of pillows"?  Really?  How many?  Like 50, with lots of bungee cords to hold them in place?

How about just turning the ringer down, or off?  How about unplugging it? How about taking it "off the hook"?  

OR, a special solution just for you, rather than fool with all those pillows every night, why not just encapsulate it in a cubic yard of Quikrete and solve the problem permanently? Yeah, you're right.  You wouldn't be able to call those 900 numbers any more, bad idea.  I know, how about forwarding your phone to the "wife of my [your] north-side neighbor" so she can be on the receiving end for a change?

Just saying...

Of course, if you spent some time educating yourself in these areas, you wouldn't have to worry about picking up the phone in the first place.  Knowledge is power.

From a "technical solution" point of view, the best thing you can implement is call filtering/blocking technology.  This can be as simple as a call blocking phone, or as sophisticated as an Asterisk PBX.  There are various solutions, and they all have their place.  

From a legal self defense point of view, start here:

<http://www.ftc.gov/os/statutes/fdcpajump.shtm>

<http://www.ftc.gov/os/statutes/fcrajump.shtm>

<http://www.fcc.gov/guides/unwanted-telephone-marketing-calls>

<http://transition.fcc.gov/cgb/policy/TCPA-Rules.pdf>

If you want to give advice, simply give people a link to the law, and let them start their own journey towards learning.  I see too many posts on here which contain mistakes which could lead people down a path to grief.  Or posts like yours, which while mostly harmless, contribute to the misunderstanding about the technology, and what is or is not possible.  Let's work to clear the waters, not muddy them.

'nuff said.

(I'm hungry.  Anyone else feel like a fried answering machine sandwich?)

Some background on the commentor may be helpful. She debuted on Who Called Us in November and just started here the other day.
https://800notes.com/forum/ta-208d6803ec49082 ... 596031349020947

Her story from the start has been one of paranoia and siege mentality. The one neighbor is reportedly a combination attorney, drug lord, Peeping Tom, and junk caller with wizard-like powers of telephony who likes to "attack women who don't have a man in the house to speak up for them".

http://whocalled.us/lookup/2013055031 - as Cherryl Walker
http://whocalled.us/lookup/8182321609 - as Cherryl1954
http://whocalled.us/lookup/8665645367
http://whocalled.us/lookup/8772988855

The cast of neighborhood characters has expanded in the past month.
http://whocalled.us/lookup/2256780208
http://whocalled.us/lookup/2252250208

As of six days ago, the fear reports continue apace: "It used to be pleasant to live in my neighborhood. Now I have these types of people surrounding me ..."
http://whocalled.us/lookup/8774881751


Stranger, I imagine you'd have some useful input on these telephony theories:

- The primary function of credit reprice scam calls is "a 'vampire' operation, aimed at cell phone users in particular, to make them use up their minutes."
http://whocalled.us/lookup/9712201002

- "Nuisance phone calls" are part of a "secret communications system -- or to jam someone else's communication system".
http://whocalled.us/lookup/7345427758

- Junk callers are able "to make it difficult for me to erase records of their calls from memory".
http://whocalled.us/lookup/0000000000

- The latest kick is counting the number of rings per call to assess a caller's legitimacy.
http://whocalled.us/lookup/2025999212
http://whocalled.us/lookup/8004210000

- Squleching a POTS phone in pillows is actually an upgrade from the previous method: "wrap it in a couple of T-shirts, and stick in in a drawer in my dresser"
http://whocalled.us/lookup/7137911414

- The fried message recorder theory has been active for about ten weeks.
http://whocalled.us/lookup/3127657460


She also tends to be taken in by the dubious stories of repeat forum offenders such as the ranting telemarketer Patricia Kelley and the soundboard prank call spammers. I do want to be fair here and note that when she's not discussing the rogue neighbors her comments tend to exhibit the kind of observational detail which few on the site bother to provide. Ms. Walker will be a great contributor when she begins to see past her problems which a mystery caller site cannot solve.