Lisa, that string of letters and numbers is what appears when the caller is using one of the voice over IP services (think "Magic Jack" or Google Voice) and they likely just leave the "Name" field blank when they set up their fake number. The result is that it defaults to a generic name that looks like gibberish. The upside is that when you see that gibberish, you can rest assured the caller is a scam. Because my phone number has for years been making the rounds with every fake charity, mortgage scam, IRS scam, contractor "just in the neighborhood", solar sales, Canadian pharmacies, well, you get the idea, every time the land line rings I can rest assured that 99% of the calls are scams. Your best bet is to either get some sort of call block service or device or simply never answer the phone with a human voice that tells them they have a live number (which they will then sell to every other shady phone scam). If you don't recognize the caller or if the name is a string of gibberish, just press "talk" followed immediately by "off". If they do trigger your answering machine, they know it's a live number as well. I've removed the outgoing message on mine and recorded one second of silence so they (or their software) never hears a voice. Tell your friends and anyone you need to call your number that there will not be a greeting when they get the answering machine and to go ahead and leave a message when it beeps. Hopefully this is more helpful to you than the previous responses. :)