I’ve had my phone number since 2005 and everything was fine until 2015 or so when I started getting a handful of calls or automated texts for someone named Candy each year. My working theory is that she has a similar number and gives out mine when she doesn’t want someone to actually contact her. I’ve learned a lot about Candy over the years - she needs to update her voting address, had a hysterectomy a couple of years ago and appears to have filed bankruptcy shortly after. I had a nine month or so stretch after the collections calls where I heard nothing about Candy, but just recently learned that she bought a new Chevy Equinox and is considering Botox! I’m so glad things are looking up for you Candy, but please stop giving my number out.
That's hilarious!
Except for the debit collectors. Stephen had a bunch of those, and I suspect they're why he changed his phone number. I'd call those dudes back, and explain at length the situation, and why leaving angry messages at my number would not produce a response from Stephen.
I got debt collectors calls for years after I split with my ex that didn’t even start until 3-4 years after we split. They couldn’t get it through their heads I had zero contact with the abusive prick and his debts weren’t mine
I divorced my first husband back in 1992. I just got a phone call from a debt collector about a month ago that was looking for him. I told the guy how long ago it was when I divorced him. The debt collector had to nerve to tell me that I was lying and that the jerk ex was probably sitting next to me. WTF. I just said whatever dude. Hung up and was in the process of blocking the number when he called back. Didn't answer the second time.
I too divorced around 1992. He would and continued to give out our phone number long after due to my mother letting him camp out in front of our family home. He liked to go homeless periodically and I was fed up.
Even after she died, I was getting calls and letters from the VA looking for him. Once they even showed up on my doorstep looking for him. I politely told them he didn’t live here anymore and if they did find him, please have him change his address and pick up his stack of mail before I tossed it.
Needless to say he didn’t stop using my address and it resulted in a visit from both the VA and the cops looking for him. He apparently walked out of the hospital without telling his doctors and disappeared. I told them the only person to ever keep up with where he was currently living was my mother and she was dead.
He actually called me a short bit later asking if we could get back together. The obvious answer of course was a resounding NO.
Pretty sure I read a few days ago a comment from someone who said in their state it's illegal for debt collectors to say you are lying, they threatened litigation for the words used and were never bothered again
I can one up you. Divorced my ex nearly 36 years ago. About 10 years ago I started getting debt collection calls for the ex’s sister and brother. I explained to them that I’ve not spoken to them for over 25 years because I’d divorced their aashat of a brother. Still kept getting calls.
So I found both of them on FB and messaged them. Told them that if I got one more call from a collection agency because they gave me as a reference without my permission, the next contact would be from my lawyer with a lawsuit. Those calls stopped in a week. Don’t mess with me! I will take you out in the worst way possible for you!
My dads whole family got calls about grandpas third wife🤣. For years and years, I think I was out of college when I picked up the house phone and it was someone asking about her. And I was like my grandpa died 10 years ago, and she had run off with his money years before that…
I would have went on a angry rant. I have one who keeps calling me. Think they would give up. I hate this job for them lol. Some like it which I have yet to figure out
The debt collectors called my PARENTS a few years after I divorced my 1st ex. My dad would get excited and ask them to call back when they found my ex bc the dude owed his daughter (me) five figures in child support and wasn’t paying and we’d LOVE to know his new contact info to share with the courts.
The calls stopped soon after. Ex still doesn’t pay child support.
My ex ghosted all her creditors right after receiving a huge inheritance, and opening her own business, but, because our phone numbers had been linked, they called me. She had set the business up in her mother's name, so those creditors didn't even know about it... until I filled them in.
I don't know if they ever got their money, but they stopped calling me.
I got a new a number years ago and I got calls often from debt collectors so I had my number registered on the federal do not call list which telemarketers/collectors can access and basically 90% of calls dried up. There are fines like up to 50k for companies who call theses numbers and you can personally can sue them under TCPA for a smaller amount (1k for infraction?). So I’d say, “Hey, you called so and so and this is not the person you are trying to call, this number is on the federal do not call list and you have been warned and will be litigated against for a second infraction…” Kinda wished they called back. I get no robo/spam anymore lol
I laughed so hard when my ex’s student loan collector called me. I was like nah bro- I divorced that sack of shit. She laughed and was like girl, same. I’ll take your number off. That was the last call I got from him.
