I think I put myself on a list - How do I stop these calls?

November 6, 2019 2:24 PM

Short version: I dialed the wrong number by mistake and am now being flooded with calls from various 800 numbers tracing back to the same company. How do I make this stop?

Long version: Yesterday, I attempted to call my medicaid health care provider and inadvertently misdialed one of the digits. I had never called them before and at first thought I had reached them and answered basic menu questions (do I own my own home, etc) nothing invasive. Then I sat through a bunch of ads asking me if I wanted a $100 shopping coupon, Dish network, help with addiction services, etc. I got super frustrated but continued. Finally the prerecorded voice said the number had changed and to call a different number. I hung up, and finally realized what my error was.

Today, i have gotten 6 calls all from different 800 numbers. I googled them as well as the one that I dialed yesterday and they're related to some website called shouji dot supfree dot net and now I don't know what to do. I never gave any identifying or financial info so I'm not worried about being scammed that way but how do I make these calls stop? This company seems to own an endless supply of 800 numbers so blocking individual numbers won't do anything.

Has anyone else had this experience?

posted by acidnova to Grab Bag (7 answers total)

Response by poster: I also wish to add: I'd prefer not to change my number at this time as I'm in the middle of job hunting/interviewing and don't want to risk a potential employer not being able to reach me.
posted by acidnova at 2:30 PM on November 6, 2019

Unfortunately there is no way to stop the calls. Are they calling a landline or a mobile number? If a mobile number and you have a smartphone, there are some potential options to silence calls from numbers not in your contacts (but note that this will also silence calls from potential employers if they are not in your contacts). If a landline, pretty much all you can do is not answer them and hope they taper off.
posted by snowmentality at 5:22 PM on November 6, 2019

Response by poster: Mobile phone. But yes, I am concerned that some of the blocking methods might prevent calls from employers as they wouldn't already be in my contacts. I'm uncertain about only blocking "unknown" as usually the employers at least have the city appear when their calls come in but I'm hesitant.
posted by acidnova at 5:27 PM on November 6, 2019

Best answer: Just give it some time. Don’t answer your phone for unknown calls. People who might hire you will leave a message. It will probably get better in a week or two. This kind of thing is like a common cold, it comes and goes and there are things you can to do to protect yourself against it but for the most part it’s just an annoying fact of modern life.
posted by mskyle at 6:51 PM on November 6, 2019

Check your mobile provider. Mine now offers a free app that helps screen calls, and you can flag/report/block spam calls manually as well. The other day I got a flurry--15 in about 6 hours--from a number that had hundres of reports so they automatically blocked it for me. It's been really helpful. I only know about the calls because I had checked the notification box (since unchecked) but now it works silently behind the scenes for me.
posted by TwoStride at 8:08 PM on November 6, 2019 [1 favorite]

The phone number blocking apps on Android and iOS can block a range of numbers, so you could set one up to block calls from the 800 area code.
posted by conrad53 at 9:53 PM on November 7, 2019

Response by poster: Thought I'd jump in with an update: It ended up being a very short-lived situation. After having received 7 phone calls over the course of that day, I haven't received a single one since. I'm glad I chose to wait it out for a day to see if it persisted before doing anything.
posted by acidnova at 1:57 PM on November 14, 2019