Phones play such a large part in our daily life nowadays that it would be hard for a kid today to imagine life without one. Despite their importance, and the fact that they are called “Phones”, however, the function that most people use their phones for is not to call anymore. Phone calls have been replaced largely with voice memos, Snapchat, and WhatsApp messages.
Thanks to caller ID and technological advances, the popularity of the prank call has dropped massively as well. Despite the decline in this particular “art-form”, people around the world still receive creepy and suspicious phone calls, and one person took to Quora to find out some of the stories behind these creepy phone calls, by asking, “What is the creepiest phone call or voice message you’ve ever received?”
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The question received hundreds of answers, and here are some of the most bizarre, unsettling, and generally weird.
Dirty Voicemails
“I once got a very long and detailed phone sex message that was not meant for me. A man meant to call his wife but called me instead. It was a bit vulgar, although the man stated that he loved the woman the message was meant for multiple times. This was clearly a call to spice up the marriage.
“It was about 5 minutes long and he mentioned, in detail, what he wanted to do to her when he got back from his business trip. He also appeared to have ‘finished’ around the 5-minute mark.
“I didn’t have the heart to tell him he had the wrong number.” — Collette Mclafferty
Yeah, I don’t think that I’d have been able to call him back either, better he just thinks it went to his wife and she never mentioned it.
Calling A Crisis Line For A “Fix”
“When I was in college, I worked for a crisis center’s call-in line […] there was one repeat caller who was about the creepiest person ever. Guessing from his voice, he was in his mid-thirties or so. He’d call at all times, day or night, weekdays and weekends. He’d start out with a seemingly legit problem—he was feeling down, or he had insomnia—but he’d quickly work the conversation around to child abuse and start asking the person who answered the phone if they’d been abused as a child or even just given corporal punishment of any kind. He’d want details. And he’d clearly get sexually excited
“The creepiest thing about this guy? One of the times I talked to him, just as I was going into the ‘get some help’ spiel, I heard a child in the background, calling ‘Daddy’ to dinner.” — Anonymous
Hopefully, this person never acted on their hideous fantasies and went to get help. However, it’s impossible to say for certain.
Perverted Calls At 3AM
“I was on a Road Trip on the West Coast with 3 friends, we already have been traveling for 3 weeks and we stop in a [motel in a] charming City called Solvang […] Around 3 a.m. the phone next to my bed rang, I answered [to] a man voice telling me he’s calling from the reception and that he received complaints about us making too much noise. I told him it wasn’t possible that we made noise cause we were already sleeping […] He told me ‘I know you are f*cking like donkeys there’
“I told him ‘Pardon me, what did you just said!!!’ and he replied ‘Yeah, that’s it, you like to f*ck goats. You’re a pervert’. At this moment I hung upon him. My friend asked me what was the phone about and I told him. We didn’t sleep for the rest of the night.” — Yannick Michel
According to this person, the man in reception informed them that everyone in the motel had received anonymous calls all evening. They also offered the patrons no refund of commercial gesture.
Threatening Email
“I got a message saying ‘I wouldn’t drive tomorrow morning…lest you be blown to bits.’ It had been sent the previous day, but I was reading it in the morning. Just as I got that message, I heard my wife starting the car outside. It did not blow up.
“It was an email threat, the third email I had received from that person […] At that time I was teaching the class for physics majors and engineers, they were able to trace the email, and I got the name of a registered student. I gave it to the police; they went to his apartment, he confessed, and he was arrested.
“I asked to meet with him, and against the strong advice of the police, I did. I spoke to him and learned that he did it because he thought I might be ‘vulnerable’ (actually, because of my novel about Jesus!). He seemed to feel lost in the world, and doing things like that made him feel that he had some power over others.” — Professor Richard Muller
Apparently, the student went on to confess to having sent emails to President Clinton as well as other students! He was placed under surveillance by the Secret Service.
Backfiring Prank Call
“I bothered this one fellow a little too much, however [with prank calls]. His phone number was very unique so I called him many times. One day, I called my favorite number and after he said hello, I just sat there not talking again. […]
“But what he said next really creeped me out. He said, ‘Janet, why are you doing this?’ How the hell did he know my name? The best explanation I can come up with is that he heard my mother call my name in the background. Maybe he had an old girlfriend named Janet and thought I was her.
