Getting Harassing Calls from Creditors. . .

[MartiesMom2B]

of the guy who used to have my phone number. I can't believe this, but I'm getting calls at all hours of the day starting at 7:50 from credit card companies, Sears, etc for the guy who used to have our phone number. I was wondering why I was getting all of these telemarketing phone calls when we had registered for the Do Not Call list, but now I've discovered that this guy has some bad debt or something. Can't these companies find him some other way than having to call me. I'm sooooo annoyed.

Sonia
Proud Mommy to Martie 4/6/03

[lag555]

A similar thing happened to us a while ago. We started getting letters and phone calls for someone who had the same last name as ours. She even got a personal letter from someone delivered to our address. To this day, I don't know who the person is, but the letters and phone calls finally stopped. So just hang in there. It'll probably be straightened out in the next couple of weeks!

Aggie

[Karenn]

That happened to me when I got my most recent cell phone number! It drove me crazy! Every time a creditor called I explained to them that I was not who they were looking for and that they had the wrong number. I was surprised, but they actually believed me. Luckily, there only seemed to be a couple of banks after this particular woman. I can't imagin how I would have dealt with calls from dozens of creditors!

[BethS]

We're on our round 2 of this but now it's with a new person. The first time they called I told the caller that she had the wrong number, please do not call again, blah blah blah and she told me she'd call back later. Oh! That made me so mad. Now that I think of it, they haven't called recently. Maybe they got the hint.

It is so annoying and they act like you really are the person but are pretending you're not. I guess some people actually do that.

Anyway, I feel your pain!

[kijip]

We had the same problem. It took 1 year for the calls to end. I got very sick of saying "NO, The Phams DO NOT LIVE HERE, THIS IS A NEW NUMBER". Legally any creditor has to stop calling you provide written notice. You can start asking for addresses and then send a slip to each creditor saying "This phone number is not correct..blah blah..". Also threaten to call your AG if they call again since they have the wrong number. Hope this is helpful.

[MartiesMom2B]

Yes I can't believe that they don't believe that I am not the person. Someone said "Do you know who _______ is" I said no. Then she said "Have you ever heard of him". After getting four calls from different companies, I did a reverse look up and confirmed that the delinquent guy had our phone number.

Sonia
Proud Mommy to Martie 4/6/03

[BethS]

Yes, that is what we did with the wrong name. We finally spoke with a manager, asked for an address to respond to and told them we'd call the better business bureau. That was the last we heard from them.

[Karenn]

You know, now that I think about it, it was asking to speak with a manager that worked for me too. I didn't think to threaten with the BBB!

[MartiesMom2B]

Armed with this information, I'm looking forward to getting another call. Am I sick or what?

Sonia
Proud Mommy to Martie 4/6/03

[Sarah1]

SO annoying Sonia. I had something similar but not as annoying. My cell phone # was previously the number of a guy who ran some kind of tour company. For a period of like 4-5 months I got COUNTLESS calls all day from people wanting to book tours. Even idiots leaving voicemail messages when my voicemail clearly said it was my phone. But at least it was only my cell phone and I could turn it OFF! Hope the calls stop REALLY soon.

[starrynight]

BTDT, try moving every 2 years urgh happens all the time for at least the first month we get someowhere new. I just always tell them when they say "you sure s/he doesn't live there." Nope, just got this number sorry if they had it before but they don't now." It usually stops the calls because they at least change the number in the system or something so it doesn't happen again.

I got a real screwy call the first day we moved in, lady says "hi does so and so live there. I said "no wrong number." She says " Well I know he is deceased but I really need to speak to him" HUH??? So I say back "I just got this number sorry I don't know the dead guy, his family or what this is about, please don't call here again." I would have just hung up but I wanted to make sure I never got another odd call like that. She argued with me for a second like "well this is the number on his bank paperwork and isn't this 4 blah blah street." I said " NO it's not that address, I don't care who put this number where but don't call again." She finally gave up said sorry and never called again. But geesh that was a weird one!

[s7714]

We were getting calls from the U.S. Dept. of Education and creditors, because someone used our last name, address and phone number to apply for a student loan and aren't paying it back! Luckily it only took a couple more "sorry, but I don't know who you're talking about-they must have given you the wrong number" responses to calls and a few "adressee unknown" letter rejections for everything to stop. This whole identity theft thing is scary! I mean this person could have just picked our info. out of the phone book and yet they got approved for a huge student loan--talk about unnerving!

Jennifer
Mommy to Annalia 03/03/03

[new_mommy25]

Lol, I've never had that happen to me. However we used to have a number that was 1 digit off from Domino's and we used to get call ALL THE TIME from people try to order a pizza. Sometimes DH would mess around with them but they usually figured it out and hung up on him.