A weird phone call last night
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A weird phone call last night
Last night I was standing in my kitchen in Las Vegas peeling potatoes. My cell phone rings. I don't recognize the number. It's from the 916 area code. I later learn that this is Sacramento. Who do I know in Sacramento? Absolutely no one.
So I an answer the phone. There's a young woman on the other end who says, in a Cambodia-type accent, "Could you speak Cambodia please?" I say "What?" She repeats her request. I say "Sorry, I don't speak much Cambodian, only a little." She says, "Oh, sorry, wrong number" and hangs up.
Someone please explain that one. Here's my theory. I used to exchange calls with a girl in Cambodia using the same cell phone number. This wasn't her, by the way. I think she's now married and living elsewhere in the U.S.
I also fired off a few texts from my U.S. number to Cambodian numbers late last year.
Anyway, my theory is that when you make calls between the U.S. and Cambodia, the Cambodian or U.S. phone company then sells your number to U.S. based Khmer-language telemarketers who try to sell loans and whatnot to Cambodians in the US. That's the best explanation I have.
So I an answer the phone. There's a young woman on the other end who says, in a Cambodia-type accent, "Could you speak Cambodia please?" I say "What?" She repeats her request. I say "Sorry, I don't speak much Cambodian, only a little." She says, "Oh, sorry, wrong number" and hangs up.
Someone please explain that one. Here's my theory. I used to exchange calls with a girl in Cambodia using the same cell phone number. This wasn't her, by the way. I think she's now married and living elsewhere in the U.S.
I also fired off a few texts from my U.S. number to Cambodian numbers late last year.
Anyway, my theory is that when you make calls between the U.S. and Cambodia, the Cambodian or U.S. phone company then sells your number to U.S. based Khmer-language telemarketers who try to sell loans and whatnot to Cambodians in the US. That's the best explanation I have.
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I'm guessing she got it from a Khmer friend that had ur number. They called, hoping to chat up an American living in America that speaks Khmer... U disappointed her.
Wouldn't it be much more likely that those Cambodians you had called from your U.S. number had passed on your number to the woman who called you last night? For whatever reason.
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- Making Khmer girls cry since 2003
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A few years ago when I used to talk to girl in Cambodia I would then get answering messages from a US number with an automated Khmer voice talking about numbers. I called the number back and a live woman said something about selling loans.
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When I was living in Canada I was calling over here to Cambodia and sending sms quite often. Quite a while after I started calling over here I got a few weird calls from some number (cant remember if it was Cambodian or not) But I could never understand what they were saying and hung up. Finally after a few calls one lady spoke English well and asked me if I spoke Cambodian. I said not much, but she continued to say that she knew I was calling Cambodia a lot and had an offer on some sort of cheap phone service to call between Canada and Cambodia. 6 cents a minute or something like that. I asked her how she got my number but she couldn't tell me. I took her name, company and info down and told her I would call her back if I was interested. Checked it out online and looked legit.. but it was pretty strange that she knew I was calling here a lot and new my cell phone number in Canada... Not sure if this is the case with you but possible? Anyone else ever had this kind of experience?
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Another possibility Gavin is the cheap international calls that go through the internet then route through at a 'local' landline number in your country and can show up as that number.
When you questioned her are you sure she didn't say "You forget me already?"
When you questioned her are you sure she didn't say "You forget me already?"
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My wife gets random unsolicited calls from Khmer speaking telemarketers on her US cell phone. Cambodian streaming television and radio providers, touring companies offering package tours to Tahoe/Reno or phone card providers with discount rates to the Kingdom are common offenders. From what I gather, the telemarketers get these numbers from sources in Cambodia. Phone card companies and websites requiring membership registration like http://khiptv.com/ are some of the likely suspects.
Did you call that number back to see who answers? Post the number here and I'll have my wife do it. She gets lots of calls from that area code. There's a huge Cambodian community in the Sacramento-Stockton area (916 or 209 are codes). Almost all of the Sacramento calls are from independent phone card vendors. Mostly women working from home, trying to flog a pile of phone cards on consignment, dialing from a database supplied by the phone card vendor.
Much like Devo's experience, I used to have a Skype number that I used while in Cambodia. The US call recipients always saw a random originating area code and phone number. I called one person in California and they saw a number originating in Los Angeles. I called back thirty minutes later and they saw a number from Portland Oregon.
Did you call that number back to see who answers? Post the number here and I'll have my wife do it. She gets lots of calls from that area code. There's a huge Cambodian community in the Sacramento-Stockton area (916 or 209 are codes). Almost all of the Sacramento calls are from independent phone card vendors. Mostly women working from home, trying to flog a pile of phone cards on consignment, dialing from a database supplied by the phone card vendor.
Much like Devo's experience, I used to have a Skype number that I used while in Cambodia. The US call recipients always saw a random originating area code and phone number. I called one person in California and they saw a number originating in Los Angeles. I called back thirty minutes later and they saw a number from Portland Oregon.
That's like, your opinion, man.
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I had the same experience from a 916 number about three weeks ago. The long distance calls that come to the USA from Cambodia use several different area prefixes. She asked me the same, "Do you speak Cambodian?" I know only a few words. I thought it was from someone I could know for I have two friends living in Cambodia that are very ill, and speak little English. I usually receive two or three calls a day from Cambodia and many speak little English however, this call was different. I told her not to hang up, that I wanted to talk to her, but she said she was at work and promised to call back later. She never did.
If I knew for certain that a person was coming to my house with the intent of doing me good, I would run for my life HDT
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I can't believe I didn't break out my Khmer language skills. I'm bored out of my mind over here, why wouldn't I have at least tried to talk to her in Khmer? I talk to hostesses in Khmer all the time. I blew it, man.
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Cool! Now I can put my USA Skype number to use!gavinmac wrote:The call came from (916) 476 2561.
I get DAILY robo-calls from Metphone - some rapidfire sales spiel in Khmer of which I understand not a word. The numbers calling me are usually 1788 and 1795.
These plus a stream of text messages (also from Metphone). These are mostly promotions.
Does anyone know how to get this junk turned off? I've tried having a Khmer friend call Metphone - no luck.
I'll switch companies if I can't find a solution.
These plus a stream of text messages (also from Metphone). These are mostly promotions.
Does anyone know how to get this junk turned off? I've tried having a Khmer friend call Metphone - no luck.
I'll switch companies if I can't find a solution.
Um, I change my presumption....cambod wrote:I'm guessing she got it from a Khmer friend that had ur number. They called, hoping to chat up an American living in America that speaks Khmer... U disappointed her.
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