Cell Phone review: Calls from Somalia 55

I have been having the exact same problem. I am receiving phone calls from all different numbers with the area code 252 that I traced back to Somalia. I have only answered a couple times, but I have not tried to call them back. I am hoping that by not answering my phone when they call they will eventually stop. I have no idea how they got my number, and I also do not want to change mine. I have T-Mobile as well, but I have yet to contact them about it and have lost a little hope that they will be able to do something due to your complaint. The only solution I have to offer is to check and see if your actual phone has a blocking device on it that will allow you to block certain numbers. If not, you could always just update your phone. I really hate this though, and I am hoping that it will eventually die off.

I am on Verizon, getting the same kind of calls. Even got one at 3am! Verizon can't/won't block it, my only choice was to file a complaint with the legal authorities or change my number. Not changing my number! I ended up assigning this guy the name of ### and his own ringer so I know when to just push the ignore button.
This is frustrating, and worriesome as I fear they are trying to clone my phone or something.

i am a unversity student in china

I also have t-mobile and had the same problem.. T-mobile refused to do any-thing, but offered me to change my number for free. I at first did not want to change my number, but after I bacame extreamly aggrivated, I did have my number changed. I actually just received my bil today and found out that the number is somali. ... this is soooooooooooooo aggrivating! As soon as my contract is up w. t-mobile I am switching to a new carrier!

Also started getting calls from Somalia to my cell here in Sweden. Im on Telenor... Kinda weird. But I guess they sometimes get routed wrong or something. Once got shipping info from Kuwait for something through a Canadian firm. Haven't had the chance to answer the calls yet. But reading your comment about the caller "not there" I dont think that will do anything.

I see something on my Sprint bill about CSW Ringers and I have never even dealt with you all. I need to speak with someone that will assist me in removing this charge from my phone bill. I have never used this service and don't plan to. Someone needs to contact me! If not its no problem at all, I will find you all.!

I'm getting the same thing, same country from AT&T. My secret admirer's number is +[protected]

We are getting dozens of unwanted calls from a Somali phone number as well. After the fifth call this morning, I picked up and yelled, "Allahu Akbar!" (God is great). A woman responded briefly but then hung up. But then called right back. I picked up again and offered the Arab greeting, "Asalamu 'Alaykim" (Peace be upon you) in a polite voice. I think she responded, "Alaykim Asalamu" (Peace Back At Ya), and then said something else. At which point I yelled, "Allahu Akbar!" and she hung up. Haven't been called since. Still, I have a feelng I haven't heard the last from our little cell-phone terrorist.

I say while our Navy is over there policing the waters for Somali pirates they fire a few ship-to-shore missiles and take out their phone networks. This would be in keeping with our general foreign policy of over-reacting where there the threat from Islamic extremism is lowest (e.g., Iraq in 2003) and under-reacting where the threat is the greatest (e.g., Afghanistan and now also Eastern Pakistan).

please stop charging my account for this thank you

Same here - I'm in Sweden, but on Tele 2. Get the call from [protected]. I have answered a few times, sometimes there is noise before they hang up. Don't call back - it could be an expensive toll call that gets them a few whatevers they have as money there. I once got 14 calls in a row while hiking in the woods, and often I get them early in the morning. They often come in 2s or 3s. It is really aggrevating. Why don't phones have a BLOCK THIS NUMBER function?

did it ever stop? having same problem, PLEASE HELP!

Just got one here in Brisbane, Australia today. Wonder what this is all about? I phoned Optus and that was the first time she'd heard of anything about this. I wonder what they get out of calling?

Have the same exact happening to my sprint cell. [protected]. Sprint wont do anything! I got drunk one night called the FBI, Homeland security and the CIA. They dont care. I just cant figure out the angle behind this. It seems absurd.

I've been having the same problem. I don't understand the angle behind it either. Like a silly cow, I tried to call the number back because I thought the calls were from a friend of mine who's in Kenya, which has a similar country code. I didn't realize it was a Somali number until afterward. God knows, it's probably one of those numbers that when you call it back you get charged a million quid a minute!

Same thing in US, Same thing, different Cell phone number ([protected]) but still Country code 252 for Somalia. Wonder what game they are playing... They listen to your voice mail so now when they call they use your name. Makes you wonder if it's more than a prank but not sure they can do anything but annoy you if you don't answer.

