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When Randy Ciotoli’s cellphone rang last Friday he answered the call quickly without really paying attention to the fact it was from an international number. The call was quickly directed into an automated voice system which prompted a message saying, “this call is of an urgent matter, please hold.”

Ciotoli waited about 10 seconds and hung up feeling something wasn’t right. Over the next week, the Kingsville man received close to 25 calls from international numbers in Lithuania, Burundi and Morocco.

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“Shortly after, another call came and this time I didn’t answer and blocked it,” Ciotoli said. “But the numbers are different every time so they keep coming in. And blocking them doesn’t help. They’re all international calls. ”

Ciotoli decided to reach out on social media to see if anyone else was being harassed by the calls. He posted a screen grab of his phone with the number and was shocked by the response. “I think close to 30 people commented on it saying they had been receiving the international calls from all different numbers,” he said.