The 213 number that won't stop calling

It started early last Friday morning, just a little after 8am. Neither me or my husband usually work Friday mornings, so for us, it was a chance to sleep in.

But his cell phone had other plans.

Starting a little after 8am, and going on til exactly 5pm we were called repeatedly by this 213 area code number 17 TIMES in one day, in addition to 5 other calls from other random similar numbers.

Like most people, if it's a number we don't know off the top of our heads, we don't answer it. If they don't leave a voicemail, then it must not have been important.

For most numbers we don't know, we look them up at home on www.whocallsme.com - a site where people can plug in an unknown number and search for other people who have gotten called by it and shared what they found about the number. 99% of the time it's either a telemarketer or some annoying scam. And half the time, most of the site users being on the "Do Not Call" lists report that that doesn't seem to have any effect.

According to a user on the site the number(s) that keep calling us is "...some company that helps people find gov grants for school etc., but their rapid-fire calling approach -- virtually harassment -- and leaving no phone messages -- makes one assume they are not very reputable.I understand sometimes you might get five or ten seconds of "dead air" before the caller starts talking so wait a minute before hanging up. Once you get a human, be polite and formally request they stop calling if you are not interested in whatever it is they do."

Well, like most annoying calls we've received in the past, they tend to only harass us for a day or so before they stop calling.

But not good ol' 213!

While calling not quite as many times as they did the day before, on Saturday we received quite bit a of these calls, as well as all day yesterday - good to know they don't work on Sunday!

Why did we not answer sooner? Well, I personally don't like answering the phone first thing in the morning if I'm still pretty much asleep, and during the day hubby had the phone in his pocket while he was at work (talk about annoying you while on the job!).

This morning, after getting woken up several times after falling back asleep I had had enough.

I picked up the phone and went through hubby's "missed calls" list, creating several entries in his phonebook, adding every number we have been called from and setting the ringtone to 'no ring' in hopes of being able to ignore these calls. I filled 3 whole phonebook entries, which had allowed up to 5 numbers each!

But some reason 'no ring' on hubby's phone (an LG Versa) must translate into "vibrate" instead of "silence" as one of the numbers called yet again and the phone started vibrating.

I had to try to put a stop to this - I don't appreciate being woke up before 10am on my days off.

I answered the phone and politely said "hello?" No response.

I say it again and wait, remembering that the user on whocallsme.com said there tends to be a few seconds of dead air before someone responds on their end.

Then suddenly I hear "Hello?" from a foreign guy on the other end.

"Hello?" I respond.
"Yes, may I speak to [insert hubby's name]?"
"He's not available right now, but this is his wife. Who is this?"
"Government grants." (Which government I wondered because he clearly sounded Asian and his English didn't sound too great)
"Oh, well can you please stop calling us?"
"Okay."
"Thank you - so you'll take our number off your list?"

Silence. I looked at the phone and the guy had already hung up. That was roughly 40 minutes ago and so far, no more calls since.

Let's hope tomorrow I don't get woken up before my alarm clock goes off!