A little concerned, need some advice ...

[Akoto]

I had posted a few nights ago about a strange phonecall we received at 10:30pm. My mom answered it (I'm living at home), and she said the other person spoke a short phrase so quickly that she didn't understand. It probably wasn't English, and she said the guy's accent sounded Indian or Pakistani. So, she hung up and that was it for that night and a couple of days thereafter.

Tonight, at 10:00pm, we got another call. It was dead air on this one -- usually a sign that it's a computer, but who knows? She said hello twice, nobody talked, so she hung up.

The caller ID just says Unknown Caller, and there's a -------------- line where the phone number would normally be displayed. Usually, even when we get Unknown Name telemarketers during the day, we still see a number. Is this a sign that it's out of the country?

The only reason I worry is that a while back, a guy with a similar accent called at a more reasonable time of day. He sounded like a marketer and asked for mom. My mom lied about not being home, and the guy said a few unkind words (swearing, she says) before she hung up.

Should I just ignore this? Never before have we had marketers at this time of night, so I do wonder. There's not much that I can investigate when the ID shows nothing, though.

[MissB]

1. Do you have an answering machine?

Let the machine pick it up after a certain hour, or if you just don't recognize the phone number.

[Akoto]

2. I don't have one ...

We've never needed one before, not for this reason!

I am thinking about getting this Anonymous Call Blocking service from the phone company. It sends no name/no number people to a recording rather than dialing through, and it says they have to unblock their number before they can talk to us.

I dunno, the thing just has me creeped out! Maybe I'm too soft. :)

[MissB]

3. My dad uses that.

I'm too cheap to pay for caller ID even. I made sure I was on the do-not-call list and if a telemarketer happens to call, I quickly ask them to put me on their do-not-call list and hang up.

I don't answer the phone after 8 pm or so. It is very hard for me to *not* answer the phone, but if they can't leave a message then I probably don't want to talk to them. :D

[Ariana Celeste]

4. I'm sure you could find one at a decent price

The man and I are too cheap for caller ID, so we have an answering machine- we screen all of our calls because there are a couple of people that we just have to be in the right mood to talk to if you catch my drift. Anywho since we screen our calls only people who really want to talk to us will call. Every once in awhile we will get an unkown caller who will call a bunch of times, but they give up.

As far as your OP, I wouldn't be so much worried as much as really irritated.