Most of us have received a call from a random number. At times, it’s someone accidentally misdialing, but spam robocalls are much more common. According to data from the unwanted call-blocking service YouMail, the average American received 13.6 robocalls per month in 2025.
But have you ever received a call or a message from an unknown number in the middle of the night? Was there ever a stranger asking for help at the other end of the line? For these folks on this list, both of these things have happened.
We came across two Reddit threads where people were sharing the contents of the creepiest messages and voicemails they had ever received and put the most chilling and bloodcurdling answers here. Turns out, sometimes, in order to have a real horror movie experience, all you need to do is check your phone.
#1
Got a voicemail from a Russian number. I check it and its a faint recording of a women crying and pleading for help. It was extremely unnerving. So much so that it took me a few hours to think to google-fu the whole thing and looks like it was a scam to trick people into calling back and getting exorbitant charges on their account. Would prefer to never get another one of those.
Image source: IDodgeLawsuits, MART PRODUCTION
#2
Some random number sent me a text with a picture of a bowl of dentures.
Image source: IntrovertedShutIn, Quang Tri NGUYEN
#3
Joined a discord server with some guys I had just met after joining a new school hoping to make new friends. One of them recited my full name, all of my paternal relatives up to my grandfather (including the deceased), and my exact address. To this day, I don’t know how he got it, but the other guys told him to knock it off and delete the messages. The guy did.
I didn’t become friends with that guy.
Image source: placeholderNull, ELLA DON
#4
I was on AIM (AOL instant messenger) in the early 2000’s, I was around 13 years old. A random username that I didn’t recognize IMed me that my dad likes to wear woman’s underwear. At the time, I knew it was true. I never did find out who was behind the IM.
Image source: tumeric91, Szymonek Pograniczny
#5
I got a picture from a random number about 10 years ago. It was if a woman in her bra and underwear taking a selfie in a mirror. Not creepy on its own, but creepy because the woman looked identical to my wife(gf at the time). But it wasn’t my wife, there were very tiny differences. It made me insecure for about a month before I finally asked my wife if it was her and she showed me a picture she received from a phone number identical to the one that sent me the pic except phone number was 1 number off. Anyway, she received a picture of a dude that looked almost identical to me taking a selfie in a mirror with only underwear on.
Totally bizarre. Both phone numbers never answered calls or texts from anyone who tried.
Image source: hellothisismt, Hannah Busing
#6
Had a voicemail message once that said ‘Hi (my name), we really need to talk. Don’t be mad but your boyfriend got me pregnant. Call me back’. Came from a private number so I couldn’t call it back. Also I’d been single for about 5 years at that point. Still don’t know who it was.
Image source: Lady_Lokitty, voronaman111
#7
I got a voice-mail at 3:00am that was just a man whispering “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”.
Image source: tinypiecesofyarn, RDNE Stock project
#8
Unknown number at 2AM
“Looking forward to seeing you,last time I saw you looked delicious” clearly flirty but when I was sleep deprived af at 2am it was pretty creepy.
#9
Got a voicemail of an old dude with a scratchy voice croaking “Veronica…. this is grandpa…. this is Reggie…. call me back”.
Image source: nuclear_lobster, Josh Hild
#10
I was cleaning out my voice-mail just the other day. Had a message that went something along the lines of:
“Hey Agent A, this is Agent B. I can’t get a hold of Agent C and didn’t know what to do, so was told to contact you. I can’t make many calls because I’m in rehab, but I’ll call again when I can.”
Maybe not as creepy as just super random and odd.
Image source: Sp00kyL00n, JD Christian
#11
I was a kid. My cat went in to be spayed. I called the vet to see if it was ready to be picked up. I dialed a digit off. Didn’t realize.
Guy answers. Says the cat went crazy during procedure and bit a nurse. Says they put it down.
I get off phone, sobbing.
Mom asks what happened and calls the (right) number to vet. They sigh. Cat is fine. They said some psycho is a digit off their number and is tired of calls so he decided to start messing with people.
Image source: moneybags2015
#12
From an unknown number I received this as a text message:
“i am in the act”
Turns out they meant the ACT, as in the location “Australian Capital Territory”. And it was an old friend with a different phone number.
Image source: Pale_Level
#13
Someone wrote their/a name in the bathroom mirror at my house. I didn’t know it was there until it fogged up after a shower, I just got out and the name EMMA was written on the mirror. Thing is, I lived alone at the time and didn’t know anyone by that name and didn’t recognise it as a friend of a friend’s name either.
I don’t believe in the paranormal but I definitely thought I was at the start of a horror movie that night.
