Unidentified phone number
thermax
Newbie

I received three calls from {edited for privacy}. Who are they? Doesn't seem a legit number. We are on the no call list.

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Re: Unidentified phone number
JustinG1
Community Leader
Community Leader

Reverse phone lookups on that number come up with nothing. Strange, yes. But plenty of anonymous numbers are out there. Nothing to be concerned of though, I'm sure its just sales people or advertisements.

You can block this number from Verizon. Do you know what calling plan your on? I know with FiOS Digital Voice you have the option to block incoming numbers if that number is causing you trouble.

Here are instructions from Verizon on how to setup a list of blocked calls from the Verizon management website:

https://www.verizon.com/support/residential/phone

The process is pretty simple. You'll have a page that looks like the screen shot below, and you'll be able to add that number to the list so that it no longer bothers you.

image

Re: Unidentified phone number
_dot
Specialist - Level 1

being on the donotcall list  will stop almost all legitimate sales calles, and can almost ensure that calls  from solicitors that you do get will be from fraudsters with ph numbers that display in your caller i d  that obviously aren't real ph numbers, like all zeros , or your own phone number....

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Re: Unidentified phone number
schinfchin
Enthusiast - Level 3

I have been on the do not call list for over 10 years and it never stopped any nuisance calls. Some folks can legally call you, such as charities (they're exempt under Federal law), or businesses where your're a customer. Even collection agencies if your name is similar to someone they are skip tracing. Someone in my area with a similar name to mine is in the habit of not paying traffic tickets. Guess who gets the calls.

Currently I have a Uniden cordless phone of many years with call blocking features. I am currently looking at upgrading to Panasonic phones, a number of them with call blocking features. See this link:

http://www.panasonic.com/uk/consumer/home-phones/telephones-with-answering-machine/kx-tgh220e.html

This appears to be their newest model, though they have older ones with great reviews. Generally there are several ways you program these. Basically, when a number shows up on the caller ID, you flag it, and it will not ring through the next time they call. Another way to do it is to allow certain numbers through and block all others.

You can google "call blockers", or Panasonic call blocking phones. They work well against telemarketers and collectors as they all use a numbers of phony caller ID numbers, and generally I find call blocking phones and commercial call blockers have capacity for hundeds of numbers, as compared to phone companies that limit the number of numbers that you can block.

For a number of years I used a separate call blocker that has a capacity for 175 numbers which I find is adequate for most situations, though they don't sell it anymore.

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Re: Unidentified phone number
_dot
Specialist - Level 1

schinfchin, that's a great idea about the panasonic phones....however, the model we owned would let the phone ring once and if you answered fast enough, you would still be connected to caller. using Verizon's digital voice manager at Verizon.com/fiosvoice can let you block 100 numbers that won't ring your phone at all....but it has been unusable  and glitchy quite often recently for me at least, not allowing me to add or remove numbers, now not even letting me get to that page...this is available to you if you have fios phone service i think, ...i know it is not available to  regular copperwire telephone customers.......when u say "I have been on the do not call list for over 10 years and it never stopped any nuisance calls" i have to ask you...how do you know it hasn't stopped any? it obviously hasn't stopped all of them, but i imagine we'd have hundreds more annoying phone calls per month if it wasn't for the donotcall registry.....legitimate businesses do not succeed by breaking federal law on a regular basis, and as such, have stopped calling us...(except for century21 realty, they just don't get it, but they're gonna get it soon, heheehe), .......i like to put my cellphone to block my outgoing caller id and i call those unknown numbers back that have called our home phone.....usually  i hear "boop beep boop, we're sorry, the number you have dialed is not ..." ..... but if i get lucky enough to get a prompt to press 1 to be connected to a live body, i do, then when the person answers i tell them i feel sorry for them, that their boss is lying to them about the legality of what they are doing, and that i only connected to tell them those things and so that they can hear me hang up on them...and then i hang up.... i do this because those illegitimate companies are paying a service fee to a robocalling business to make the connection between myself and  a live person for them, and i like to think that i just wasted some of their money...then i switch my cellphone back to send outgoing caller id info...then i go to verizon.com/fiosvoice and find the number in the call logs, click it, then click "block caller" and follow screen prompts from there...good luck

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Re: Unidentified phone number
schinfchin
Enthusiast - Level 3

You're right, madscanner, about the one ring. One ring is pretty standard for call blockers as well as on my Uniden cordless phones. So I usually do not answer on the first ring.

I think I got around the one ring issue in the Uniden phones through selection of ring tones, with the ring tone selection being "no ring tone", rather than the remaining selection of tunes. My mother in law's ring tone is the Star Bangle Banner, so when my wife is out, I know to ignore the call. Known telemarketers get the "no ring tone" selection, and blocked.

Currently,I'm looking into call blockers and call blocking phones to update what I got. Unfortunately,I can only block 25 numbers on the Uniden. Seems nuisance calls have dropped so I'm in no rush to set up a whole new system of call blocking for now. For the past few months, I only got one persistant caller for me to switch utility plans, 2 calls a week, which I have yet to program into the phone.

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Re: Unidentified/Unavailable phone number blocking and reporting
hrhwildflower
Newbie

Althought I have registered with the DONOTCALL registry years ago AND activated the Verizon Anonymous Call Block feature I still get calls with no numbers showing up.  You cannot add words (unavailable) to the specific caller ID blocking list so that failed me also.  Today I contacted Verizon Support thru online live chat and they verified that my settings were correct. They providedadditional information and phone number to call to report "Unlawful" calls.  I plan on calling them Monday if I receive any additional "Unavailable-Out of area" calls. 

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