Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Cell phone harassment

This is topic Cell phone harassment in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 07-15-2006, 04:51 PM:

Let me preface this with saying I am not racist...but this shit has got to stop.

There is this woman with the thickest black accent and "attitude" I have ever heard who calls me constantly on my cell phone. She always has her number blocked, so I have no way to assign her to a silent ringtone or anything.

The stupid woman calls nonstop, dozens and dozens of times in a row at all hours of the day and does nothing but yell and threaten me for cheating on her, very much in the same style as those stupid afternoon tv talk shows. Apparently my name is Tyson, and she "knows" it is me because I "sound just like him" (which I find hard to believe).

What I NEED is anonymous call blocking, just like is available on land lines. The problem is that Cingular says they don't have it yet for cell phones.

I have had this phone number for many years and don't want to change it. Does anyone have any recommendations?

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 07-15-2006, 05:12 PM:

Tell her you're changing cell phone numbers. Then give her Mark G's number. Other than that, Tyson, I think you should just apologize to Shaniqiua.

Posted by Steve Scott (Member # 630) on 07-15-2006, 05:14 PM:

My roommate had his parked car hit by a sassy woman & after the insurance company took care of her claim, she started calling my roommate ten times a day. I believe her intentions were to scare him into also paying her. She even went as far as getting a friend of her's to call him up & pretend she was a cop... She said, almost verbatim "This is xxx (uses only first name) from the police department you were in an accident with xxx (uses only first name, again) & if you don't call us, we will put out a warrant for your arrest!"

Thankfully, a friend of ours is an insurance adjuster & had the phone numbers to help mediate the situation. It's sad to think there are people who let these dumbasses boss people around out of what they think is fear they're creating.

Posted by Louis Bornwasser (Member # 3063) on 07-15-2006, 05:15 PM:

THAT should do it....Brad I'm surprised you did not do this already! Louis

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 07-15-2006, 05:19 PM:

I found that the problem with anonymous call reject (ACR) was that you'll end up blocking more people who are trying to call you legitimately than undesirables. After a succession of cold sales calls on my home landline I signed up for ACR (at the ripoff price of £4 a month), with the result that no-one from any large large organisation could call me, because their switchboard blocks the number. In the end ACR was causing me more trouble than the sales calls, so I had to discontinue it. I now prescreen all calls which are either anonymous or from a number I don't recognise using the answering machine, and only pick up if it's someone I want to talk to.

Obviously you can't do that with the voicemail facility on a mobile. If it's just the one caller that's giving you grief, can you report her as a nuisance caller? It's certainly a criminal offence to make those sorts of calls here, and though I've never had to deal with a malicious caller, I believe the system is that in the first instance, British Telecom will give them a warning, and if that doesn't work, pass the case over to the Police. Is there a similar procedure in the US?

IMHO, withholding numbers should be outlawed. Any large organisation not wanting to divulge a direct line to someone's extension should engineer their switchboard so that it sends the number of a general enquiries line at least. I can't think of any legitimate reason why someone would want to call you without divulging who they are. The only reason is that they know or suspect that you won't want to talk to them - in which case it'll either be because they want to spam you with cold sales calls, or worse.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 07-15-2006, 05:22 PM:

I would have to have somebody standing nearby to answer the phone immediately and claim to be a cop since I don't have her number. She "knows" me by my voice, after all.

If nothing else, does anyone have suggestions on how to REALLY PISS HER OFF? She's doing it to me, so what are some good buttons of hers I should push? At least I can have some fun with this.

Looks like I'm not the only one with a crazy woman calling.

Posted by Dan Zastrow (Member # 3796) on 07-15-2006, 05:29 PM:

Tell her you’re so sorry for cheating on her, you really do love her and that you want to get married today. Now, be careful that Tyson doesn't start calling for ruining his life!

Posted by Chris Hipp (Member # 1788) on 07-15-2006, 05:48 PM:

Easy fix. Tell her to meet you somewhere and then pop her with your 9.

Posted by Jim Ziegler (Member # 86) on 07-15-2006, 07:21 PM:

Have other women answer the phone and fight with her over "Tyson".

Tyson.. poor guy.. named after chicken...

Posted by Allison Parsons (Member # 2728) on 07-15-2006, 07:29 PM:

Maybe you should ask to meet her? You never know, she may be crazy, but she also may be HOT! j/k.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 07-15-2006, 07:32 PM:

The hottest girl in the world couldn't overcome that sort of blattitude. [puke]

I think I'll try Chris' idea. Best case scenario I can prove to her that it is my phone and I am not her precious cheating bastard Tyson. Worst case scenario I can legally shoot her in self defense.

