Political dirty trick, or coincidence - in Indianapolis, Indiana?

[salin]

I have had my current cell phone number for about 3 years. Only on rare, rare occasions have I ever had a wrong number.

In the past two days I have been getting about one call per every two-three hours with a blocked number (all 000000000s display as in the incoming number). As soon as I answer there is a hang up. No one speaks - just hangs up. On the last call I exasperatedly say into the silent phone - "Will you please stop calling this number?" - and out of the silence I get a sputtering voice "... er sorry" *click*. On Thursday morning my phone had the message that I had received three missed calls (between 11:00 and 5:00 when I get up) but NO number was recorded as incoming calls. This threw my morning off as I often get calls from colleagues who are running late or have taken sick - and I make sure to move personnel around to make sure all active positions are filled. When I got to work I was worried that real folks had called (but not left messages - which would be unusual) and needed coverage. Sort of made the start of my work day a bit more inconvenient.

In Indiana robocalls are against the law. Political calls have to be made by human beings - not by taped message (in 2006 several political groups ran afoul of the law and were fined hundreds of thousands of dollars.) Earlier this week, you may recall the story from Indiana where a bunch of workers at a call center walked off the job for the day rather than reading the McCain script that was exceptionally nasty.

I am not the only one receiving the new annoyance calls. The same morning I had the odd "missed calls", a colleague had started receiving calls on her land line at about 1:30 am - all hangups when she would answer. She said she was called about every half hour.

Could this be coincidence of a sudden rash of irritating "wrong numbers"? Or could it be, as I suspect - dirty tricks meant to fatigue and annoy and thus perhaps depress the vote? If it is the latter - go for it GOPers - I voted today, and my colleague plans to vote this weekend as well.

Anyone else experiencing anything like this?

[LiberalFighter]

1. Phone companies should be required to transmit the caller phone numbers

And ANY organization obtaining phone service be required to transmit their phone number to those with caller id or lose their phone service and be fined heavily.

[salin]

2. I agree. By the way - the calls stopped, after i got the 'silent'

person on the other end to speak (they weren't expecting anything but a "hello?" before their hangup - I had received at least 10 of these calls so I figured out the pattern - so I think my response of answering with "stop calling this number" caused the sputtered "sorry".) I can't think of why, other than this election - and Indiana law that requires live calls - I just started getting these irrirtant calls if it isn't related to the election.

Ask around to see who else is getting these calls. Perhaps answering with a "this has reached the point of phone stalking and I am reporting it to the police" instead of with a "hello" will stop the calls and get the message across.

[myrna minx]

3. I've been receiving many calls like yours from 000.000.0000 or unknown caller.

Minnesota too, requires a live person "robo-call" and I did receive several of those a few weeks ago, but now I have been receiving a flurry of calls like yours. It's *really* annoying.

[salin]

5. Try answering - but not with hello - but with something that startles the

caller into speaking. It ended the 'reign of irritation' - as the calls had escalated to hourly.

Try something like "This is phone stalking, and I am reporting this to the authorities".

[SwampG8r]

4. im getting them in florida

about 6 a day
usally i hear static or silence
i am on the no call list so i know it isnt advertisers
all with unknown numbers on my caller id

[salin]

6. same here - and they hang up almost as soon as they hear my voice

as in mission accomplished - the person answered.

Glad to know it isn't my imagination.

[progressivebydesign]

7. my home and biz lines have been ringing off the hook here in Washington.

and it's always either an automated call, a wrong number (but for various people) and always political, or a hang up.

What i suspect in your case, is that it IS an automated dialer, but it probably disconnects when it reaches numbers in Indiana. That's all I can imagine, because I think it would be far-fetched to call random numbers to be annoying, without identifying who they are. And a political calling firm would have no idea of the political affiliation of a cell phone holder.

[salin]

9. There *was* a person on the line...

the last time they called - instead of answering "hello" and getting a hangup, I answered "stop calling this number"... and a male voice replied with .... "er.... sorry." I think the caller was stunned someone answered this way - and they just blurted a response.

I agree that it is odd. But in 2006 (when robocalls were made against the law - leading to the fines that have prevented them this time around), one of the stated goals was to make voters so annoyed with the whole campaign as to depress turnout. I really think that is the point. However, I think it is a big old fat waste of money in Indiana. More record lines for early voting today - and reportedly more of the early votes are being cast for Obama.

[LiberalAndProud]

8. My husband commented on the 'dead air' calls we've been

getting recently. I don't have caller id on my landline, but we've been getting calls with nobody on the other end (dead air) every two or three days. I began to wonder if it had to do with my Obama donations, as the landline is listed on my contact info.

[salin]

11. I almost never have received "dead air" calls on my cell in the past

three years or so that I have had this number. Suddenly between Wed and Saturday I have gotten many. By the time I got one of the calls to answer (when I think I startled the caller and he responded "er... sorry".) I had receieved three over a three hour period.

[bicentennial_baby]

10. I've been getting calls like this too, in MA!

:wtf:

[salin]

12. how frequently are you receiving these?

I wonder what the point is - depressing the vote in Indiana (where latest polls give it a tie or slight Obama lead), I get - but in MA?

[bicentennial_baby]

13. Several a day for about 4 days

But someone else here who lives in MA, and who is registered as "Unenrolled" (aka Independent) like I am got a Fred Thompson robocall yesterday, I think.

And before this, I never got "No Number" calls. Especially not several a day.

[salin]

14. that fits my "voter depression/supression" theory of what is going on.

Like you, these didn't start until this past week.