“I was creeped out but I wanted to make sure I wasn’t hearing things. So I asked my friend to call him. He said the same thing to her: ‘Janet, why are doing this?’ That creepy comeback of his cured me from ever prank calling again.” — Janet Carole,
I never understood prank calling really, and I never answer my phone anyway so I never really received any — or if I did they went to voicemail.
Call From Beyond
“I used to work at the University Art School, where I attended college. My job was primarily to do administrative work like answering phone calls and shuffling papers. One day, I got a phone call very early in the morning. The number on the caller ID said ‘unavailable.’ The person sounded like they were in a car and driving with the windows down.
“The person said, ‘Hey is Maria there?’ (I didn’t know who Maria was.) Me: ‘No she’s not but I can leave her a message.’ Guy: ‘Yeah tell her its Ben Fay and I’m stuck in traffic right now. I’ll probably be a little late.’ Me: ‘Sure thing.’
(Immediately go down the hall to ask Allison.) Me: ‘Hey Allison, Ben Fay called and said to tell Maria he’s running late.’ (Allison looks at me with a blank face.) Allison: ‘Ben Fay?! Arbab is that a joke?’ Me: ‘Um no… why?’ Allison: ‘Ben Fay used to be a professor here. And he passed away over 5 years ago.’ — Arbab Khan
He went on to explain that he never understood whether his boss was playing a trick on him and that his boss always thought that he had been playing a cruel joke on her, as she had been close friends with this “Ben Fay” character.
“Do You Want To Die?”
“When I was around 14, we got a message on our home answering machine that I was the first to hear when I got home from school. It was a man, repeating our last name over and over. Then he said, chillingly, ‘Do you wanna die? Cause if you wanna die, I can kill ya.’ I called my parents and the police immediately. The police listened to the message and asked my dad if he had any enemies. I think they finally told us they believed it was a prank call with Halloween being near. I was indignant. In my mind, prank calls and death threats were two very different things. He couldn’t have gotten away with it now…things are much more traceable than they used to be.” — Amorette Dye
This would have been terrifying for anyone, never mind a 14-year-old. Thankfully they didn’t receive any more of these calls, sadly though the person was never apprehended.
Mysterious Voice Messages
“I was on a holiday in Greece and came to the apartment after spending the whole day on the beach – only to find 10 messages in my Facebook inbox. I click to see and it opens up a chat started by some unknown woman who sent me 5 text messages and then 5 voice messages. I was creeped out as soon as I started reading what she wrote […] I open the first [voice message] and it went something along these lines…I don’t know who was she and her location is unknown:
“‘Lara, listen to me. You HAVE to listen to me. Stay away from Arabs, Turks, and Persians – they are dangerous. They do not tolerate outsiders. Don’t get involved with them – you’ll regret it later. They are intolerant and they use rape (?). This is just an advice you have to take seriously. Please don’t be involved with them and please don’t say later that I didn’t warn you. I’m not making things up, you have to believe me. Don’t be another victim. Take care of yourself.'” — Lara Novakov,
She went on to write that she simply deleted the mystery racist messages. Apparently she is still creeped out by why someone would target her with these messages to this day.
Professors Calling Students
“When I was in college, a Professor, or someone claiming to be a Professor, called me in the evening and asked me to come and talk with him about my paper. He wanted me to meet him in the main gathering place at the college. I cannot remember what time it was, but it was late, I want to say 8 or 9 at night […] for the life of me I couldn’t figure out why a Professor would be asking me to meet him at night to discuss my paper. Well, besides the obvious.
“Needless to say, I didn’t go and meet with him. The Professor himself never mentioned it to me. This could mean he wasn’t the one to call me, or he was but figured since I hadn’t shown up it would be better not to discuss it. I cannot remember what I got on the paper, but it must not have been an extraordinary grade one way or the other.” — Jennifer Ellis,
She wrote that the voice did sound like the professors, which made her think that it actually was him who rang. I can’t say I’d have been rushing out to meet professors at those hours regardless of context!
Call From Their Own House
“Several years ago my wife and I were at my parents house one evening playing cards. My aunt and uncle were also there. My aunt and uncle lived about 15 minutes away. Their kids were grown and so when they left their house no one should have been there. My parents had a talking caller ID gadget that would announce who was calling out loud […] As it rang it announced, ‘Call from Mark Smith’. It was my aunt and uncle’s house phone. We all instantly froze. My dad went and grabbed the receiver and was greeted by silence.