I have had the strange numbers calling my phone to is started 2 days ago and I had it blocked but I can still click on the number in there and it shows they have still attempted calls, I have t mobile. the number that keeps calling me is +[protected], traced it back to somalia also. Not sure how they got my number or why its pretty creepy. When i did answer before all I heard was someone saying hello over and over in a strange accent and a baby crying in the backround. then they hung up after a few seconds. Very creepy I wish I new how they got my number and hopefully this is all the info they have. Hope they dont no anything else about me

I have been receiving the same phone calls from various numbers from Somali starting with the 252 for over a year now! They wont stop! I will go about a month without any calls from them and randomly one day it will just start again and they will call up to 30 times a day and any time during the day or night. Its really irritating and am considering changing my phone number, but havent yet because I also got them with my last phone number too. Has anybody figured out why/how this is happening. It is really creepy.

I have the same problem and I'm in England, always the same number and also T-Mobile told me there's nothing they can do, I need to buy blocking device and block this number for good, at one point I got so pissed off that I swore at the guy for like 5 minutes and he just kept talking to me like a lunatic.

I still am getting the calls also i blocked the number but now they are calling from a different number that looks like a US number but its not, it is really creepy and i might just change my number as well, i dont no how these freaks are getting our phone numbers but its really annoying

i will register my mobile number [protected] to do not distrub but still sms coming to me

Same thing in Canada on telus. The guy actually left me a message in comprehensible except for call me back. Next time he called I picked up the call and asked him if he spoke English, on confirmation I told him to "stop f****** calling me" and hung up. In the middle if the night I got 2 more calls. Both missed. Next time I'm really going to take strip off his [censor] but I don't know if it will do any good. Makes me feel better I guess.

God! Same situation here(Melbourne)! I've been received phone calls from Somalia recently as well! The number displays as +252 24168093The man from the call was just keep saying certain language to me! How could I understand that country's language! Couple days after the first call, the man phoned me again! at 4 in the morning! I didn't pick up the calls... Then a week later, those calls came up in the morning again! I picked up, then ask him "who is this? Who are u looking for?", then he spoke English suddenly, says "who are u? Who are u?" I didn't answer him, coz he didn't answer my question first.. Then I just hang up... Can anyone explain these weird phone calls to us? God!

My wife has the same problem. Today (16 Sept 2010) she has had 16 calls from +[protected]. Her phone is a pay as you go with Asda mobile but the number was transferred from Fresh which was with T-Mobile so it appears that the numbers on T-Mobile have been compromised. Does anyone know if my wife's number is being called by accident or is it some sort of scam?

I am an Investigator for a Police Department and have started receiving these calls on my personal cell phone. They come in at all times of the day and night and when I answer, there is a little kid on the other end. Nothing has worked to get them to stop. I was talking with colleages today who work on scams such as these and they stated that people from that country can't call straight out to order things off the internet, so they call your (and my) number and once they get an answer, the call is re-routed so that they can use your line to order things.

I don't know if this is the case or not but I would strongly suggest NOT ANSWERING the phone. It has come to the point where I leave my phone on silent so they don't wake me up at all hours. It's been a huge inconvenience as I also use this phone when I'm on call for work.

The number calling me is: +[protected]

I will investigate this further and if I come up with a solution, I will let everyone know what it is! Very hard dealing with different countries.

MYCELL PHONE WAS LOSS...[protected]

I have been getting the same thing (numerous calls at all hours of the day from country code 252) for about a week now, and I am in the US and use Cricket phone service. Cricket won't do anything, and my phone doesn't have the option to block individual calls. What I have ended up doing is saving the numbers as "Wrong Number" in my contacts. Then I just recorded a new ringer that's just silence (dead air), and assigning *that* to "Wrong Number". Even though I can't block them technically, it does give me a little bit of peace since my phone is no longer waking me up at night with bogus calls. The only other problem is that they keep calling from different numbers, which I keep having to add. I have saved 8 Somalian numbers so far.

This is happened to me also, the past 2 days i have received a call from [protected], and also received a text message saying : axmed ismaaciil cawil oo ay dsahay khadra ismaaciil oo jooga oodwayne. I have no clue what this means or can i find a translation on it. this is very annoying and scary at the same time!

Boston mass
They got my work phone from sprint. I had no choice but to change the number. on daily, I have received calls from somalia and from calls from the whole world telling me I called them mutiple times in the middle of the night. I always ask them "It was not from my ohone but did they leave yhou a message?" and they always say "no". so I don't get it. What it is it they want?
My company told me that the Washington office of T-mobile lost $ 8000on one night from calls to Samalia. I guest ships are not the only thing the pirates hijack. I was born in somalia thus speak it well. If you are in position to do something about it. Just let me know. Though I am very busy with work and raising children, I would help you putting these criminals behind bars . and I will help you. As we all know, this is not the time for phone and internet fraud.