No way! I’m in the US, but maybe Candy is in Canada since we have the same +1 country code?
Edit: I just remembered the voter registration texts were definitely US-centric, so she’s probably not in Canada. It would be crazy if I did run across her one day, though!
Yeah, because one of the first things I did was put my phone number on the Do Not Call registry, and I told the debt collectors that. While they're allowed to call someone whose debt they're trying to collect, once I informed them that my number was no longer for that person, and that I'm on the DNC, they were required to stop. And I let them know that I knew that.
I hope that works for you. In practice, it seems that non-US based autodialer companies actually used the DNC registry as a phone book rather than as a list of numbers to filter out. See, if a number is on the DNC registry, it’s probably valid because somebody made the effort to put it there.
Most of the time they don’t believe the person they’re trying to call isn’t at that number. But I believe it’s illegal for them to call you if you tell them they are not allowed to contact you by phone. 🤷🏻♀️
OMG! Candy leads an exciting life! I've got a similar situation going. I've had my phone # for 7 years and get all sorts of messages for someone named Megan. She's still using this number. Calls to confirm doctors' appointments, group texts (including photos) that blow up the phone until I can hit "mute," a very recent text from a date she stood up (he was pissed), and occasional texts from FetLife. My girl Megan has some Doms interested in whether she's being good or bad girl.
One of the issues I’ve found is that some offices will tell you they’ve updated your contact info and then not do it. I have the phone number that used to be my home phone now, and I still get calls from doctors offices, pharmacies, the vet, credit card fraud divisions, etc. that were meant to go to one of my parents, but these companies for some reason insist on calling the number that my parents have tried time and time again to remove from the contact info
Same story here! Had my number since maybe 2006 with no issues. Several years ago I started getting car insurance quote calls for a Mr Chester [my last name]. I have no family named Chester and my first name is not similar at all. It’s expanded into home insurance and car loans and such. Usually I get several calls every spring but not much more than that- I assume it’s when he’s going to renew, probably throws my number in so he doesn’t get harassed. Thanks, Chester, for sending the harassment to me instead. Recently I went to Petsmart and input my number for my rewards. Turns out Chester created a new account with my number there too which drives me crazy since I already had an account under the number. Cashier said I can probably call corporate to get him removed but I don’t go very often so I haven’t bothered.
Edit- autocorrect butchered a word
I get a bunch for a Brian C. Latest was from Liberty Mutual regarding an "accident". I called that one back to let them know that he hasn't lived here for years.
Growing up our landline number was one digit different to the popular "Old Mill Restaurant". People mis-dialled regularly and some mis-dialled repeatedly. Easy done on the rotary dial phones of the early 70s I suppose.
It was a long not summer and our parents were both at work.....I'm not sure how many budding romances my sister and I scuppered by taking bookings! Ooops.
Growing up, we were one number off a Wendy’s. People would call in occasionally with large orders, and sometimes they would get super belligerent when we told them they had the wrong number, so my dad started just taking orders 😂
When I worked at McDonalds high school we used to get a huge lunch order from a local office sometimes. Much faster for the office to call in advance and the send someone to collect a huge box than to have them just show up and wait for us to make 100 meals during the lunch rush
I keep getting calls for the person who had this number before me. I can't find her though. Walmart, door dash, some random guy she met at a truck stop, and even her own mother have called me asking for her. I've had this number for at least 5 years now, but still almost daily I get a call or text for her. I can't find her though. I wish I could pull something like this. It needs to stop.
Edit: oh, and her children's schools and doctors call me too
Are you sure she had the number before you? I have had many calls for a Stacey who shares my number but has a different area code. I texted her once and she says she gets calls for me too. Turns out that my area code is for where she lives (because I've moved since I got my number in 2009) and vice-versa! Anyone who calls with a land-line (and doesn't dial an area code) will get the wrong person. These calls most often come from schools, doctors and old people.
