How do I?.....

[Rossian]

.....start trying to track one of those annoying calls?

At breakfast this AM the phone rang and when I picked it up there was just a solid tone.
I then dialled 1471 and was surprised to get:

00390620390866

It doesn't really seem to tie in to any international codes... and all the sites pointed to by giggle assume you want to know the country so that YOU can call them. NOT really what I was looking for

Where could it be from? I only want to know so that I can go and break their windows. Not at my best in the mornings.

The Ancient Mariner

[BOAC]

The advent of VOIP and VOIP numbers renders tracking almost impossible. A 'customer' can often choose the number he or she wants to use, with any country and area code desired. The only way to track it is to somehow find out which VOIP company holds access to those numbers. A little difficult. You would need absolute co-operation from several authorities - most probably outside your country. It would proably be easier to 'explain how a woman's mind works' as the joke goes.

EG For my two VOIP numbers I had a choice of a 'local' exchange number OR any UK exchange prefix.

[Booglebox]

Rossian, it's not that hard.
dialing code +39 - Wolfram|Alpha

[Rossian]

Vatican City???....

.....It's easy when you find the right place to ask. I'd actually asked that question in that format but the answer that you got was not one of those that appeared for me.

However it now makes sense, Pope Francis had indicated that he was looking for a lapsed Free Presbyterian to have a go at conversion. He probably forgot that we are an hour behind here in Morayshire. I'll have to call him back later when I've finished my cup of tea.

The Ancient Mariner

[mixture]

Where could it be from?

Well...

39 is Italy.

But then moving on to the third digit.....

Obviously you can discount 0 (as that's for in-country dialing) ... which leaves us 6 ... which is regrettably not part of Italy's dial plan.

So basically, as others have suggested, you've been had.

Or in technical terms, you've received a nuisance call presenting an invalid CLI.

BOAC is not quite right, it isn't strictly a VoIP thing... but VoIP makes it easier (assuming your VoIP provider is lazy and does not validate CLIs).

Best you can do is ask your service provider to trace the call and pass on the complaint. It involves work on their part due to correlation of various bits of data, i.e. its not typically something Customer Service can look up with a few keystrokes on their screen.

[Old Speckled Aircrew]

00390620390866

Just pop the no. into google and follow one of the "whoiscallingme" sites and find out it's Telemarketing.

[cockney steve]

I just googoo the number....it always comes up with a load of nuisance tracking services that feature that number and it's credentials (or lack thereof!)
If I accidentally answer one (most desist after 6 rings) i stay silent...friends know to initiate conversations, automatic spammers think it's an answerphone and drop the call.....in the case where a pre-recorded message starts, I put the phone down....after a few minutes,the "whee wah" noise alerts me to replace the handset. A live caller is asked "do you understand *telephone preference service?* remove this number from your dialling list NOW!

Always an apology and hang-up. Winds me up......refuse to answer any mobile call where I don't know the number.
Friend said to answer and string them along....I think their bulk minutes are cheap as chips, so it won't impact them.

[flydive1]

Originally Posted by mixture

Obviously you can discount 0 (as that's for in-country dialing) ... which leaves us 6 ... which is regrettably not part of Italy's dial plan.

No, you cannot discount the 0, in Italians phone numbers is used even if calling from outside the country.

06 is Rome region.

[mixture]

No, you cannot discount the 0, in Italians phone numbers is used even if calling from outside the country.

Trust the Italians to be difficult and insist on going against the trend...

06 is Rome region.

I guess assuming your first statement is true, then yes I guess if we look at it in E.164 form "italy style".... 3906 is indeed Rome... however 396 is reserved for future usage. Sort of a good example as to why most sane countries drop the trunk prefix (0) in E.164 for the sake of clarity and avoidance of confusion !

(or in the case of the American cousins, don't use 0 in their trunks in the first place)

[Democritus]

0800 996 1966 and 01 800 996 1996

I have a TrueCall unit - bear with me - so marketing calls don't get to ring my phone. I also block international numbers but overseas friends can get through by using a code. I have an old Caller Display 2000 unit between my wall socket and the TrueCall unit so I can see for my own amusement how many marketing calls have failed to get through (otherwise I'd never know). I've set TrueCall up so they - and international callers - hear the number unobtainable tone.

Recently I have been getting a number calling which shows as international but has the number as 0800 996 1966. According to one of the 'whoiscalling' websites it's a Consumer Lifestyle Company doing market research. With them having got the unobtainable tone on 7 occasions over two days they switched their CLI number to 01 800 996 1966 - possibly they thought I was blocking 0800 calls but wasn't blocking 01 numbers. I don't block 01 numbers but it was still an international call so it didn't get through. Just shows what they do to try and get through.

[kinsley]

The phone number reminds me of the calls I used to get from a similarly strange number. I thought it was suspicious so I never answered any of the calls. It was later on that I found out it was not a valid phone number. Rather, it was a random code assigned to made from a computer using a free call app.

Your best option is to refer the calls to your telephone service provider and have them block calls like that in the future.