Image source: decidedlyindecisive, Beatriz Fernandes
#14
Our landline number was 1 digits difference from the doctors surgery in the next village. We used to get a lot of old folk calling at 8am trying to get an appointment.
One time we got a call from a desperate cracking voice wheezing “nurse! Nurse help me! I’m on the floor! I fell down last night! Nurse! Nurse my catheter fell out….. help help!”
He couldn’t say his name, where he lived, he just kept pleading.
I had to call the doctors surgery to give them the phone number so they could check the records and find the poor guys address and get an ambulance. I think he must have had dementia too, but it was awful to listen to.
We disconnected the landline after that.
Image source: Naughtyspider, camilo jimenez
#15
A got a new number And it belonged to some grandmother I think. I would usually get the odd text such as a weird poem or family life tidbit, tons of missed calls and voicemails. One night around 12-1am I got text saying “come outside, I know you’re there. Come out or I’ll come in “
It was creepy af because I’d always ignore and delete the text chats to not clutter my chats, so it just looked like a random creepy text lol.
Image source: vault_tec_redditor, Yaroslav Muzychenko
#16
Not super creepy, but the creepiest was just the other day. I got a call and when i picked up it was a prerecorded woman speaking spanish…i don’t speak spanish so i hung up and blocked the number. 5 seconds later i get a call from a different number, but i pick up and it’s the SAME woman. Hang up, block, INSTANTLY get a third call from a new number, but i blocked without answering. I almost expected a forth and fifth, etc…
Image source: Erohiel
#17
As a premise, I’ve never told *anyone* I have a Reddit account in my life, so I have no idea who this could have been.
With that being said, someone who knows me in real life found my former Reddit account, which is why I have this account now. This person kept replying to my comments mentioning my real name, my birthday, and even my occupation. The creepiest one, however, was when this person also sent me a message giving way too many details about my life-where I went to school, my favorite sports teams, my favorite movies, etc., and told me to “stop” using Reddit. The only reason I deleted my account, and took a break from Reddit is because I wanted to make sure the creep was gone. So far, on this account, the creep hasn’t found me yet.
The Reddit account looked like a throwaway account, and I can’t remember the username. It was entirely made up of numbers, and was something along the lines of “5756262498”, or something similar to that.
Image source: MTVChallengeFan, appshunter.io
#18
Super not funny – someone overseas hacked the public school system where I worked and sent really disturbing messages to dozens of parents. Listing their kids’ names, addresses, teachers – along with super disturbing and graphic threats. As you can imagine everyone was terrified. School was cancelled for a couple of days. The FBI got involved. If I recall correctly, the hackers were looking for a ransom. I’m not sure if they got it. I didn’t get one of the messages but as a parent it would have just wrecked me.
Image source: anon
#19
Once I woke up to find I had texted multiple highly explicit / and or offensive Reddit links to my immediate family including my mother, my wife, and my boss. The last thing I had sent was single word text to myself- “Thanks”.
It was the single worst morning I can recall as I had to try and text apologies and some sort of explanation to my loved ones and superiors for the vulgar things I had sent out while trying to understand if I had been hacked somehow.
After a couple hours I eventually figured out what I think happened. My phone had a broken touch screen that would get stuck tapping at random points. I set my phone down unlocked and fell asleep on the couch and my phone tap tap tapped away on Reddit, tapped onto some random accounts profile, and started sharing posts with my top contacts. It finished off by somehow getting a messages prompt to myself and typing something that I assume got autocorrected as “Thanks”.
Image source: Jskidmore1217
#20
When I was a teenager call of duty ran some kind of advertising campaign by mail for a new release and sent out torn camo fabric with fake blood on it saying “we need your help” or something along the line, nothing else indicating it’s supposed to be an ad. Took me a day or two to figure out wtf that was about and my parents were not happy.
Image source: dnL_
#21
I got a call about how I was recommended to get a job from this new local business. I contacted them multiple times talked to the same English speaking gentleman and discussed it with my mother, I was in high school at the time. Just before leaving for the interview, I looked up the place. It didn’t exist, and the address was for some vacant storage unit in the town next to ours. I then decided it wasn’t for me. If it weren’t for that tiny bit of curiosity I think I would have gotten abducted at age 17.
