How do you stop middle of night phone calls from a fax HELP?

[Lanshark]

The last 4 nights we have gotten a phone call from a fax machine. These calls are anywhere for 12:00am to 3:00am. The caller ID states OUT OF AREA. I cannot get the number. I called the phone company yesterday and they suggested a service called Privacy Director. It screens all OUT OF AREA, UNKNOWN, PRIVATE calls and asks for an ID. I'm then called by the Privacy Director to see if I want to accept the call. Her theory was that automated calls would not get through.

Well, she was wrong. I got a call last night from the Privacy Director with a recording of the FAX Needless to say I called the phone company this morning. The first person said to use *57 to trace the call. I told her I assumed it would trace to the Privacy Director. She said, it wouldn't. She too was wrong. The next person took off the Privacy Director and enabled *57. I have to receive three more of these calls and *57 each to see if I can get a trace. Chances are it won't work either because call return is telling me the phone number is untraceable.

I don't want to take my phone off the hook because I have an elderly aunt who calls in case of emergencies. Besides that I find these calls intrusive and want to stop, not just avoid, them. I'm wondering if I should hook my fax up tonight to see if I can figure out who the hell is calling us.

Has anyone dealt with this and is there a way to stop it or break the faxing cycle. I am assuming it is an honest mistake that we've been put on some type of batch list that calls multiple numbers a night but it is very annoying and I'm getting quite grumpy.

 

[stinkerbelle]

stupid question.
what does it sound like when you get a phone call from a fax machine?

is it a
beep
long pause
beep
long pause
beep
etc...??

or is it scratchy sounding - like a dial up modem?

we've been getting the beep....beep....beep.... off and on throughout the day at our house (we just moved in 7 months ago)

sorry I can't help you with your problem though!

 

[cynsaun]

We had this happen to us, too. We would get calls 4-5 times a day into the middle of the night!

I tried hitting the pound button over and over. It apparently confuses the fax machine, and drops the number from its memory.

I'm not sure if it worked or not, as we moved and changed numbers shortly thereafter! But, it is worth a shot!

Good luck!

Stinkerbelle, that's exactly what it sounds like!

 

[Lanshark]

SB

It is a Beep.....Beep.....Beep

It does not sound like a dialup modem

I spoke with my cousin this morning who is getting the same thing. Her's are between 2:00am and 5:00.

I'll try the # key. In the mood I'm in hitting something over and over again sounds good

 

[tonyswife]

Set up your fax machine and see if you can't catch who the calls are coming from. Your number may have landed on a marketing list. If that's the case, i *think* they re required to have their return fax number and company info on the sheet. You can call the business and tell them to remove you from thier list immediately. I am almost certain that it's illegal for people to send you unauthorized faxes.

 

[stinkerbelle]

LanShark and cynsaun - Thanks!


And thanks for the ideas on how to stop it...guess I have the same problem! (luckily - we don't get them in the middle of the night TOO often...but sometimes we do.)

 

[KathyTX]

Hooking up your fax machine tonight sounds like a good idea- you should be able to find out who to contact about stopping the messages either from the header info (if the originator's phone number is part of that), or from the text of the message itself.

How frustrating! Good look...

 

[leahannpen]

OH MY GOSH! This happens to us ALL THE TIME! I got THREE just yesterday morning around 4am. This has been happening to us for over two years. It goes in spurts. We will go usually a month, though usually less with nothing, then it starts up again. Though it usually happens during the day when I'm not home, my sitter gets stuck with it. She usually let's the machine get it and turns that down...once they start rolling in.

I've called SBC (can I say sucks here?) and they said for $75 they'd change our number! I am so tempted to do that, but $75?
They were so unhelpful it was UNREAL! My aunt watched my son a year or so ago and SHE tried calling to see what to do. There is nothing we can do as it comes from many different numbers.

Apparently, OUR home number is printed on SOMETHING for some business or something. Gee, thanks. SBC said our number never was a fax. Well, that's fine and dandy, but YOU gave us the number, can't/won't YOU help us fix it?

The kicker? My sitter needed a new number for whatever reason and called SBC and told them she was getting fax calls and they changed her number for nothing to be nice!!!!!




p.s. it sounds like a high pitched BEEEEEEEEEEEPPP/SCREEEEEETCH! ANNOYING!

I'm hoping you can get yours taken care of. Good Luck!!

 

[Pin Wizard]

Ooooooooooooooooooo...I would hook up the fax machine. Wouldn't it be something if someone misdialed a fax number and it's confidential info! At least then you know where it's coming from...hopefully.

 

[Lanshark]

Funny thing is we've had this number for 7 years and it just started. We are also unlisted and always have been. .

Hopefully the fax will have a return number and hopefully that number will have a person on the other end. It sounds like the phone company can't do anything except refer to their "Annoyance and Harrassing" call center. If you can't get a trace you're kind of up a creek.

I guess the problem is not that unusual.

 

[theSurlyMermaid]

As silly as this is going to sound, I often yell into my phone "HellOOOOOOOOOOOOO, this is NOT A FAX NUMBER!!!"

In my faxing days, I would often dial the wrong number and could hear a person answering the phone. So I yell into my phone on the off chance someone is standing there feeding the fax machine.

 

[Shannon G]

We had this same problem - fax calls at all hours of the night. Well, we finally got a fax machine (needed one for DH's business anyway) but, by then, we hadn't gotten any of the calls in a while. So we have the fax machine for a month or two - no middle of the night calls. The fax machine breaks, and guess what? We are awoken in the middle of the night by a call coming from a fax machine!!! This was just a couple of weeks ago, and we now have a new fax machine, so we'll have to wait & see if anything comes in during the night but, so far, nothing.

 

[Figaro]

We have WinFax Pro on the compute and when it happens my spouse just switches over to dial-up, brings up the program and accepts the call. There is almost always enough information to figure out who is doing it and then you can call and get them to stop.

 

[Lanshark]

Thanks to everyone. I will definitely ask DH to hook up the fax machine tonight.