R/Nosleep (Get Spooked)

I Finally Answered One Of Those Spam Calls...

By: u/rotsoil

I've been getting a lot of spam calls lately. I used to get them from time to time and I just ignored it and didn't give it too much thought. But lately, I've been getting them constantly. Like five times a day. I work from home and a large part of my job is consulting with clients, so having my phone bogged down with spam calls is not really ideal.

A few years ago, after a particularly bad breakup, I changed my phone number. I've been very careful about who I give the new number to, and only a handful of people have it. I also registered on the "Do Not Call" list, although based on how many phone calls I've been getting, I think it's pretty useless.

Last Thursday is when the trouble really started.

I was in the middle of a call with a very important client when my phone beeped. I pulled it away from my ear to look at it and saw there was an incoming call from a number I didn't recognize. I declined it and carried on with the conversation with my client. About a minute later, my phone beeped again.

"Uh, I'm sorry, can you excuse me for another second?" I asked. I was immediately embarrassed, having cut off the client in the middle of a sentence.

"Oh, um, sure, Kristie, of course!" he answered. I could hear the surprise in his voice. This was a very important client, and I was sure he wasn't used to being interrupted.

I pulled the phone away and was irritated to see it was a call from the same number. It was unusual that I would receive a call from the same number so soon. I declined the call and then tapped the phone icon on my home screen. I brought up the entry and blocked the number. Whoever was trying to robocall me wouldn't be able to again. I felt a tinge of triumph as I returned to my call and resumed my work.

But the thing about spam calls is if you block a number, there are countless other numbers they can call from.

After I hung up with my client, I pulled open my email on my laptop and started to compose a message to the client outlining the details of our conversation. I was startled when my phone started to vibrate on the desk. I frowned as I realized it was another spam call. I quickly declined it and then switched over to Google the number to see who was calling. I was a little puzzled when nothing substantial came up. I tried searching for the other number that had interrupted my work earlier. Nothing came up for that either.

"Oh well," I said. I pushed the whole thing from my mind and got back to work. I was pleased when I didn't get any other calls during work.

That night, after eating one too many slices of pizza, I dozed off on the couch while watching a movie. A buzzing noise woke me up. My eyes snapped open and my hands frantically searched the couch for the source of the noise. As I pulled my phone out from between two cushions, the "incoming call" screen flicked off. A notification popped up in its place letting me know I had missed it. I groaned and flopped back against the couch. My phone buzzed again, just once, and I frowned.

There was another notification. I had a new voicemail.

I sighed and unlocked the phone. I expected the voicemail to be something about extending my car warranty, but instead, it was thirty seconds of garbled static. I deleted it and blocked the number that had called.

When I awoke in the morning, I already had three more missed spam calls and another voicemail. When I listened to it, I found it was just more static. I deleted it and blocked all of the numbers.

After I had showered, I went downstairs to make coffee. There were no new calls. Maybe they finally got the hint and gave up, I thought.

I was wrong.