Tag Archives: silent calls

This Week’s Most Wanted Numbers

Dear friends of tellows,

it has been another week and for some of you, the telephone lines have been rather busy. As always, we have the top 5 telephone numbers from New Zealand and Australia that have been calling for sometimes unknown, sometimes unwanted reasons:

1. 0800222378 from New Zealand with 2 comments and 3004 search requests. tellows Score: 8
2. 099204056 from New Zealand with 3 comments and 1354 search requests. tellows Score: 7
3. 044630500 from New Zealand with 2 comments and 910 search requests. tellows Score: 6
4. 0280829776 from Australia with 2 comments and 1127 search requests. tellows Score: 3
5. 0242316708 from Australia with 2 comments and 204 search requests. tellows Score: 5

Our first number for the week, 0800222378 has been occupying New Zealand consumers for quite a while now, reappearing on our list all throughout the year ever since its first entry in January. Most of our users have received a message by an unknown originator asking them to call the number back without further information as to why.

Ranking on the second place, number 099204056 is no stranger to our top 5 as well. While most of our users reported calls from the number as telemarketing, user Apple was able to provide further information:

Holiday innes telemarketing? introduce people to join priority privilege card, and they won’t tell you it will cost $299 mebership fee a year, so untrustable.

Even though the third number, 044630500, is rated with a tellows score of 6 and has been reported for quite some time, information are still scarce. Most users have complained about frequent and often silent calls from this number.

With a tellows score of 3, our fourth number 0280829776 from Australia appears to be a trustworthy number with many users allocating it to a wireless communications brand. User Ah Gav wrote:

Received one, it was from VirginMobile Australia. (called to resolve some issues reported to them recently).

Calling from Wollongong, Australia, our fifth and final number for this week, 0242316708, has been rated as neutral with a tellows score of 5. According to our users, the caller conducts surveys, although some question the authenticity of the calls: user Michael commented:

wanted to do survey, could be a hoax… this call was at 8.30pm

We hope you have a nice telephone scam and spam-free weekend! – And if you don’t, you know what to do and who to share your information with.

Your tellows team

Different Month, Same Story: The Top 5 of Nuisance Callers

Dear friends of tellows,

there is something interrupting our everyday life that just won’t quit no matter what the month is – and unfortunately even within the first days of September, some of you have been bothered with unsolicited telemarketing and nuisance calls. To see which numbers have been particularly active in the past week in Australia and New Zealand, let’s have a look at this weeks top 5 of most wanted numbers:

1. 078571502 from New Zealand with 5 comments and 8345 search requests. tellows Score: 6
2. 044725543 from New Zealand with 3 comments and 2750 search requests. tellows Score: 6
3. 0800450527 from New Zealand with 6 comments and 5133 search requests. tellows Score: 7
4. 0061283240300 from Australia with 2 comments and 2000 search requests. tellows Score: 3
5. 0399881848 from Australia with 3 comments and 1257 search requests. tellows Score: 7

With tellows scores ranking from 1 (reliable) to 9 (not trustworthy), our first number for this week – 078571502 – is highly debated. Even though the number seems to belong to a major telephone company, some of our users questioned the trustworthiness of the number as they couldn’t return the calls. User Grrrr commented:

Had several phone calls from this number this evening, tried ringing back and got an answer phone grrrr. Rang Telecom and the very helpful lady explained that it is actually a Telecom number that is used by call centres (I am guessing overseas ones) to contact customers

Our second number for today, 044725543, has been keeping people’s telephone lines busy with what appears to be computer generated calls. Often lasting only a few seconds, the calls were nearly impossible to answer for some of our users. Ranking on our third place, the number 0800450527 has been rated as rather untrustworthy with a tellows score of 7. According to our users, the caller tries to obtain contact information but will reveal little about himself as user Les Neilsen wrote:

Received a call from a gentleman wanting a contact phone number for a friend. He gave a first name (Royve) and an 0800 number when pressed, but would not say who he worked for, only that he “had business” with our friend.I called the number he provided but their answer message does not identify who they are, asks for contact details so they can get back to you.

Calling from Sydney, Australia, our fourth number, 0061283240300, has become one of the usual suspects on the list and has also been reported on both the Australian and the German tellows site with some users advising against answering the call. Some of you may recognize our fourth number, 0399881848, from last week. Making unsolicited telemarketing calls from Australia, the telephone number received a tellows score of 7 and is considered rather untrustworthy.

If there is a number bothering you with unsolicited telemarketing or nuisance calls as well, don’t hesitate to inform our users on tellows about it and exchange your experiences with others. Other than that, stay safe and spam-free!

