Weird phone calls

[JapanAxe]

I have received (for the second time) an unsolicited phone call  (with no caller ID) from a northern-sounding male who first asked if I was still performing on guitar, then went on to ask if I'd be interested in helping him with his project to film someone playing bass underwater - in Manchester. I assume he got my number from my website.

Nothing about these calls made me think that being involved with this bloke could ever end well, so each time I said no thanks and closed the call.

Just interested to see whether anyone else has had one of these!

Edited November 15, 2019 by JapanAxe

[ribbetingfrog]

Was it the underwater bit that put you off or the having to play in Manchester?

 

( just joking btw! I’m a proud nearly Manc born and bred)

 

[steantval]

Was it Fish calling, or maybe Walter Trout. 

[nikon F]

6 hours ago, ribbetingfrog said:

Was it the underwater bit that put you off or the having to play in Manchester?

 

is that not the same thing ?

 

 

[Chris2112]

I used to pick up calls in the night at work with no-one there. I used to joke that they were phone calls from another dimension. The briefing room phone would sometimes ring, and I noticed an oddly flat sounding ringtone on occasion. Often on answering, there would be no-one there or the sound of static, or the line would disconnect.

I think that there must have been a fault in the line with other people in the organisation trying to ring through, or members of the public trying to ring in and their calls getting misdirected. Still, not as creepy as these weird calls you have been getting! 

[Happy Jack]

14 hours ago, JapanAxe said:

I have received (for the second time) an unsolicited phone call  (with no caller ID) from a northern-sounding male who first asked if I was still performing on guitar, then went on to ask if I'd be interested in helping him with his project to film someone playing bass underwater.

And deep beneath the rolling waves
In labyrinths of coral caves
An echo of a distant time
Comes willowing across the sand
And everything is green and submarine

[dmccombe7]

That's probably the weirdest call i've ever heard off. Underwater bass playing. Best use a passive bass for that one.

I guess he couldn't use a guitar as its not a fish (Bass) 

Dave

[Skybone]

Was it a benefit gig for Fishlake?

[dave moffat]

An ex mate pulling you proverbial?

Taking it seriously for the briefest of moments (ex scuba instructor hat on) it would have to be acoustic, it wouldn't do the instrument any good and sound travels faster through water, could be interesting but I'd draw the line at going anywhere near f'k'n Manchester so reckon you made the right decision.

[doomed]

While I wouldn't say weird, my Mrs gets her share of nuisance/selling calls. She had one a few months back that she put on speaker phone,

Caller, "It's about your accident... blah blah,"

Mrs, "I haven't had an accident for 20yrs thanks."

Caller, "Oh, what about any family members?"

Me, "Yes. I had a nasty accident last night..."

Caller, "You did Sir??, can I ask what happened, you could be entitled to compensation.."

Me, "Well, I drank 15 pints of strongbow and sh*t my pants..."

Cue scream of laughter from the phone speaker and she hung up... 🤔

[dmccombe7]

I had one yesterday from a Funeral Directors (advertised on TV) asking if i had given any thought to my funeral arrangements.

ME  i'm not interested 

HIM are you aware how much a funeral costs

ME yes well aware

HIM how much do you think it costs

ME It doesn't really matter as i have more than enough money to cover any funeral costs. As i said before i'm really not interested.

HIM is there any particular reason you don't want to discuss this

ME politely and quietly said f**k off and hung up the phone

Some people just won't take no for an answer and i just got so angry that he wouldn't listen.

I normally don't like swearing at people especially on the phone but some to***rs just deserve it and he was one of them.

Not as weird as the OP's but sad that the only nuisance calls i'm getting are from Undertakers. Think someone is trying to tell me something.

Dave

 

[fleabag]

Its a bit of a dead end job, but funeral directors have to make a living

😁

 

 

[dmccombe7]

8 minutes ago, fleabag said:

Its a bit of a dead end job, but funeral directors have to make a living

😁

 

 

Agree but its not as if its a dying market. 

There's always people dying to get into cemeteries and crematoriums.

Sometimes there's even a queue and a schedule involved.

It def was an odd call to get but i have all the usual landline protection where i don't get any nuisance calls except BT who i'm with. This was on my mobile and normally the first thing i ask is where they got my number. Then tell them to remove it from their systems.............Doesn't work tho 

[Dan Dare]

5 hours ago, doomed said:

While I wouldn't say weird, my Mrs gets her share of nuisance/selling calls. She had one a few months back that she put on speaker phone,

Caller, "It's about your accident... blah blah,"

Mrs, "I haven't had an accident for 20yrs thanks."

Caller, "Oh, what about any family members?"

Me, "Yes. I had a nasty accident last night..."

Caller, "You did Sir??, can I ask what happened, you could be entitled to compensation.."

Me, "Well, I drank 15 pints of strongbow and sh*t my pants..."

Cue scream of laughter from the phone speaker and she hung up... 🤔

That's a beaut'. I'm nicking it. I like to ask them which accident they are calling about, as I'm old, my eyesight is failing and I'm always driving into people. Gets rid of them in double quick time.

Had a slightly odd one the other day. Usual tripe - "This is Peter (spoken in a heavy Indian accent). I am calling from BT about your internet connection. It is being used for illegal purposes. Ve are going to help you solve the problem. OK?"

We went through the usual - my telling him he didn't work for BT, that he was calling from a boiler room in Mumbai, that he was a scamming little toad and would he mind p1ssing off, etc - at which point he, obviously wishing to appear cool, Western and hip, started dribbling on about how he was "smoking a joint" and other nefarious nonsense. When I laughed, he hung up. Sad little git.