“He passed the phone to my uncle and he could faintly hear breathing! When [my uncle got to] the house there was a mess in the living room. A few things broken, some stuff toppled, including the phone that normally sat on the end table. He went on alert trying to figure it out for a few seconds. Somehow the back door had come open. Their dog, a very sweet boxer, had gotten in and enjoyed some ‘me’ time in the living room. During his romping, he hit the redial button and called my parents home.” — David Blankenship
I can’t imagine how unsettled they must have been when the name was announced, I’d have been on to the police in seconds.
Abusing A Child Over The Phone
“A few years ago the kids and I were watching TV and the phone rang. My daughter who was 7ish at the time went to answer […] I asked her ‘Who was on the phone?’ All she said was ‘umm a very rude man’. Then the phone rang again and I thought I’ll answer this and give this guy a piece of my mind.
“Turns out it wasn’t a telemarketer, it was some douchebag making dirty phone calls. He told me ‘to put the chick back on the phone’. I then informed him that ‘the chick’ was, in fact, a 7 yr old child and if I could get hold of his pedophile a**. I would make sure he never made another phone call again […]
“I’ve heard enough and hang up on him and call the police. So while I’m on the phone to the cops. Dumbass decides to leave me a lengthy voicemail message. Threatening to kill me and rape my daughter.” — Gavin MacDonald
The police were able to trace the man’s phone as he was calling from his home phone. He was arrested and ultimately plead guilty.
Attempted Blackmail
“10 or so years ago, when my daughter was in middle school, she dropped her phone while trudging through the snow […] The next afternoon, I got a call from her phone. I answered, and an obviously disguised voice said ‘We have your phone, and you have to pay $200.00 to get it back!’.
“I started laughing at the caller, and then, in a very stern tone, said the following: ‘I already reported that phone as lost. So now the cellular company has put a trace on the phone. They know EXACTLY where you are, right now. Exactly. So my next step is to call the police […] You will be arrested for theft, and it will stay on your record forever. Good luck with that!’
“About 20 minutes later my phone rang from another number. It was a parent, who said he had a couple of terrified teenage boys in his family room crying and scared that they were going to go to jail and never see the outside world again. He and I had a pretty good laugh about that, and I drove over to his house to pick up the phone.” — Brent Tucker
Girlfriend’s Violent Ex-Boyfriend
“I wake up one morning, turn on my cell and have 4 voice messages, something very unusual. The messages were all from the same person, a guy who knew the woman I was seeing. The first message was mostly polite, he said he knew that I was seeing this woman
“The second message goes into more detail about him seeing us together, that he wasn’t intimidated by me, and that he thought he could take me in a fight. The third message was more rambling and threatening, he knows he can beat me in a fight, and he’s not happy that I’m seeing this woman, he’s been watching us and so on.
“Fourth message is increasingly rambling and threatening [..] I’m worried about this woman and if she is ok, wondering if he is threatening her as well. Try to call the woman […] Finally that evening she calls back, she’s fine and explains that the guy is just a friend, but she has had to fend off his advances before, and that he really is not a threat.” — John Bressler
They went on to write that the relationship, surprisingly, didn’t last very long after this!
The Forgotten Reminder
“On November 5, 2016, at precisely 9:00 AM, my phone made the sound it makes when a reminder is triggered. Confused, I tried to recall… what did I have to do at 9:00 AM on November 5, 2016? Nothing came to mind. So, I picked my phone up and looked at the reminder. On the screen, read, ‘You are my best’. My immediate thought was, ‘That is unlike my wife to unlock my phone and leave me messages, but how sweet.’
“When she came home from work, I smiled at her and said, I got your ‘reminder’. She looked at me, blankly, as if she had no idea what I was talking about. ‘You mean, you didn’t leave that in my reminders?’, I asked. She replied, ‘No, I don’t even know how to do that. I don’t even know your phone’s passcode.'” — Dan Harvell
I mean, it is definitely creepy how it ended up there. Although it could be worse, it’s still a nice message to receive I guess!
Harrowing Video Footage
“It didn’t happen to me, but it happened to a good friend of mine. This happened when she was about 16 years old. She had her room repainted in the summer, and because of the obnoxious fumes, she opted to sleep on the couch downstairs in the living room.
In her living room, there was a large glass sliding door that led to her backyard. One day, she woke up in the middle of the night and thought she saw someone out in her yard. After that she couldn’t sleep anymore […] a few days later, her parents finally decided to put things to rest. They pulled up footage from the security cameras posted outside of the house and showed it to her to prove that no one was there. The video showed a man standing in front of the sliding glass window in the middle of the night, WATCHING my friend as she slept.
