Group Health Connecting Their Callers to My Phone?

April 24, 2004 1:29 PM

I have reason to believe Group Health is prank-calling me. [More Inside]

Last night from 11pm to 2am I got a series of weird phone calls (at least 7, maybe more). Because I have awful cell phone reception in my apartment, the phone only rang to alert me that I had received a voice mail message -- I never got the calls themselves.

The content of the messages was basically uniform: about 10 seconds of muzak, followed by what sounds like garbled speech, then the message would abruptly end. On one of the messages, I could make out a woman's voice saying, "Hello? Hello? Hello?"

When I called up the number on the caller ID, I got a message that said, "If you are a 911 operator, please hang up and call 555-5555. If you found this number on your caller ID, we are sorry, but this is a non-working number at Group Health." *Click*

Now, my first name is Adam, so I am used to being ass dialed, since I'm usually the first entry in people's address books. But this seems to be different. It seems like some automated answering system at Group Health is somehow transferring people who are on hold to my cell phone.

I take it (because they bothered to mention it on the automated message) this happens fairly frequently.

I am puzzled, and I guess a little hesitant to call them up and be bounced around to different operators--or potentially to some stranger's cell phone-- trying to get an answer. I was just wondeing if anybody else has had this happen to them? What... how... why would this be part of their system? What's going on? Can I stop it from happening again (besides turning off the phone at night)? I needs my sleep.

posted by Hildago to Technology (4 answers total)

The first thing you should do is either Google the phone number or run it through a reverse lookup (like AnyWho) to determine (if possible) the actual source of the call, which may lead you to the proper channels of contact. If not, I would call the telephone company or cellular customer service and explain to them the repeated abuse you're receiving from a specific number. They may be able to contact the source or block that number from your phone. This is only speculation, however.
posted by Danelope at 3:11 PM on April 24, 2004

This is curious. Have you received any more of these Hildago? My guess is that it was a call forwarding issue, and that the calls were supposed to have been forwarded to a cell phone with a number similar to yours. The time the calls took place also seems to back this up. It's probably some sort of "help" number manned by one person during off-hours, with the calls being forwarded to wherever that person is. I would imagine that very few calls are normally made during these hours, and that the ones you received were mostly made by one person trying to get through. Or...

Aliens? (They just don't "get" our technology.)
posted by taz at 12:23 AM on April 25, 2004

Response by poster: Taz, yep, I got some more yesterday afternoon. Ended up calling Group Health, but sat in the queue for 25 minutes before hanging up. I'm thinking their automated answer system is very screwy. Last night passed without incident though, so I'm hoping it's over.
posted by Hildago at 11:18 AM on April 25, 2004

Response by poster: Have ruled out aliens due to preventative measures involving a large quantity of aluminum foil
posted by Hildago at 11:21 AM on April 25, 2004