Zoptis was a mysterious dial-a-trip phone service originating in the 1980s Detroit area, featuring eerie, ever-changing prerecorded audio that intrigued callers for over 30 years before ceasing operation in the late 2010s. Created by a group including a man named Tom, the project blended unsettling telephonic art with a haunted house-themed website, leaving behind a dedicated community and archived recordings that preserve its enigmatic legacy.
For the past 40 years, a mysterious phone number known as Zoptis has intrigued and unsettled callers worldwide. Originating in the 1980s, particularly around Detroit, Michigan, this number would ring a few times before an old cassette tape answering machine picked up, playing strange, warped audio recordings. These recordings featured bizarre dialogue, unsettling noises, and references to something called Zoptis, leaving callers confused and creeped out. The earliest online mention of Zoptis appeared in a 2011 4chan thread, where users shared their eerie experiences and speculated about the number’s origins.
The Zoptis mystery deepened with the discovery of a website, zioptis.com, which from 2003 until recently hosted a blog-style site dedicated to haunted house reviews in Michigan. This site, referred to as the Haunted House Hotline, seemed unrelated to the strange phone recordings, as none of the eerie dial-a-trip messages mentioned haunted houses or Halloween. According to the website, the Haunted House Hotline was an offshoot of the Zoptis Foundation’s dial-a-trip service, which began in 1986 and provided telephonic entertainment 24/7. However, the exact connection between the website and the unsettling phone line remained unclear.
Further investigation revealed a supposed location for the Zoptis Foundation in Michigan, but the address appeared to be a random house with unrelated photos, suggesting the foundation might not exist in a conventional sense. Online reviews and comments from enthusiasts showed a dedicated community fascinated by the mystery, with some having called the number for decades. The dial-a-trip service reportedly changed its messages with the lunar cycle, offering new recordings every new moon. Despite this, the phone line ceased operation sometime between 2017 and 2019, leaving only archived recordings on platforms like YouTube.
The mystery took a significant turn when a video surfaced featuring the son of one of the creators behind Zoptis. He explained that in the 1980s, his father and a friend named Tom developed the dial-a-trip concept as a sort of radio show accessible by phone. Instead of live broadcasts, callers would hear pre-recorded, often bizarre conversations and music. Tom was the main force behind Zoptis, maintaining the project alongside friends and family until the late 2010s when technical issues ended the service. Sadly, Tom passed away recently, marking the end of an era for the Zoptis project.
In summary, Zoptis was a long-running passion project blending eerie telephonic art with local haunted house culture. The dial-a-trip phone line offered unsettling, ever-changing audio experiences for over three decades, while the associated website documented haunted attractions. Though many questions remain about the foundation’s true purpose and origins, the project’s legacy lives on through archived recordings and a small but dedicated community. The son of one of the creators now runs a channel preserving this unique piece of internet and paranormal history, inviting others to share their experiences and keep the mystery alive.