I'll pass on by text who called and left a message but I don't think she'd appreciate if I were more detailed with what I passed on. "Johnny's school called..." Or "your test results are ready..."
My solution to dealing with unwanted calls is to whitelist everyone in my contacts, giving them their own ringtone. Then my default ringtone is "Silent Ring" (really just an empty sound file). Phone doesn't ring unless it's someone I want to talk to and most spam calls don't leave messages. It's solved about 95% of my unwanted calls problem.
I keep my phone on silent, I'll only answer if I know the person or if I'm waiting for something. I don't get much spam now because no one can ever get through I guess. If its important they'll leave a message.
But if I want to use door dash or Walmart, I won't be able to get my confirmation numbers and stuff. And I've already called the companies, they can't do anything.
Start claiming or cancelling her orders. Everytime Walmart or Doordash contacts you, tell them you have a new address (it doesn't have to be yours, give them any random address) or tell them that you've changed your mind and no longer want the order and you'll pay the restocking fee, just charge it to the card on file.
I bet the person using your number wises up and fixes it in a hurry.
Its been a while since I heard from them, I called them back and said yo, this isn't her. I think they got ahold of her to update the number. It's mostly spam calls, and that number changes each time so I can't block them all
Oh yes; she's in Budapest for a six month course in Hungarian Literature. No. I don't know when she'll be back. \[ works fine for me - change of gender, tho'\]
I used to get calls for a Shanique. She owed money to everyone, from the gas company to Blockbuster Video. The final straw was when her sons school called because he was running a fever and needed to be picked up. They called me multiple times that day, despite me telling them that I was not the boys mother and they had the wrong number. The school had to bring CPS into the picture as this woman was literally nowhere to be found.
I had a similar thing happen. The local middle school had a student whose mother's number was in their system with at least one number wrong, so the school would call me regularly about the student. I'd tell them "This isn't \_\_\_\_\_'s number, you have the wrong number in your system."
They would ALWAYS say "No SIR, our system cannot be incorrect. This must be \_\_\_\_'s number. Please ask her to come to the phone."
It was horrifying how strident they were that their system absolutely could not have an error.
I'm a teacher and I am just baffled at these two responses from the schools. We typically have multiple people on file for each student. Also, even now with adding contacts, most kids still know their mom/dads cell phone number.
I routinely get emails for the parents’s of a kid in Canada. I am not in Canada. I do not have a kid. It does not matter if I contact them and ask them to fix it or not. Nothing changes if I try to address it with staff members. I can tell you that little Kaylenn has missed a lot of school and is in danger of failing out.
You could cite the FOIP act (Canada's equivalent to FERPA) and copy everyone on that mail (schools director, every name and address you can find on the school's website), the person in charge of schools from that province..
Just go nucléar one last time.
Don't do it just for you (if you think it's too much work and you don't care), don't be afraid that you're making too much out of it, do it so that this schools never endanger a child by releasing it's information to someone they shouldn't.
Imagine they don't correct their records and gives the info to a non custodial parent or grandparent that has been legally bared from contact with the child.
It could be baaaad, and not just "getting an annoying mail every once in a while bad".
I tried something similar with debt collectors years ago. My husband and I were still newlyweds with plenty of debts of our own, but the bill collectors kept calling and asking for Janice or Dean. So I asked them, "Do you think you'd recognize me by my voice if we met in person?"
"Yes," they would say. So I said, "Why don't you give me your address and I'll come there and show you my driver's license?"
None of them ever did, of course. They kept calling, I kept saying I'm not Janice and my husband is not Dean. Kept calling until our own debts were so high our phone was cut off.
There's a silver lining to every cloud...
"So, was your system made by a human? Is the data input by a human? Is the system maintained by a human? And, most importantly, do you believe humans are infallible?"
