Strange phone calls and messages

Not sure why this is happening - my french is not good enough to speak with Orange about it yet, so hoping someone here might have some ideas:


We have a VOIP fixedline, and keep getting calls from what sounds like a fax line.


Sometimes number shows as private, unknown or even a phone number - normally 01 or 07 area


I have tried to call the numbers but lines don't exist.


Are these some kind of hackers, checking the line, or a genuine fax machine trying to contact me from the 80s???


I also thought it might be linked to Skype somehow, as its a VOIP line and there is some cross over (not with my own skype as i dont have credit to use it as a phone.


Any ideas? Suggestions? It's driving us mad, sometimes at 4 in the morning....

With any call I get, I say Bonjour and give them 2 seconds to start answering. If they don't I immediately hang up. If it's someone I know then they'll ring back.

Hi Shirley,
Thanks for that, will give them a call. They actually went quiet for a while, but back with a vengeance now. I don’t answer them anymore, and they do go to voicemail, always the same beep beep.
Thanks again for following up
Elaine

I had the 4am in the UK many years ago - it was a shops credit card machine that had been programmed with our number and was trying to download the days transactions to the bank. Unlikely to be that as you are getting the calls during the day as well. We get faxes on our line (used to be the OH's business number) trying to sell stuff - seems the most likely answer to your problem.

Thanks James, I know those types, the tell-tale slight delay before someone speaks.

But these are different - constant beep beep like a fax machine calling - and strange hours too - and if we don't answer, they can often go to voicemail :(

It'll most probably be one of those automated call centres. They dial thousands of numbers at a time and then connect you with an operator to sell you something. Sometimes you answer and no salesperson is available so it just cuts off.