Same thing is happening to me in England. I keep getting calls from the Somali number [protected], I thought they had stopped a week ago, then they tried again 3 or 4 times earlier today. I've answered a couple of times and it's just silent for a few seconds then they hang up - I think once I could vaguely hear a woman trying to say something but I can't be sure. I used to be on T-Mobile, then I swapped to Orange but retained the number I had whilst on T-Mobile. I might try and give Orange a ring and see what they say...

To add my case to the basket, I have started receiving Somalia originating calls since yesterday. The number is +[protected]. First time I answered a woman was talking in an incomprehensible language and distressed tone. I answered "I dont understand" and hung up. They kept on calling since. I cant understand why or what they expect to gain. My phone credit remains unaffected. If this is call re-routing as an earlier comment suggested it didnt seem to cost me anything, so what is it? Could it simply be intimidation? or just pranks?

heyy guys im from somalia, the same problem happened to me. i tried to call one of my friends in WAshington state..and every time i call him a lady in somalia answers it. i was like what is going on, and kept saying she is in somalia. i started researching about the problem. i finally noticed that somali business people uses VOIP numbers, which belongs to USA. VOIP has call forwarding, and since the VOIP belongs to US companies it is possible to forward calls to US numbers without them getting your number. they think they are calling local somali number but are not..and that is caused by some technical problems VOIP (voice Over the Internet Protocol).

It's started here too. In India. Random calls from Somalia. And now from Sierras Leone too. I don't answer them and keep my phone on silent at nights.

Just started here in Chicago/USA, too. Phone calls all over the Thanksgiving weekend from the same +252 number. Used Skype to call the number +[protected] back. Cost me US$ 0.80 for 39 seconds, which is for Skype very expensive, considering that landline numbers over Skype usually cost US$ 0.02 per minute to most countries around the world. Was recently in London/UK on business and am familiar with those Nigarian Paypal scams over gumtree.com (which is our US craigslist). Starting not to feel so sorry for those people in those 3rd world countries.

Here a helpful link: http://techpp.com/2010/07/10/how-to-block-phone-number-free/
As I do have an iPhone jailbroken & unlocked with Cydia, I went ahead and installed iBlacklist (optionalwise Mcleaner). You may get Blacklist from iTunes. For all other smartphones read the link provided. It'll give you the right App to install on your phone. iBlacklist worked for me out well. Adjusted it, so that the Somalia guy is getting a busy signal each time he/she tries to call me. Ever since, peace and quietness for me!

This has been going on with me for about a year now. I have an android phone and have been dealing with it by loading Extreme Call Blocker. However, whoever is calling just keeps changing their number and getting through the block. (I've recently been using the new ECB feature of auto-answering with a high pitched squeal just for s**ts and giggles. ;)

When I let some leave a voice mail, the voice is:
- in Somali or Arabic
- male
- often frantic and/or pissed off (see my "auto-answering with squeal" above
- the same person every time. For a year. From different numbers.
- I hear children in the background

On a few occasions I have tried to call, 90% of the time it has resulted in continual ringing with no answer. On the 10% where someone answered, or if I answered the phone myself, the man on the other end of the line got increasingly agitated that I didn't speak the language, and started to scream at me louder in Samali or Arabic. (Kinda like American tourists in, say, France :) )

While these were amusing calls in the beginning, the fact that they are increasing in frequency, the numbers are changing, AND its the same person has started to get me more and more concerned...

I just read Egal's post up above about Somalia's using VoIP routing and getting incorrect numbers.that actually makes a lot of sense.

Btw, I posted a blog article about my experiences here:

http://uberrob.tumblr.com/post/14896876464/apparently-the-entire-country-of-somalia-is-crank

I included MP3s of several of the calls. Have a listen and see if the voices sound familiar.

Since, I've installed iBlacklist on my iPhone ( check my comments above) I have not been bothered by the Somalis. I've recently checked my iBlacklist history and they have been trying to call me several times, but since I've adjusted iBlacklist for that number to get a busy signal each time they try to call me, I assume, they believe my phone has been disconnected and for about 3 weeks now, there is no attempt to call my number from the blacklisted Somali number. So seem to work out for me. Another problem occured though yesterday. Got a call from Portland Oregon number 503.201.7030 with an automated computerized voice claiming, that I've won a cruise to the Bahamas. Hung instantly up and put the number on iBlacklist. Googled it and that is another scam or better phishing attempt to get personal details ... but this is another threat.

a silver colour nokia x2 mobile phone has been lost its number is [protected] name-rekha padaki

I am having the same problem. I have T-Mobile, and I live in Mpls, MN. The number calling me is [protected]. No matter what I do, they keep calling and T-Mobile was no help. I gave that number a specific ringtone so at least I know now when I don't have to look to see who's calling. Also, to the people that have called them back -- Don't do that! That's probably what they want and you will be charged!

i have lost my cell phone last night