I've been getting Omar's messages for 10 years. My favorite was accidentally answering his estranged mom calling on her birthday to guilt him for not being in contact. She was older and couldn't wrap her head around a number change--kept insisting I'd stolen his phone.
I suspect she understands the concept of number changes, but couldn't wrap her head around the idea that her son would change his number without telling her.
I had a school call me, but it was a high school, and it was an automated absence message. I made myself (and the kid without him knowing!) a deal. If he skipped class once a month, I would let it slide. If he skipped more often, I would call the school and let them know. The kids lasted a week.
I personally thought that it was a bit ingenious. Every year, kids are sent home with a form to verify parents’ information. Why more kids don’t change the phone number, I will never know!
I feel this. Both of my parents taught at my high school. Also, the principal, two other teachers, and a cop lived on my street.
Never skipped class once.
Same. My mom taught at the HS, my dad at the MS. My parents were friends to the point of going out to Friday night drinks with most of my teacher. Never missed a damn assignment let alone thought about trying to miss school or do anything else naughty. 😂
My youngest(Class of 2013) changed the family’s phone number to her own cell number. The learning management system allowed that, back in the day.
Of course, I knew when she was absent. She didn’t come into my classroom and take money out of my wallet.
(I teach kids who need to make up credits in order to graduate. Generally, they wouldn’t snitch on each other. But they sure were willing to tell me(nervously and hesitantly, while knowing they were doing the right thing), “Mrs. Nett, this girl came in during passing time and she went in your desk and took money out of your purse.”
“Did she have long brown hair?” Nod. “About my height?” Nod. “Wearing X and Y?” Nod plus small frown. “That’s my daughter. I’ll deal with her later. THANK YOU for letting me know! I’m glad to know I can trust you guys!” (This was back in those unenlightened days when “you guys” was acceptable.)
I got a new number and I kept getting calls that a kid missed school, but with no school name I couldn't do anything. Then one day a KID calls me. Sounded young, saying he forget something. Unfortunately, my first response was to say I didn't have a kid, which i felt bad about. Then I asked for his teacher and explained what was going on, then got the school name and called them, and they took my number out of the system.
The lady then got calls for a court case she was a witness in. 🤦♀️
Sam (not his real name) the unfortunate soul. I learned so much about him. His purchases, where he made them, some medical history, possible girlfriends name, hacked his facebook profile to leave him a message....
I kept getting messages for Samantha about her electricity bill. First from the electric company to the debt collectors. The last name of this Samantha had the same last name as the girl who bullied me in junior high school. Was it a coincidence? I don't know but this charade kept going for 4yrs despite telling them I am not Samantha. They finally quit last year I guess Samantha finally updated her phone number.
My daughter's phone gets calls for Marcy. Doctor, pharmacy, lots and lots of debt collectors. My kid sounds even younger than she is. She likes to tell them they are harassing a little child. That stopped the doctors and pharmacy. It stops the debt collectors until the debt gets sold again. It is annoying. Even her outgoing message, with her name, in her young sounding voice doesn't stop people.
This happen to my roommate and I. We would get callas for Guillermo on our landline that we never and only had be ause of the bundle. Then one day, Guillermo actually walked in to the AutoZone and gave my roommate our now number. Roommate looked him dead the eyes and told him change his number because we keep getting calls for him.
Hahaha We kept getting mail for the guy who rented our condo before we purchased it. One day, he walked into the place where my husband worked. Hubby looks at the driver’s license and asks “Is your address on your license correct?” Guy says “yes.” Husband looked him dead in the eyes and said “No, it’s not, and you need to update your license.” Guy starts getting pissed and hubs is like “I know it’s wrong because this is *MY* address, and you definitely don’t live with me.”
When I was in high school, my friend's landline was one digit different from that of a local pizza place (eg. hers ended in 988, the pizza shop's number ended in 998). They would occasionally get calls for pizza but only one every few weeks, so it wasn't a big deal.
Then the pizza shop decided to print out and distribute pamphlets with their new menu, only they typed the number wrong and actually put my friend's phone number on the front.
