Phone fear are most often associated with people who find it scary to make calls or answer when someone unknown calls. But around Halloween, it can be exciting to look at cases where telephone fear has scarier connections than that. So for this year’s Halloween special, I have looked up phone numbers you ABSOLUTELY should not call.
The message in ones and zeros
Number: 828-756 0109
When you start searching for scary phone numbers on the internet, you get many stories about numbers that claim that something terrible will happen after you have called them, or that you will be forced to pass the number on to a certain number of people to avoid being punished.
But that is not the case with this number. No mysterious deaths have been reported and you are not threatened with sharing the number. But that doesn’t make the call any less scary. If you call the number, which originates in North Carolina, you are first met by a noise and then a recorded message. It’s a man who frantically reads out ones and zeros. The voice is a bit distorted and the person also sounds breathless and scared.
Where the recording comes from and what it means remains a mystery. But it is undeniably scary. If you want to listen to what it sounds like when you call the number, you can click here:
Help me, Susie’s dying
Number: 20202020
Today we sit with our mobile phones constantly in our hands, but in the past there were, instead, telephone booths situated, here and there, in cities and towns. The story of the Susie’s dying number is an old story that spread like wildfire in 70s Britain. At that time, there was a number for a test signal that technicians used to test telephone booths, so you could call the number for free. But around 1975, it was discovered that the number did not work as it should. When you dialed the number 20202020, a woman answered in an eerie monotonous voice. She said the same thing over and over. “Help me, Susie’s dying.”
On the internet you can read lots of testimonials from people who tested the scary phone number in their youth. Who was the owner of the voice and who Susie was, that still remains a mystery. Maybe it was just a scary joke on the part of the technicians. Maybe it was the echo of a woman’s desperate appeal for help.
Sadakos Number
Number: 090-4444-4444
The mythical Sadako’s number is a Japanese number that is said to have a curse on it. When you call the number, you should first hear strange sounds, which can be quite scary in itself. But it is what is said to happen afterwards that can really make people avoid the number. Within seven days of calling Sadako’s number, you will be exposed to a terrible accident.
In Japan, there is quite a lot of superstition about the number four. There are two ways to say “four” in Japanese: “yon” or “shi”. The problem is that there is another word that is pronounced “shi”, the word for “death”.
Personally, I have not dared to call the number, but it is more because of the fear of the cost of making a long distance call to Japan.
The crying man
Number: 978-435 0163
If you feel that you have money left over to make a long distance call to Massachusetts and at the same time want to increase your heart rate a little, you can try calling this number. There is hardly any background story to be found about the number, its origin remains a mystery. What you get when you dial the number is the voice of a crying man. It sounds like the man is in a basement or a cave, you hear it echoing and something is dripping in the background. From time to time you can even hear an unnatural sound scratching in the background. I do not know more than that about the number. But it’s hard not to feel uncomfortable listening to the recording from a person who tried to call the number. You will find a recording at the link below.
Wrinkles the clown
Number: 407-734 0254
Many people suffer from coulrophobia, the fear of clowns. Most clowns are harmless but some are really scary. The Washington Post wrote an article about that you can hire the clown Wrinkles if you want to “trick a friend or even scare your mischievous children into behaving”. We know very little about the clown, in the interview in the Washington Post he says that he is in his 60s, that he is retired and that he originally comes from Rhode Island. But if you listen to his automatic answering machine, we can definitely determine that he does not sound like a nice clown.
It is said that if you leave a message, he will call you back. Would you dare?
Now I have to round off this blog. It has been ringing continuously in my phone for half an hour and when I answer it is just silent. The last time I answered, I heard a voice say “meet me outside”. So now I’m going to go out and see what it’s all about…
It’s probably just someone joking with me…
Or…is it?