Very odd phone call at 3:30AM! What is this? (1 Viewer)

[Tom_Mack]

Well last night I was fast asleep and then at 3:30AM I hear the phone ring. I ran to get the phone and all that was on the other end was a repeating beep. It was a single tone (not modem or fax noise). There was a one second beep, then one second pause, then beep and so on with no end. Does anyone have any ideas what this could be????

 

[Jason_H]

I have gotten those calls as well, and actually I believe they ARE fax calls. Just a bit different from the usual fax "handshake" noise you hear sometimes.

 

[Dan D.]

Yeah, it's a fax. I gotten the same thing as a voicemail every month on my cell phone for the past 2 years. You'd think somebody would figure it out. There's no ID, and Verizon won't help me unless it's a threatening message.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Did you try *69 just for kicks?

 

[LewB]

I had the same thing happen to me. Seemed the financing company for a local car dealer had fat-fingered when inputting his fax number in their calling list. I could not even get the phone company to help I was getting calls all hours of the night. Plus I guess they had a re-try set up, so it would ring a second time 5 minutes after the first call.
I finally started my PC's fax software and waited. I woke up the next morning and printed off the file.
The manager was quite taken aback when I showed up. 'how did you figure this out ? I've been bitching at these people that I haven't been getting my leasing percentages for weeks !' My response was 'I know, I know'

 

[Kyle McKnight]

kick-ass Lew

 

[MarkHastings]

I get those on my answering machine every now and then, I've only gotten them during the day so I figured it was a crossed line or the phone company was testing the lines...


Lew, LOL That story reminds me of a story from my childhood. There are 2 exchanges in my town that were similar (just as an example 552 and 556), there was a business that had the same last 4 digits as us...we had the one exchange and they ahd the other. CONSTANTLY, we'd get calls from people looking for the business.

We got SO many at night that my father just started taking orders from people - I wonder how many complaints that business got from people who never recieved their orders

 

[Paul_Fisher]

It could be aliens trying to communicate with you.

 

[Peter McM]

I was recently awakened at 2:30am by a guy identifying himself as "Travis", wanting to know if I'd be interested in joining the KKK. "Uh, thank you--no," was my surprisingly polite, if sleepy, reply.

 

[Steve_Tk]

It was probably a ghost. Report to the ghost thread for up to the date research about them.

 

[Bob Graz]

I haven't gotten any ghosts on my telephone, but I used to get them on my TV. Apparently outside antenna's used to attract them but cable doesn't. Hmmm, maybe I should report that on the ghost thread.

 

[Chris Lockwood]

> I was recently awakened at 2:30am by a guy identifying himself as "Travis", wanting to know if I'd be interested in joining the KKK.

Recruiting for the Klan is bad enough, but calling at that time of day is just wrong. The only sheets I'd be interested in would be the ones on my bed.

 

[Scott Wong]

I was thinking of a voice recorder. At my place of business, I take reservations for other corporations. When the phone call begins, one corporation in particular using a digital voice recorder. There is an intermittent beep that I hear similar to the one that Tom described.

But then, digital voice recorders don't place telephone calls.

Scott.

 

[JustinCleveland]

But then, digital voice recorders don't place telephone calls.

The machines are taking over!!! RUN!!!

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

We got SO many at night that my father just started taking orders from people

A friend of mine did the same thing when he had a number that was one digit off from a pizza joint's. He'd get tons of calls, especially on Friday and Saturday nights, and it got to the point where he not only took the orders, but he'd make up "specials", too, like a 2-liter Pepsi free with a large pie.

I also once lived in a small town that not only had a single telephone exchange, but such old equipment at the central office that within the town limits you didn't dial the exchange - just the last four digits. So if my friend's number was 555-1234 the proper way for me to call him was to dial "1234". It was like the whole town was one giant office building, and everybody had an extension.

Naturally most new residents had no idea that this was the case, and the phone company kept forgetting to tell people. So when I moved to town and tried to call my friend - dialing 555-1234 as I always had - I was actually connected to the person who had the phone number 555-5551. Needless to say, this person got a lot of wrong number calls.

Regards,

Joe

 

[Keith_R]

this happened to me all yesterday morning, a family member claims it was probably the phone company doing a line quality test. What ever it was they called every 5 minutes and it got real annoying.

 

[JustinCleveland]

Keith,

I get that tone in the morning when I go to work. They call back every 5 minutes... a pain.

 

[Mark Murphy]

this happened to me all yesterday morning, a family member claims it was probably the phone company doing a line quality test. What ever it was they called every 5 minutes and it got real annoying.

It was probably a fax machine. The phone company does do line testing called ALIT. These proactive tests are always run in the middle of the nite. In some cases, an ALIT will trip the ringers on cheaper qulaity phones. Most of the time, its the promotional phones given away by magazines, etc. that are the culprit. It could happen at the same time every nite, but it wouldn't trip a ring every 5 min. I work for the local phone company and we get those fax calls all the time. We just take the phone off the hook for ten minutes and it gets rid of the problem.

 

[Randy Tennison]

I once got on an autodialer for a companies fax. It would call at 5:30 p.m. everyday. I got the number of caller ID, and sent a fax to the number which basically said,

Quit faxing 816-468-XXXX. It is not a fax number. You're really annoying me!

It stopped the next day.

 

[Scott Van Dyke]

A few months back, this was a problem at our house at about 3-4 am. It would happen twice. The same tones. It got very fustrating to the point where I got caller ID, and it always comes up annonymous. Thanks for nothing, Fucking caller ID.

I'd like to take this fax machine of somebody's, and feed it to the guilty fuck, via up his ass. Sideways. With no lube. While it's plugged in.
Tool.