Image source: ShatteredInk
#22
After a month of having a new phone, I was on my kindle before school since I was all done and I got a call from a random number. Thought nothing of it and declined the call by clicking the power button twice and continued my thing. Person called again and while I ignored each time cuz I didn’t know the number I found it creepy. Eventually the person sent a voice message saying it was dark and they were alone and they were wondering when I’d pick them up. I was 14 at the time and didn’t at all know how to drive so this freaked me out that this person was stuck alone at an airport in the dark. They called a few more times before texting and saying how it was rude that I wasn’t picking up and they’d do the same for me (they thought I was their friend so it’s understandable). Texted back apologizing and said they had the wrong number and deleted it, but as I did they texted back and I didn’t see it. Called a total of 16 times and hope they got picked up safely.
Image source: Superslothgirl2005
#23
Ok so this is the reason I stopped answering unknown numbers. This was awhile ago. One day I sitting in my room watching youtube. My phone got a call from a different state. I answer and it’s a women screaming and crying. I’m in shock and don’t know what to do then she crys help and help me. I didn’t know what to do at all and I was only 12 at the time so I just say “I’m only 12” then I hung up.
Image source: jak_3d, Kateryna Hliznitsova
#24
Text was bad, but the context was worse. A guy I met at a friend’s party tried to get with me. I got a text from him 2 months later with a picture of my house and car asking if it was mine. Made a police report and the officer told me to be careful around him, that he has multiple pending charges against him for stalking.
Image source: therealdildoexpert
#25
Why are you awake. This was from a guy I met on plenty of fish and dated 3 or 4 months before realising he wasn’t for me. My bedroom light was on as my dog had been sick at 3am. My bedroom is at the rear of my house so he had to have been my back garden as it cannot be seen unless you are in the back garden of mine or the bak garden of the houses at the back (terraced so gaps to see from the road etc ) . I went to the police the next morning .I never heard from him again.
Image source: engie_945
#26
I got a call from a NYC number in Mandarin (for context, I’m a white guy living in Western PA). I played it into Google Translate and it claimed to come from the Chinese embassy and talked about papers. My first thought was, “What did grandpa do that China’s calling me?” (When he was alive he worked in China for a long time). A Google search revealed that it was a scam. The actual Chinese embassy website even had a reporting address to send reports of that scam going around. I filed a report and still have the voicemail.
Image source: DelightfullyUnusual
#27
Once I got a call from my own number. My phone displayed the name as Maybe: [My Name]. That was bizarre.
Image source: ev254
#28
It was a message from a rando on okcupid, that only said “you should really get your brakes checked”.
Promptly blocked the sender and carefully examined my car before carefully driving it. Thankfully nothing seemed to be wrong with the car.
Image source: cataluna4
#29
Was minding my own business ar home when I received a text from a language I did not know about. Decided to put it in Google Translate and found out it was Polish. It said “You know the time” or something like that.
I don’t live in Poland, I don’t speak Polish and I’m not Polish.
Image source: anon
#30
When I was little, like 10 or 11, my parents left me in charge of my younger brother (6 or 7) so they could go shopping. I always had strict instructions to keep the door locked, and if someone called the landline (the only phone we had back then, 90s kid) NEVER let the caller know we were home alone.
So, the phone rings, and I answer it politely, and the voice on the other end was a deep male voice who demanded to speak with my mom. When I said she wasn’t available, he said, “Well, where is she?” and I said “Oh in the shower” and he said, “Go get her” and I said, “Um, I can’t…”, starting to get really flustered. He wouldn’t let up. Finally, he said, “Let me talk to your dad”. I said the same thing, “He’s not available” and when he questioned me, I said “Um, he’s mowing the lawn”. I then got freaked out and hung up.
The phone rang right away. I picked it up, and his voice was angrier, more insistent, “Listen, I need to talk to your mom or dad”. “Can’t I just take a message?” I pleaded, “They’ll call right back!” and he started demanding that I put them on the phone … I hung up again on him.
My brother was watching the whole thing, and when the phone rang like right away, we both started crying. I let the answering machine pick up and his voice was even creepier, even angrier. I don’t remember what he said because I think I blacked out in fear, I was completely terrified. My brother and I clutched to each other and ran upstairs to my parents room. The guy kept calling and calling, but didn’t leave anymore messages.
In my kid mind he called for hours straight, but I’m not sure. I just know my parents came home to find us upstairs. I seem to remember my mom picking up the phone and laughing— apparently it was an old college friend of hers? And he was just messing with us kids? She laughed it off and it wasn’t really ever mentioned again. Still freaks me out to remember it. If it WAS her friend, that’s a messed up thing to do to a couple of kids left home alone, especially if he knew we were home alone.
Image source: olive_green_spatula
#31
At my first job back in high school, I had a co-worker (let’s call him Joe) who was a year or two younger than I was. Since I was a senior cashier, I was tasked with training him. We got along well — not in a romantic way, but in a friendly, “we’re in this together” camaraderie kind of way.