[Old Horse Murphy]

[leftybassman392]

I once had an attempted scam call from somebody who had spoofed my bank's phone number. The scam failed for two main reasons:

1. I wasn't around to take the call so it went to voicemail. After talking to the machine for a minute or two the caller worked out that there was nobody on the other end of the call and hung up.
2. The caller was speaking in - I think - Chinese. Might have been Korean.

I don't speak Chinese. Or Korean. Lucky me.

 

 

[dmccombe7]

19 minutes ago, leftybassman392 said:

I once had an attempted scam call from somebody who had spoofed my bank's phone number. The scam failed for two main reasons:

1. I wasn't around to take the call so it went to voicemail. After talking to the machine for a minute or two the caller worked out that there was nobody on the other end of the call and hung up.
2. The caller was speaking in - I think - Chinese. Might have been Korean.

I don't speak Chinese. Or Korean. Lucky me.

 

 

Thought everyone was able to speak Chinese.

Wan Tun

Kung Po

its easy when you give it a try

Dave

[Old Horse Murphy]

I once had a call telling me I had been selected to have a half-price Conservatory fitted. I told them I was over the moon and could we arrange an appointment ASAP. You could hear the dollar signs rolling around the caller's head.

She asked for my address and I took great delight in telling her I was in a second floor flat. At least she had the decency to apologise.

[BassTractor]

1 hour ago, leftybassman392 said:

attempted scam call from somebody who had spoofed my bank's phone number.

That part is slightly worrying to me. In Norway, and I guess in other countries too, people report scam call's spoofed phone number, and that number consequently is suppressed in the anti-scam app. Result: innocent rightful number owners then can't call to people with the app.
I had a colleague who was the victim of that. He tried to call me for months, and both of us were unaware his number was in the kill list.

[leftybassman392]

2 minutes ago, BassTractor said:

That part is slightly worrying to me. In Norway, and I guess in other countries too, people report scam call's spoofed phone number, and that number consequently is suppressed in the anti-scam app. Result: innocent rightful number owners then can't call to people with the app.
I had a colleague who was the victim of that. He tried to call me for months, and both of us were unaware his number was in the kill list.

Dunno if that happens in the UK. I reported it to the bank (who of course duly confirmed that it was a scam), but I can and do still call them fairly regularly.

[BassTractor]

46 minutes ago, leftybassman392 said:

Dunno if that happens in the UK. I reported it to the bank (who of course duly confirmed that it was a scam), but I can and do still call them fairly regularly.

Good if it doesn't happen in the UK.
Just for clarity's sake: in Norway, if the number then is suppressed in the app, the bank can't reach others who have installed the app; those others can still reach the bank.
Then somebody needs to notice this, and contact the app developer to get that number off the kill list.

This thing of course is not only an annoyance; it can also have important negative consequences.
In the case of my colleague for example, he bought my last stock cheaply off his last money, but never received the goods. Him not being able to reach me may have contributed to his going bust some months later.

Edited November 18, 2019 by BassTractor

[petebassist]

On 15/11/2019 at 18:54, JapanAxe said:

I have received (for the second time) an unsolicited phone call  (with no caller ID) from a northern-sounding male who first asked if I was still performing on guitar, then went on to ask if I'd be interested in helping him with his project to film someone playing bass underwater - in Manchester. I assume he got my number from my website.

Sounds like something from a David Lynch/Quentin Tarantino film. Or a prank call. 

[Teebs]

On 16/11/2019 at 11:07, dave moffat said:

 I'd draw the line at going anywhere near f'k'n Manchester so reckon you made the right decision.

[Skinnyman]

On 16/11/2019 at 14:22, dmccombe7 said:

I had one yesterday from a Funeral Directors (advertised on TV) asking if i had given any thought to my funeral arrangements.

ME  i'm not interested 

HIM are you aware how much a funeral costs

ME yes well aware

HIM how much do you think it costs

ME It doesn't really matter as i have more than enough money to cover any funeral costs. As i said before i'm really not interested.

HIM is there any particular reason you don't want to discuss this

ME politely and quietly said f**k off and hung up the phone

Some people just won't take no for an answer and i just got so angry that he wouldn't listen.

I normally don't like swearing at people especially on the phone but some to***rs just deserve it and he was one of them.

Not as weird as the OP's but sad that the only nuisance calls i'm getting are from Undertakers. Think someone is trying to tell me something.

Dave

 

Strange the way things change over the years.

Back in the eighties I had a mate who sold franking machines to businesses. His manager liked to go out on a few calls with new sales reps to show them the ropes, give them some pointers, etc.

A favourite "joke" call was to drop in on a Funeral Director, get in to see the man in charge and then do the whole spiel; "do you ever do mail campaigns?", "do you get much repeat business?" - all that sort of thing.

This being a Funeral Directors, a lot of the questions were of course wildly inappropriate and the trainee sales rep had to keep a straight face while some unwitting undertaker was trying to explain that a mail franking machine probably wasn't a lot of use in their line of work.

Oh how we used to laugh down the pub to hear these stories.

And now it seems that the laugh's on us. Funeral directors cold calling punters? They'll be offering 2 for 1 deals and loyalty points next.

It's a crazy world. Everything i thought I knew is turning to quicksand....

[Teebs]

6 minutes ago, Skinnyman said:

It's a crazy world. Everything i thought I knew is turning to quicksand....