Would you pick up a call from a strange number?
By kingparker
@kingparker (9673)
United States
April 8, 2012 1:40pm CST
That is what I saw my friend would do, if there is a call from a strange number that he is not familiar with, he just let it ring, or silent it, until it reaches the voice mail. I also got some strange, unfamiliar phone calls from strange numbers too, but I usually would pick it up. If it is a sales pitch, I would normally tell them not interest, and instantly hang it up. If from someone who makes a mistake, I would let it go. Usually, I just afraid that is an emergency call from someone I know, and they can use their cell phone at moment, and have to borrow someone else cells to reach me. What would you do, would you normally answer a call from a strange number?
5 people like this
31 responses
@butterscotsh (1012)
• Philippines
12 Apr 12
Of course I would answer a call from a strange number.
Who knows it might be an emergency call. What you're doing is right
and what your friend is doing is not right.
1 person likes this
@pennywise25 (321)
• Mexico
11 Apr 12
Why not to pick it? It might be important stuff. You can just take it and stay silent 'til you hear the voice, then, if you are able to recognise it you can answer, if not, you can fake a voice and ask who it is. It always works fine, if you feel it's not safe, you just put it down and that's it.
@veejay19 (3589)
• India
10 Apr 12
I always pick up the phone when it rings.Usually it is from people who i know.Sometimes strangers do call but they have generally dialled my number when they wanted to dial someone elses number.I tell them that it is a wrong call and disconnect. Very rarely do i get a sales call and if it comes i tell them i am not interested and put the phone down.
1 person likes this
@pahak627 (4558)
• Philippines
9 Apr 12
I used to ignore calls from an unknown number but now I answer every call that I receive because one time, the caller that I ignored happened to be a client who had important transaction with us although that call was already after office hours.
1 person likes this
@honest_efforts100 (1607)
• India
23 Jul 12
I have made it a habit not to pick phone calls from numbers that I do not know; especially mobile phone numbers. I pick land line numbers seeing as the call might be for an interview for a job that I applied for. If one really needs to reach me using a number I do not know, they should send a message first to let me know who they are.
@sid556 (30960)
• United States
9 Apr 12
Hi Kingparker,
I ALWAYS answer my tracfone even if I don't recognize the number and that is because very few people have my number so I would worry that it is someone that I know that for whatever reason can't use their own phone. Once in a great while, it is a wrong # but thats ok.
My home phone is another story. I get way too many telemarketers calling even though I am on the do not call list and wrong numbers as well. I have a very common first and last name and I get other peoples bill collectors calling also. I'm just too busy. I also have certain friends that call just to chat and they will keep me on the line for 2 hours or more. I do let the answering machine pick up and if it is someone that I need to talk to I will pick up. Everyone that I know, knows that I screen my calls. My chatty friends know that if I don't pick up, I'm busy but I will call them back as soon as I can.
@3SnuggleBunnies (16374)
• United States
9 Apr 12
No I don't answer calls from strange numbers I let it hit voice mail or my answering machine. If I recognize the voice I will call them back or not depends if they are on my do not return their calls list *LOL* I luv caller ID!
@rosekiss (30380)
• Eugene, Oregon
17 Apr 12
I used to answer my phone, even if I didn't recognize the number. well, not anymore, as most of them are sales pitch calls anyway, and I would rather not answer it and reject it, and eventually they just give up, and not call me again. The worst part of it all, is that I have had some that will call my phone more than once a day, and I rejected them every time. Finally, they got the message, and they never called me again. I do get tired of all the calls that I get that I am not familiar with, and it resally makes me wonder how they got my number in the first place. Maybe I should really take one of the calls and find out, as it is dangerous to have my number that is for sure. I am glad I don't get those phone calls everyday, at least not anymore, as I used to. I find rejecting them is the best way to handle them. Take care, and happy mylotting. ![](/Content/images/emotes/happy.gif)
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@laken02 (3065)
• United States
9 Apr 12
i usualy try to answer it by the location not the number.. now becasue so many people change there phone numbers due to getting a new cell phone like my daughter
does or when she runs out of minutes she will use someone else phone and i wont know the number.. but if someone calls on myphone if is is a cell phone it will say on my id cell phone caller and i always answer then.. but i learned the hard way not to answer others such as if there in another state it will say like california and i dont know anyone there or have no business talking to anyone from there i let it ring.. so i dont answer other states ..works out better for us..
@laken02 (3065)
• United States
9 Apr 12
i usualy try to answer it by the location not the number.. now becasue so many people change there phone numbers due to getting a new cell phone like my daughter
does or when she runs out of minutes she will use someone else phone and i wont know the number.. but if someone calls on myphone if is is a cell phone it will say on my id cell phone caller and i always answer then.. but i learned the hard way not to answer others such as if there in another state it will say like california and i dont know anyone there or have no business talking to anyone from there i let it ring.. so i dont answer other states ..works out better for us..
@Cherish14 (2693)
• Philippines
9 Apr 12
hi there,
i never answer any call from people i don't know. they would have to message me first to tell me that it is them because anyway if they could call, i am sure they can text to right LOL like if they have some load to call they can text too (since most people i know are prepaid.)
@shwetat195 (628)
• India
9 Apr 12
i normally do not respond to unsaved nos, however if i get a call from the same nos 2-3 time one after the other, i would attend the call to check if it is an emergency call. i dont like marketing calls and would prefer to stay away
@derek_a (10874)
•
9 Apr 12
I have voice-mail on my phone and if I don't know the number, I allow the voice-mail to pick it up. Usually the person on the other end of the line just hangs up. It is more than likely a sales call and they don't want to reveal this, because I never buy anything from cold telephone calls anyway. If it is important business or family business, they will leave a message. That is the way that I deal with unknown callers. When I havwe answered a sales call, many of them will not take no for an answer so I just tell them that I am going to hang up and put the phone down.
_Derek
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@cellophane (636)
• New Zealand
9 Apr 12
Generally speaking if there is a phone call made to my home number I'll let it ring, but one reason for that is I don't live alone so if I don't recognise the number (which is normally the case as I tend to not really give out my home phone number to friends and such) I'll just let it go and the caller can leave a message if they want to.
If it's a call made to my cell phone then I will tend to pick it up, regardless of whether the actually number shows or it shows as 'withheld'.
@Angelindisguise (378)
• India
9 Apr 12
No I would Not.
As I had a very bad experience .
From that day onwards i have stopped picking any strange numbers.
@jvincent_129 (4994)
• Philippines
9 Apr 12
I'd answer that call. What's the worst that could happen? It could be something important like a job interview, emergency call or a friend who change his number. Other than those things, I would immediately hang up the phone.
@TrinityDownpour (790)
• Liechtenstein
9 Apr 12
Sometimes but most of the time I wouldn't.
What if it's a prank call or something or from a stalker?
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