You tellows team

Last Week’s Top 5 Scammers

This week’s top 5 include an unknown caller whose number has been known to us for some weeks now, but nobody knows who is hiding behind it. Unbelievable!! This guy from Wellington seem to work very hard to sustain such an high amount of attention. More and more people use tellows.co.nz to share their experience and report annoying spam and scam numbers, so we will definitely find out who is our dark horse and this week’s Top leader.
Top 5 of the Most Wanted UK callers:

1. 044725543, Wellington – New Zealand, with a Tellows Score of 6
2. 049747222, Wellington – New Zealand, with a Tellows Score of 7
3. 099769580, Auckland – New Zealand, with a Tellows Score of 5
4. 049244455, Wellington – New Zealand, with a Tellows Score of 7
5. 0800222378, private – New Zealand, with a Tellows Score of 8

Tellows-user Eva is frustrated about the call she got recently:

this number called me and hung up when i answered.
when i’m fast enough there’s nobody on the line.
I called them back and a woman with asian accent said: “Thank you for calling mycharity.com”

Anyone knows something about this?

Telephone spam and scam is still on an unprecedented height but thanks to your help our database on scam numbers is steadily growing. If you have any information on the numbers mentioned above, share it with the harassed!
Your Tellows-team

Community Power Against Spam! NZ & Austrialian Weekly Top 5

Welcome back to the Tellows weekly update on the most annoying spam and scam numbers of New Zealand and Australia. Here are the numbers that have been harassing you the most:

1. 0800438229 Telecom, TelstraClear or other networks with a tellows score of 8
2. 063569092 from Palmerston North with a tellows score of 5
3. 0381998010 from Melbourne with a tellows score of 8
4. 0385239459 from Melbourne with a tellows score of 6
5. 02123546400 from vodafone New Zealand with a tellows score of 5

The most wanted number of this week is New Zealand’s 0800438229 which is most likely a dodgy debt collector called Baycorp sending sms from number 64210025900, advising to ring 0800438229.

Here is the latest comment on the number given by Jimbob:

Sent from number 64210025900, message says “Pls rg 0800 438229 quote ref 3138345 15669 or reply txt Call regarding an urgent matter”. If it was legitimate (and urgent), wouldn’t they call me? There is no name or clue as to who has sent the text. I can only assume that it is dodgy and no way would I reply or call the number provided.

Are you also getting calls from 063569092 on both cell phone and landline which you never manage to answer because they ring off in a second? If yes, you probably did not miss anything important. Tellows users’ comments are talking about a company with almost no public information given anywhere at all – here is what Paul wrote:

I’m getting a lot of calls from this number of late, both on landline and cell. Sadly I cannot locate much detail, apart from the fact that Millway Enterprises has been struck off. The company director in NZ was Tak Chuen Wong, and there are two listings for him / her in Palmerston North – neither with the address shown in the companies office registration though.

Australians are most likely to face a cold call from number 0381998010. Some Tellows users called the number back – here is what Scally experienced:

This number keeps calling but when I answer they hang up. They’ve called once a day for the last week. I called the number back and it was a woman who said she was from Optus then she started telling me that I’d won a free ipad or something. She just kept babbling so I hung up.

Australia’s second worst spam number 0385239459 shows the same characteristics: not only ping calls, but also it is from Melbourne. It is possible that both Australian top spam numbers belong to the same call centre.

Gilly reported:

Recieved a call from this number and when I answered they hung up. I rang back from a secure phone line and they didnt answer.

We hope we will find out more about number 02123546400 on rank 5. Despite the low number of comments it seems to be a very active number.

We count on you in the struggle against phone spam and scam!

See you soon,
Your Tellows Team

Sick Of This Call! The Australian & New Zealand Top Nuisance Numbers

Welcome back to the Tellows weekly update on the most annoying spam and scam numbers of New Zealand.
And here they are:

1. 0800438229 Telecom, TelstraClear or other networks with a tellows score of 8
2. 02239859700 mobile service (2degrees) with a tellows score of 8
3. 0381998010 from Melbourne with a tellows score of 6
4. 0296123591 from Sydney with a tellows score of 5
5. 098874136 from Auckland with a tellows score of 7

This week’s absolute top spam number of all New Zealand and Australia is a very suspicious debt collection company called Baycorp.

User Thatsme reported:

Baycorp probably purchased details illegally from MSD staff who were subsequently dismissed – they harass, use deceptive tactics, and refuse to clear your credit when a debt is paid, or where no debt is proven

There’s not much to say about the numbers on rank 2 and 4 – automated silent calls only. The number on rank 5 is almost the same: used to be silent calls, but now there´s a call centre on the other end trying to sell products of a company called “design boys”.

Australia’s most annoying number is a smartphone and tablet PC telemarketing number.

The latest comment was given by user tele yesterday:

They have been calling me constantly when I was unavailable so today when I had some time off I called them back and someone called “Michael” wanting to sell me a galaxy tab + galaxy ace with 2GB of data and $500 worth of calls or something for like $49. I told him I don’t need a new phone but he was very persistant. The thing that worries me is that I am with another carrier so I don’t understand how they got my number…. and I would really like to know

Thank you for all your comments. We will bring you more news on the numbers next week.

See you soon,
Your Tellows-Team