“They called the police and the cops staked out the house until they caught the guy. Apparently he thought this was where his daughter was and had ‘mistaken’ my friend for her.” — Venn Tran
It mightn’t have been a phone call, but this one was too creepy to not include in the list. Apparently, after this, the paint fumes didn’t bother her and she moved back upstairs.
The Haunted Sony-Ericsson
“I had a phone that I called ‘possessed.’ Not necessarily by demons, but it would do some weird, scary dialing of people. It was a Sony-Ericsson phone that would randomly dial numbers, and, they never showed in the call history. Oddly, it was people that I wanted to call but hadn’t said their name or anything like that. The phone did have a voice-dial feature, which was cutting edge at the time […]
“The scary part was the phone called home, and I didn’t know it. I didn’t say anything to cause the phone to voice dial, and that feature required holding down a button with a bit of pressure. The scary part was the call placed never showed up in my call history, or, on my bill!” — S Shane Burgess
The explained that the phone was a Sony-Ericsson T28 like the one pictured above. I had a Sony-Ericsson for years, it was the most bang-average phone I ever owned.
Mattress Delivery
“My sister got a call once from a guy who said he was trying to deliver a mattress. He had gone to the address where the mattress was to be dropped off, but no one was there to accept it, and apparently he had been told to call her number if he was unable to deliver it.
“She told him she hadn’t ordered a mattress and he obviously had the wrong number. You’d think he would’ve said ‘okay, sorry’ and that would be the end of it.
“Instead, the guy was insistent he hadn’t dialed the wrong number […] he kept pressing her on it and then proceeded to ask what her address was so that he could drop it off with her instead. When she refused to tell him, he went on a tirade about how he was going to get in so much trouble for not making the delivery, how this was all her fault because she wouldn’t help him out, etc.” — James Shariati
Abuser Calling Victim
“The day before my fourteenth birthday I finally had the courage to confess to my mother that for the past year and a half I had been sexually abused by her husband’s brother (my step-uncle).
“Next morning I was lying in bed just awakened and my mobile rings […] it was my abuser wishing me a very happy birthday and how much he loves me and if I liked the gold ring with a heart he had given me two days previously […] I terminated the call. A few seconds later he rings back, I got out of bed and ran to my mam’s bedroom with the mobile ringing, crying that it was him. So my mam answers the phone with ‘I know what you’ve been doing to my daughter’ and put the phone down.” — Amanda Jane Defty
She went on to say that the man contacted her again after the police were involved saying, “why have you ruined me? I love you! I’m going to get you.” He was ultimately arrested, and this person moved far away.
The Returning Voicemail
“In 2011, I was in a car accident. A pedestrian walked out in front of my car and I hit him. I had been obeying all the rules of the road and being cautious, but lighting and timing mixed with a pedestrian’s carelessness created something terrible. When I stopped the vehicle, I got out of the car shrieking. I was 17 years old and my brother would have been 13 or would have just turned 14 […] my brother called my mom. She didn’t answer, so he left a voicemail: ‘Mom, Amber hit someone. I need you to come back right now.’
“When my mom finally got the message, she thought he had meant we’d gotten into a typical car accident. They started driving south to meet us before my mother called back […] Things calmed down and I went off to college. In 2014, my mother had a voicemail, but no missed call: ‘Mom, Amber hit someone. I need you to come back right now.'” — Amber Kumar
“I honestly thought at this point I was going to have to pay a ransom for her life”
“A few months ago, I woke up to find a voicemail on my cell phone from an unknown number. When I hit play, a very aggressive sounding man began talking. He had a Brooklyn accent and was very shady from the beginning. The message went something like this: ‘Uhhh, Chelsea…. It’s [Greg] from Center City Imports. Uhhh…I need to talk to you about [Barb] ….Uhhh….just give me a call.’
Not so bad I guess but this guy seriously sounded like he was in the mob. His ‘uhhs’ were not awkward pauses, they were drawn out like he had something important to say but wouldn’t do it over the phone. My ‘friend’ [Barb] is a really bad person in general..I’m always bailing her out of trouble and just recently picked her up from jail.
“I honestly thought at this point I was going to have to pay a ransom for her life or pick her up in a terrible situation. It turns out that, no, my friend was not kidnapped. She had just gotten a car from them and put my name down as a contact on the paperwork (without my permission) and the guy couldn’t reach her because her phone was disconnected. She had messed up some paperwork” — Chelsea Bak