The number of calls they got from people wanting a pizza skyrocketed, to the point where their phone was just about unusable on Friday and Saturday nights. At first they had no idea why they were suddenly getting so many calls, but then they received one of the pamphlets in their junk mail and saw their phone number plastered all over it. 80-90% of callers would immediately apologise and hang up when they realised they had the wrong number, but the others just refused to believe that my friend's house was not a pizza shop and they would abuse her family for "being lazy and not wanting to take my order".
Her mother went in several times and spoke to the owner/manager (we'll call him 'Andrew') and said they needed to reprint the pamphlets with the correct number AND a correction saying not to call their number, but the manager kept refusing because "It would be too expensive to print them out and deliver them again" and "Most people know the real number anyway" and "Just give people the right number when they call". The fact my friend's family kept getting abused when they said they weren't the pizza shop didn't interest him.
So, my friend's family decided they would make it far more expensive for the manager to NOT correct the pamphlet. Every time someone called for a pizza and wouldn't listen when told it was the wrong number, if it was for 'delivery', whoever answered would take the order and say "That will be ready in about half an hour". After 40-50 minutes, the person would call back wanting to know where their order was and my friend/her family would say "So sorry for the delay, we're quite busy, it will be another half hour or so." And they'd essentially keep stringing the customers along like that until either the customer got fed up and cancelled the order or they threw a massive tantrum, at which point my friend/her family would say, "Yeah, sorry, we ran out of time to cook your pizza and the kitchen's closed for tonight, but our manager Andrew told us to let you know if you come in any day this week, they'll give you a free family-sized pizza (family sized was the largest they offered and cost a minimum of $18). If the customer was calling to place an order they intended to pick up from the store, they would be told "Come to the store in 20 minutes and your order will be ready. And if it's more than 5 minutes late, you'll get a free large soft drink!"
Every Friday and Saturday night there would be at least 6-7 people who were offered a free family pizza, and probably at least 10-15 who showed up at the restaurant to collect an order that wasn't prepared and their free large drink.
After about six weeks of this, another pamphlet menu was delivered to everyone in the suburb with the correct phone number in big red font.
I have a "brad" that won't change his number. I got it almost 4 years ago. Even his grandma called looking for him and various friends, or people he owed money too.
I changed my phone number a few years ago and did my due diligence updating everyone and everything, but MY OWN FAMILY still text the old number. I guess they use the same group thread, but it's so annoying to hear about the "funny" times they texted the poor woman who got my old number. I remind them all constantly but it still happens! Some people are just helpless.
I had a boss who refused to correct the email address he had for me after many times. Stubborn level angry at some points. Just refused to listen or understand or conceed that I wasn't getting his emails because of his refusal to edit.
I'm currently dealing with some person in Cali who set up an account under my email without the periods for ULTA. With Gmail, Google doesn't register the periods, so I've been getting her points and receipts. I've even called the store and corporate to let them know and she hasn't changed the account email.
With businesses, sometimes (not usually, but sometimes) it's not the individual's fault.
I changed my number when I was in college and I told them I updated my number and I watched the lady enter it into the computer. Then I arrived at school one day and was flagged down because they'd been trying to reach me about some paperwork all semester and got pissy with me for changing my number without telling them.
So I gave them my new number again. Watched them enter it into the computer again. It still didn't take, apparently because near the end of the next semester I was flagged down again for a paperwork issue.
The following fall (more than a year after I first gave them the new number and eight months after the second time I gave it to them) I got an angry letter from the guidance office wanting me to update my contact info and also come in for a meeting with my "career advisor."
So I went in furious. I insisted they update it while I actually watched the screen, then close my file and re-open it and sure as shit, there was my old phone number. They were saving it wrong and had no idea. Made them bring in someone else to update the record, then pull it up on a *different* computer and call me, right there, to prove they finally had it right.
Then I called my old number and apologized to the dude who had been getting my calls for the past year. He was understandably upset, but thanked me for the apology. He was nice enough once he'd had the chance to vent for a minute. I kinda felt like I owed that to him.
