Nuisance Phone calls - from MIL

[horridfamily]

For quite a while now my DP and myself have fallen out with his Mum ( we are on tentative speaking terms with his Dad ) but due to some very malicious actions by her ( some directed towards our children ) we have decided to cut our losses and just leave her out of the equation.
For the past 3 weeks there have been about 15 - 25 phone calls from her. ( I am assuming it's her as on our phone which has caller display the number is WITHHELD. )
If the answer-phone kicks in she does not leave a message and if I answer - there is silence.
Now - when a withheld number is shown I answer - but myself say nothing ( I would have assumed that if it was nother legitimate caller they would say hullo and see if any one is at the other end of the line.)
What can I do to stop this woman bothering me?
Thanks

are you sure it is definatley your MIL? I leave our answerphone on all the time and I get these calls too, I actually always think it is market research or double glazing companies if it is put down. But if you are sure it is MIL Im sure she will get bored eventually and stop ringing, either that or change your number.

Contact your telephone company and put a block on her number.

What an unfortunate situation to be in horridfamily. Sounds stressful. If you mean, how to stop her harrassing you via the phone, if you are with BT, I know they can do some sort of call trace to establish who it is that is phoning, and take steps to stop, although not entirely sure what they are.

I would recommend contacting your telephone provider and discussing the situation with them and see what they recommend.

good luck

Sorry, also wanted to mention that sometimes call centres have auto dialing, the computers dial the next number on the list , if there is no one to take the call from the company who is calling the computer cuts off the call, these are always withheld numbers.

You can get (choose to refuse) option on the bt network. It costs a few pound a month but you get your first months free(we did).If you get a number phoning you that you dont want ,even withheld ,you can block it with a pin number of your choice.It can not phone you again.You can have 10 numbers blocked if you wished.We have had nuisance calls in the past and we have kept this option on as to me and dh it is a deterrent. hopefully then she will get the message and not bother you.

it could be double glazing companies - we went thorugh a spate of these sorts of phone calls where when I answered there was nothing and then a hang up.

You can log on to something called the telephone prefence service here

which logs your phone number and prevents cold calling/etc from companies like double glazing etc. Costs nothing and that would eliminate those companies.

Then you can see if they stop. Hate to think the situation with your mil is made worse by something that may not be her fault. Should those calls continue then think about the other options.

there was something in one of the sunday supplements about a woman who had separated from her husband and then received lots of hang-ups - turned out to be his bank chasing a debt but authorised to speak to him only. When a woman answered the phone the person ringing hung up! The bank has now apologised. I'd assume it wasn't your MIL at the moment.

I'm with Kingston Communications so don't know if other companies offer this - our line will not allow 'withheld' numbers through so I cannot get anonymous calls. Callers get a recorded message telling them to dial again, either releasing their number or using another phone. I can track every call through 1471 or 1571 (message minder). The added bonus is that KC don?t charge for the service (but others companies probably do!)

i went through the same thing with my gran phoning and hanging up or not leaving messages on the answer machine, my telephone company(telewest)put a ban on so that withheld no.s couldnt get through just like snugs has said about her company.

I used to work for a call centre and it must be really easy to get a witheld number ban on your phone because we used to get loads of recorded messages saying "your call has not been accepted because your number has been witheld. Please redial without witholding your number".

Hi Horridfamily, my mother was doing that but the dozy moo would phone me about 5 minutes later asking if I had any funny phone calls cause she was having them (it was her way of phoning me for a conversation!!) I told her yes and that it must be someone who knows us both which is sick or a very very big coincidence, I told her that I was going to phone the telephone company and find out who it was and then phone the police but she insisted that I should leave it for the time being but if it happens ever again then I should call the Tel. Co.
I got her really scared cause I told her I was adamant that I wouldn't leave it and I phoned her the next day and told her I contacted the telephone company and they couldn't check previous calls but they were monitoring all calls as from my report. I haven't had a stupid phone call since, funny that!!.