A very nasty surprise - be ready if it happens to you

the BT Call Guardian has stopped all this.
can truly recommend.

When my parents were in their very late 80's they had a phone call from a man with a foreign accent telling them that they were calling round to repossess the car, amongst other things. Fortunately my parents were very sharp minded and called the police straightaway. The police were there within half an hour. It did un-nerve my parents but there were no more phone calls.

Pepine

I worked with a terribly proper spinster some years ago. She had a phone call where the caller suggestively asked her if she knew what he was holding in his hand to which she replied ‘if it’s just the one hand I’m not interested’ and out the phone down. He didn’t call back. I only wish I could think of a put down as fast!

Outstanding!

Never give your number out when answering calls. If the caller has just dialled a random number he is less likely to ring you again as he is not so likely to remember it.

Decades ago when I lived with my mother and sister we got a few very “explicit” calls. I soon recognised the caller as the manager of our local off licence and I told him so. Didn’t happen again nor did we revisit his off licence again.

H1954 perhaps someone he had met gave him a wrong phone number, which happened to be yours, because they didn’t want to see him again. Quite understandable if he was such an unpleasant character

What an utter pig ? He would probably be more scared of you if you shouted a rude threat. So sorry to hear oy went throught this

Way back when I was single, before I met DH (and living in the house DH and I live in now) I found one morning what looked like two small cylinders - the sort 35 mm films came in - that had been pushed through the front hedge into the garden. I picked them up and they were photos that had curled up, each was a picture of male genitalia.

Not long after this I went out early one Sunday morning in the car that had been parked all night on the front drive. When I came back and drove into the drive I noticed a sheet of A4 paper. Not sure if it had been there all night and I hadn't noticed it when I backed the car out.
There was handwriting on both sides, in various colours and upper case and lower case letters of a sexual nature. There was a phone number, I did a quick look on the first few pages of the phone book and amazingly found it - it was quite near here. I contacted the police, the police came round and rang the number but no reply.

There was a further incident, can't remember now what it was as I'm going back to the 1970s but I remember going round to the police station to report it. After that, nothing further happened but it was very scary for me, living alone.

Franbern

It is a horrible thing to happen and can be quite frightening if living alone.
Back in the past, these sort of calls, or just plain dirty ones, was far more common, as no caller number came up.

There are a couple of ways of dealing with this sort of thing. Firstly, let all incoming calls go to answerphone, then you can decide if you want to talk to whoever is calling.

Otherwise have some of your own fun with them. I would never do anything cruel and dangerous, like blowing a whistle down the phone, but my favourite withe dirty callers was to say EXTREMELY LOUDLY ' SORRY, I HAVE LOST MY HEARING AIDS AND CANNOT HEAR YOU, PLEASE SPEAK VERY LOUDLY'.
Then however, loudly they spoke I would interrupt to say still could not hear and understand them, could they please shout louder. You will be pleasantly surprised as to how quickly they ring off and never bother to ring back!!!

franbern
Never do anything "cruel and dangerous* as blowing a whistle down the phone! Cruel and dangerous to who? The pest who has the nerve to be cruel by making dirty threatening calls?
Yes I feel really sorry for them. Not!

There was a phone box over the road to our house.On the way to my friends house over the road it rang,I answered it.It was an extremely nasty call,and he said he would " get me ".I remember being extremely distressed and dad running over,he had seen me getting upset and grabbed the phone.The caller must have ring off.Both sets of parents(mine and my friends) watched whichever child was going to one or from whichever home at that time.
I was 12.

It's horrible. I had a call a week ago, private number, and I broke my own rules about answering such numbers at all. The man said "is that the right number for Leo", I said "no", he said, "wrong number". He then rang again, then a third time. I declined the calls and blocked the number. Really scared me. The number is in my call history.

Same happened to my Mum many years ago, she was very dishy, and some man kept calling and saying he could see her, think they called the Police in the end? It certainly put the wind up her when she was alone in the house during the day. I will ask her about what happened in the end come to think of it!