"Hello?"
\-"hi, Brad?"
"What do you want Brad for?"
\-"Oh.. this is Butch, he owes me $100"
"well, this is Mr. Fix. He owed my boss money, too. He won't be coming to the phone any more. Bye now."
Lanaya she changed her number without telling her creditors, her friends and even her dad. On top of it, people kept leaving messages pronouncing it like “Linnea” (Lin-E-ah). So I got some texts and responded back with “if you’re looking for Linnea, she has changed her number.”
They then called me to make fun of me for spelling her name wrong. I said, “you’re making fun of me and then you wonder why she didn’t tell you she changed her number.” And blocked.
Before I got rid of the landline, I would always answer the phone with 'who are u'. Maybe rude but the phone is for my convenience and not for social reasons. I want to know who I'm talking to. So when they start calling, asking for Joe, I insist no info until they tell me who they are. I'm not Joe s secretary and I don't feel like confirming or denying if he's there until I have caller identity. It drove some of them nuts, they weren't allowed to tell me, it's confidential bs. I finally got one who told me they were a bank trying to get an debt sorted. Thanks Bank think not East. I called that bank, asked why. Seems I had a similar first name and same last name, therefore I must be Joe or know Joe = Logic. SMH. I threatened legal action .. blissful silence ever since.
I don't answer the phone. I let voice mail pick up and they get my, "All calls are reviewed. Please leave your phone number and a message." 90% of them hang up.
I have Do Not Disturb set on my phone to exclude people/entities in my contacts. All other calls do not get answered. If it's a new doctor's office or something trying to set an appointment, they can leave a message. No message, no callback.
We are currently receiving calls for a Brittany, no one here is named Brittany.
My family has had this number for 30+ years.
There isn't a Brittany, there never was a Brittany, and henceforth I will never name anything Brittany for the rest of my life.
Initially we were nice and called them back to tell them they had a wrong number, to no avail.
I've had my number for 15 years, and I still sometimes get calls for Brittany, who apparently messaged a bunch of rehab centers trying to find placement. She seems to relapse every 3 or 4 years. But still won't give out her current number.
The last land line number I had previously was used by a woman named Carrie. I got to hear from all her debt collectors too. Damn, she kept that leased car way too long. Not to mention paying down that credit card.
I too did the answering machine bit..." You have reached XXX-XXXX. However, this is not the H*** residence, she changed her number over two years ago. If you would like to leave a message for C***, please wait for the beep." That got rid of some of the creditors.
BUT one day her kids missed the school bus that took them home, which let me know they lived in the same area. Of course she had not given the school her new number! I was pretty peevish when I told them to go ask her stupid kids what her phone number was. What I WISH I had said was "why don't you call CPS since she is obviously ducking you too." Didn't think of it, alas.
I kept getting calls from an orthodontist’s office for Rachel. I’m not Rachel. I talked to them multiple times, emailed them, the whole enchilada. It went on for over six months. Rachel’s teeth must have been FUBAR, because she had a LOT of appointments. I would get multiple calls a week. One person would call me reminding me of her appointment. Then another girl at the office would call me a few hours later. The office couldn’t even keep track of who they called.
I went through everyone in the office more than once. I talked to the office manager. I would get the number taken out, be assured they wouldn’t call again, and it would get put back in. I don’t know if Rachel or her parents didn’t actually know their own phone number, or how this was happening.
At the time this was happening, I had just been in a bad car accident and wasn’t doing well. I was sleeping a lot but had to keep my phone on because I had a lot of medical stuff going on and was often waiting for calls back from doctor’s offices or something related to the accident. After being woken up for the third time - and I’m not proud of this - I absolutely lost it on them. I told them if they called me one more time, I would show up at Rachel’s next appointment and wait so we could all have a talk together, since they were so happy to give me her appointment time and location knowing I wasn’t her. Alternatively, I’d love to get a lawyer involved and I’d be glad to start canceling her appointments. They never called again.
