Find Out Who That Mystery Caller Was

Hey, it's a really slow news day out there. But here's something interesting I stumbled upon courtesy of Boing Boing: whocalled.us, a service for people who receive those baffling phone calls that show up with Caller ID tags like PRIVATE, OUT OF AREA, and the inimitable UNKNOWNNAME.

These calls can be frustrating to say the least: foreign languages, computers on repeat, and fax machines. Oftentimes, simply searching for the number that Caller ID gives you will turn up the culprit (and hopefully a real-live-human phone number you can use to get off the telemarketing list). But just as often, those number searches come up blank.

Whocalled.us is a user-driven service to help track down these mystery numbers. Next time you get an oddball call, just visit the site, punch in the 10 digits, and click Lookup. (You can also include your phone number if you'd like whocalled.us to report the call as a "Do Not Call" List violation, though I have no idea if this actually does any good.) You'll get a listing of anyone else who's received calls from the same number, along with any information they've been able to ferret out about the caller's true identity. The goal, over time, is that a few dozen people's detective work might be able to solve the problem where no single person could.

Next time you get one of those 3am wakeup calls from someone speaking Portuguese, give whocalled.us a whirl. Can't hurt.