I never got any weird vibes from him or anything — we’d have nice chats whenever we worked together to pass the time, and that was that. I didn’t think anything of it when he asked for my number either, because cashiers would always exchange numbers so that we could text/call one another in case we needed someone to cover our shifts or whatever.
Well, the day after I gave Joe my number, I wake up and immediately get a text from him. It just says *”Good morning.*” Weird, but okay. The day after that though, I wake up and immediately get another text from him that says *”Good morning. How are you?”*
**This continues for weeks.** Sometimes I respond, but most of the times I don’t because I’m so disturbed by the whole thing. He would literally send the text within a minute or two of me being awake, and it’s not like I got up at the same time (I was a teen, so my sleep schedule was all over the place). I remember even checking the tree outside my window to see if he was somehow watching me or something, but I never saw anyone. I did always sleep with my phone by my bed, so maybe he bugged it somehow? So whenever I turned it on in the morning and started browsing social media in bed, he would know I was awake and send the text? Or maybe it was all a bizarre coincidence?
Anyway, I left the job shortly thereafter. Not because of him, but because I was starting college. We never really spoke after that, and eventually he got the hint and stopped texting me. Talk about creepy though.
**Adding for context:** *We were not friends on social media (I only had a private Instagram account back then), so he couldn’t have tracked me that way. I remember telling my HS friends about it at the time (who were all more tech savvy than I was), but they couldn’t figure it out either.*.
Image source: anon
#32
One day I received a phone call with an unknown number me being curious i picked it up when i answered a girl started laughing and saying she is my wife. Gave me time traveler vibes.
Image source: basu_nashi
#33
In the 1980’s I attended an all girls college in SC. My roommate and I started getting these creepy phone calls. The person on the phone would not say anything but would blow into the phone and make clicking noises. We would also hear people’s muffled conversations and the sound of dishes being done. After a couple of weeks of getting these phone calls, we would start shaking if the phone rang. We eventually went to the college administration about the phone calls and our extension was changed. No more creepy phone calls afterwards.
Image source: pinkflower200
#34
More weird than creepy. In high school my future wife received a text message with a few random letters from her house phone. No one was home at the time she received the message and I’m not really sure a person could have sent it from the house phone to begin with (this was ~15 years ago).
We shrugged it off as a glitch with the phone lines or something, but it was still disconcerting.
Image source: Azramikon
#35
Some guy I sat next to in class and rejected called me at 2am, drunk, expressing his love to me… never saw him in class again after that. Wasn’t super creepy just made me really uncomfortable and gave me stalker vibes.
Image source: TangerineBusy9771
#36
I posted a picture of a creepy doll on Flickr and someone left a really disturbing comment. To paraphrase, it basically said in really creepy prose that I was an evil person and that I was going to be punished. Some of the phrasing reminded me of a post-break up letter an ex girlfriend sent ages ago. Probably just random but still gave me jitters.
Image source: vacationbeard
#37
Not the most exciting thing but I got a voicemail that only says “thank you” and the voice is really distorted. Very eiree.
Image source: anon
#38
When I was 16, I got a phone call at 2AM – a girls voice just saying ‘ring ring, ring ring’ over and over. Freaked me out at the time but now I think it was just a prank call from some people at school.
Image source: anon
#39
A few years ago on an old account here i got a message from a stranger i’d disagreed with on some thread, telling me details about my life i had never posted here. i don’t think he knew my name but i’m honestly not positive because he knew where i worked.
i don’t super care if people find out this account’s mine but i’d tried keeping that one 100% anonymous and apparently failed miserably.
Image source: grandpa_grandpa
#40
“I like your hair” from an unknown number. Not necessarily creepy but it was before you could easily lookup numbers so I never found out who it was.
Image source: anon
#41
I used to get calls at like 2 or 3 am. Some chick asking for Jett. Jeff maybe. Saying did we have the stuff? Something like that.
Happened a few times. Changed my number after that. Definitely weird.
Image source: zerodarkpizza
#42
“OK, I see you. Coming up from behind”
Someone meeting up with a friend who accidentally texted my number instead of their friend’s (similar numbers, I guess).
And of course I got this text while walking through a crowded campus.
Image source: Solid_Snark
#43
I have been getting voicemails from different numbers constantly(4-5 time a week), and they’re all just someone breathing into the phone, my mom thinks I am just playing around with her because I have no evidence that it’s happening because I can’t save the message and if I try to call the number back it says it is an invalid number.
Image source: Serious-Passage511
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