Many many years ago I did a housewives shift (that's what it was called) in directory enquiries when it was free. After 11 pm we had all manner of crackpot calls however these were less threatening because any on the staff could have answered so it wasn't personal. We could keep their line open in those days which did act as a bit of a deterrent. Not a nice world we live in !

I worked with a terribly proper spinster some years ago. She had a phone call where the caller suggestively asked her if she knew what he was holding in his hand to which she replied ‘if it’s just the one hand I’m not interested’ and out the phone down. He didn’t call back. I only wish I could think of a put down as fast!

A great many years ago when I was a child in the 60’s, I remember watching a film (so not sure if it’s dramatic license), where the victim of a dirty phone call rapped an ordinary dining fork hard on the table so that the tines vibrated. She then held the still vibrating tines to the mouthpiece of the phone. In the film this appeared to have the effect of not being pleasant to the callers ears.
I’ve not since found out if what I’ve described would work in real life, and if it did, would it be detrimental to the callers hearing. Or if it was all drama.
Just a thought.

I had a lot of nasty calls about thirty years ago, even one from a woman! In those days I had a number which ran down in sequence which is the only explanation why I had so many. Of course in those days I didn’t have number recognition which is so useful now. I learned never to give my name or number when answering. Also the police said these sick people do nt know where you live which was reassuring. I found the best way to deal with them was to ask them to hold on and they would then ring off terrified of being traced. Don’t let these sickos win by letting them upset you. They’re just very sad lonely people and to be pitied.

Put the phone down right away and do not engage them.

Dear Applegran
Just to say how sorry I am.
I heard a snatch of Crimewatch this morning but had to go just as they were saying how the current situation is producing a lot of crime especially geared towards us being at home or internet crime.
I do hope you will soon feel better and much stronger. Well done for coping so well. It is very thoughtful of you to tell us so we may be prepared. Thank you.

I don't mean the reading was scary - I meant the incident!

Back in the mid-70s I had a phone call at about 9am when a man asked me if I knew where my children (aged 5 and 7) were. "At school" I said. "No, they're not, they're here with me!" I didn't want to put the phone down before I had made sure he was lying. "Where are you?" I asked. "In Wimbledon." he replied. (That's 25 miles from me and I had dropped them off at their respective schools only 20 minutes earlier). But I still wanted to be sure he hadn't got them, so I said "Can I speak to one of them, they will be frightened." To which he replied, "No, I have tied their knickers round their mouths to keep them quiet." Then I KNEW he hadn't got them, there's no way the little one's knickers would have gone round her head - she was still wearing Age 3 size!

I did ring both schools after I had given him a mouthful and cut him off. The Junior School brought my daughter to the phone for me to deliver a made up message to her (so as not to frighten her with the truth) and the Infant School brought my youngest into the headmisstress' office on the pretext of testing her reading within my earshot. Scary!

Keep a whistle by the phone and blow it in his ear if he calls again, that should put him off!

What a good idea to leave them talking to.thin.air. Dh nearly got caught by the "fraud at your bank" scam. He found out in time what was happening. When they called back to.see if he had the cash for them to collect he said Not yet, I'm making enquiries, to which the man replied Ok we'll come round and rob you then. A horrible shock. Dh is the man most unlikely to.ever be taken in and even he was almost caught. It is horrible for your self esteem.

I once had a horrible "dirty" phone call but the awful thing was he called me by my first name.
Another time a woman 'phoned me to say that she knew I was having an affair with her husband because she had found a piece of paper with my first name and telephone number in his pocket .
She said she was phoning me to warn me what a horrible person he was but I had never even heard of him.

I was a telephone operator in the 70's (dial 100/999) and we were trained to say nothing and put the phone down. If the phone goes again ignore it. Nutters soon get fed up with this but thrive on people's fear.

I was advised years ago when I had a disturbing call to wait for the person to speak first .If it's a genuine friend or family member they would say hello quite quickly. I was always very bright and friendly when answering and it's horrible that we have to change our habits but it's important to keep safe.