Wait, I may have those best/worst cases backwards! [evil]

Posted by Marc Hansen (Member # 705) on 07-15-2006, 07:50 PM:

Brad
What cell phone company are you with? My bill shows the number of every call made to me as well as by me. If you pay for incoming calls you have the right to know.

Posted by Donna Siegwart (Member # 3232) on 07-15-2006, 07:54 PM:

can't your cell phone company block her number? i mean even if she blocks YOU from seeing it, im sure the cell phone company has to have her number on file somewhere, and find that number that keeps calling and just get them to block that one, and if she tries anything else, you should get her to meet you somewhere (find a cop to go with you) and prove she is wrong, and if she is psycho, have her arrested.... (id so do that, esp if she was wasting my minutes).

OR you can find this tyson guy, find out his real number, and suggest her to call him on that.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 07-15-2006, 08:18 PM:

Cingular, and no I called all of the cell phone providers and none of them can trace the number because it is being blocked at the land line.

quote: Donna Siegwart
OR you can find this tyson guy, find out his real number, and suggest her to call him on that.

I would LOVE to hear how you recommend I do this, seeing that this crazy woman could be living in Florida for all I know.

Posted by Chad Souder (Member # 343) on 07-15-2006, 08:27 PM:

What if next time she called, you could just tell her your battery was running dead and ask her a number you could call her back at? Sometimes the simple ideas actually work. Then you don't have to meet her.

If you really want to piss her off, tell her you found a white girl.

Posted by Jennifer Pan (Member # 2035) on 07-15-2006, 08:27 PM:

Give me her number, I'll set her straight.

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 07-15-2006, 08:53 PM:

You could also tell her that you haven't cheated on her with another woman, but that you discovered you are gay. You could even say it was her who made you come to that insight.

Posted by Charles Greenlee (Member # 3856) on 07-15-2006, 09:11 PM:

Ohh, that's cold. Be geat if it worked, but I doubt it. I'd recommend trying to meet here with a cop present, maybe even bring a cell bill with your name on it to prove it is your phone, and number. In case she tries to claim that you're just Tyson's freind, and he gave you to phone to try to get her to stop. Hell, even if she does belive that, you then have a prompt to give her Tyson's number. I prefer 232-4141 here, it's the number for the local Police [Big Grin]

. Got the point across a number of times. Similar reasons, somone'd call assuming I'm Tyrone, Terell, Lollipop, I've heard them all. They'd assume I'm the desired person and am just kidding with them.

Had one that kept calling for a Kendra, wouldn't understand "Wrong number". So one time, she called again. I saw her number, wasn't blocked, and I was like "Hello?" in a black woman's voice, she asked for Kendra. I then wailed, acted like I was crying and said "Oh, sista done passed!" Boohooed some more, she said she was sorry, and that'd she'd pray for me, I said I had to go, we hung up. Never called me back.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 07-15-2006, 09:37 PM:

Chad has some interesting ideas. Thanks Chad! [Big Grin]

(I would try having a friend answer and say Tyron is dead, but from what I can gather they live together, so she would end up seeing him within a day or two.)

Posted by Mike Schindler (Member # 1309) on 07-15-2006, 11:10 PM:

So is this officially the first problem that can't be solved with FilmGuard?

Posted by Dave Macaulay (Member # 813) on 07-15-2006, 11:34 PM:

The phone company is BSing you, I think. The "private number" calls still send a CNI signal (the calling number) with a flag to tell the called exchange not to send it to you as call display data.
If you make a harrassing call report, a land-line company can record the CNI data and give it to law enforcement to deal with. I doubt if a cellular exchange would be set up to not receive the CNI data.
Maybe if you keep a record of the calls time and duration, then deduct the charges from your bill because you don't want to get them and the company has failed to give you a way to restrict them...

Posted by Phil Hill (Member # 371) on 07-15-2006, 11:48 PM:

Actually, I like Chris' solution the best! [thumbsup]

I had the same problem for several weeks. NO MATTER how much I threatened to call the cops, the (worthless) phone company, etc., the bitch still harassed me!

FINALLY, I asked her what number she was calling... she had the number wrong! The dyslectic JR-type dumbass reversed the center 2 digits and got my number. She must have had speeddial! Dumb ass!

After pointing that out to the dimwit, I never heard from her again.

JFC!

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 07-15-2006, 11:55 PM:

Hey! Just because I am dyslexic and a dumbass doesn't mean your harrasser was like me!

Posted by Phil Hill (Member # 371) on 07-15-2006, 11:58 PM:

Get over yourself, Joe. "JR" *also* stands for "junior" [Razz]

A SR-type harrasser to me is a pro like someone from a bill collection agency... [Wink]

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 07-16-2006, 12:06 AM:

No, that means your harrasser had good sound quality due to the SR noise reduction employed over the phone. DUH!

Posted by Sam Graham (Member # 2889) on 07-16-2006, 12:09 AM:

quote: Brad Miller
I called all of the cell phone providers and none of them can trace the number because it is being blocked at the land line.

They may suddenly change their tune to a police subpoena requesting your call records identifying all incoming numbers. I generate those type of records for my company (sorry, not Cingular), and those numbers often show up in the raw data. Not always, but often.

If nothing else, tell her you're fed up, you've reported her to the police for formal criminal charges, and that you're planning litigation for reimbursement of funds for her using up your minutes, plus damages. "Your blocked number won't help you. Your life as you know it is over."

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 07-16-2006, 12:13 AM:

Oh, this is too funny, guys! [Big Grin]

I had some chick calling me for a couple of weeks about a month ago... she, too, kept transposing two digits in the number. First time she called and I told her she had the wrong number, she said that I "sounded hot" anyway, and she proceeded to FLIRT WITH ME. Then I started getting "lonely girl" calls from her for a couple of weeks - from the sound of it - direct from a bar stool.

Brad, I have Cingular, and when I was getting fax ad calls from anonymous numbers, they told me to keep a log of the date and time the calls came in and they could help. The calls stopped soon afterward, so I didn't pursue anything to be able to say what the next step would've been.

Posted by Chris Hipp (Member # 1788) on 07-16-2006, 01:23 AM:

Do you talk to her while you are working out in your truck?

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 07-16-2006, 01:55 AM:

Haha. Yes, I leave my cell in the truck, so I was always on the road when she'd call. But I used to get callers like her all the time when I was broadcast air talent, so I KNOW what they're usually like.

Just stay as distant as you can from them. [Wink]

Posted by Charles Greenlee (Member # 3856) on 07-16-2006, 02:29 AM:

quote:
No, that means your harrasser had good sound quality due to the SR noise reduction employed over the phone. DUH!

Or worse due to only one end having SR, probably yours. Since the source was without SR, the receiver would re-equalize it wrong, thus making it sound worse. Like playing a tape not recorded with NR, on a system with the NR switch on, sounds murky.

Posted by Phil Hill (Member # 371) on 07-16-2006, 02:46 AM:

Posted by Charles Greenlee (Member # 3856) on 07-16-2006, 12:40 PM:

Al right Phil. That's it! You game show host is no match for my Kung Fu.

Broken pic here

Oh damn, forgot about the guy with the gun. Sunofa.....

Edit: How do I post a pic. Phil has that boring pic, mine was funny.

Posted by Mike Heenan (Member # 392) on 07-16-2006, 01:57 PM:

Hey, it's Little Enos! [Big Grin]

Posted by Phil Hill (Member # 371) on 07-16-2006, 05:44 PM:

Charles, on the "Post A Reply" page there is a "Click here to upload an image" link.

Posted by Charles Greenlee (Member # 3856) on 07-16-2006, 06:24 PM:

I see it. Ehh, not really worth wasting space on their servers for something simple like that. You'd get more use outta your boring than I would aoutta my Kung-fu. BTW, doesn't the Kung-fu figure remind you of JR?

Posted by Phil Hill (Member # 371) on 07-16-2006, 07:54 PM:

Ahhhhh, go ahead and post it. I only post all my BS cuz I like to drive up Brad's server bill. He's rich and can afford it.

Over the last 6 years, he has sent me many bills to pay for my FT usage... Instead of paying him, I donate the $$$ he bills me for to the charity of "The Rockwall Home For Wayward Teen Boys". BTW: I always challenge him to match my donations.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 07-16-2006, 08:02 PM:

quote: Charles Greenlee
BTW, doesn't the Kung-fu figure remind you of JR?

It had god damn well better!

Posted by Mike Olpin (Member # 1115) on 07-16-2006, 08:51 PM:

Here. I'll waste the 14.9 kilobytes of server space.

Posted by Charles Greenlee (Member # 3856) on 07-16-2006, 09:19 PM:

Damn you! I was gonna do it, but got distracted by the massage topic. [Eek!]