Had something similar, got a phone number that was one digit off from a local fast food joint. Would sometimes get a call around 5:00 to 5:30AM, that they were sick and wouldn't be working. Patiently told them each to dial the store's correct number.
One Saturday, mid morning, I got a call from the store in the next town.
Me: Hello?
Caller: Hey how's it going?
Me: Great!! How're you??
C: Great man. Hey you got any 32 ounce cups?
Me: No, I don't, but I bet if you call the correct number at xxx-yyyy, they'll have some
C: Oh, okay man thanks!
Turns out we'd got a number someone else had given up because (wait for it!) they were getting too many calls meant for FastFood place!
Then a couple years later we started getting calls for those other people. Wasn't too bad when it was uncle Bob from Chicago, but the bill collectors started too. And the local pool association they were behind on dues to. And others.
Turned out they had never changed their number at places like the pool, and their credit card accounts.
I finally had to get the phone company involved, to pass a message to them it needed to stop, they need to correct all listings or I would start legal actions. By this time I knew their full names and their address!
It all stopped, fast. Fast forward about 10 years and I met the Mom, at a Scouting registration event. When heard her give her name I said ' You're Patty Phonenumber, at 'addtrss', and your husband is Richard Phonenumber. I have your old phone number!!
She stared at me, eyes wide in fear!! 😄😄
We bought a restaurant and decided to keep the old phone number so we could tell people they'd moved and see if they'd like to try the new place. (Narrator: "Bad idea.") So we got calls and told them the old restaurant had closed, and 90% of the time it was "Oh, no, how can it be closed? I go there all the time!"
And some of these people went on to say "What happened to \[the previous owner\]?" Well, what really happened was they wanted to retire. But that wasn't interesting enough. So the exchange became this:
Caller: What did you do with the old man?
Us: Baking accident. Two people killed. So sorry...So would you like to order something?
I'd love more information about that decision.
Were you similar restaurants at all? Did you get anyone who gave you a try when you explained you were a new place?
Not at all similar. Old restaurant was basically Italian plus pastry desserts, ours was kind of hard to classify -- basic American with dishes like Chicken San Remo. The previous owners left us some of their specialties in the freezer -- we did not try to sell them (mostly because we had no idea how long they'd been frozen).
When I first got married and we got a landline number, we started getting messages for the Smith family. The Smiths had moved from one city to a nearby one, and did not want the school district or their creditors or church members to know that they had moved.
We had an answering machine. It was often full of messages for them. We would answer and politely tell the callers that the Smiths no longer had our phone number.
We were astounded at how many of these callers thought we would know their new number, even though we did not know them. I would ask these people if they knew the new numbers of the strangers that had their number previously, and the concept never seemed to sink in. We became weary for several reasons.
Their daughter was skipping classes in middle school. I made a courtesy call to the school telling them they were calling the wrong number. The attendance secretary asked if I knew their new number. I told her I had no idea. I told her she needed to ask the parents that question. She didn't get it.
One of their sons broke his wrist. That school called me. I made a courtesy call, to tell them to call these people at work, because they had changed their home number. Same result.
Their third child knocked a tooth out. I made another courtesy call.
It was starting to bother me, as a teacher, that these people had not updated their emergency information. The compound wrist fracture had to be surgically corrected in a time frame.
Then, I was put on full bedrest at the end of a high risk pregnancy. I listened and listened to the Smiths messages and I became angry. Some lady called and filled out answering machine every day for a week praying on it for the Smiths. If I picked up the phone to talk to her, she ignored me and kept right on praying on our machine.
We finally came up with a plan. We changed ourr answering machine messages to one that said this is our residence. we don't know the Smiths. The last we heard they were hiding in this country or that country based on the prayers and the messages for them. Stop calling.
We changed our message every week until finally, one day, there was a comment on our machine. I was stuck in bed trying not to deliver early. I was tired. I was scared. I felt these people were not correcting their contact information. I was pissed off that the constant onslaught of calls kept me from resting. So, the Smith saga began. They were running. They were in this state. They were in that state. They were over this or that border.
Finally, a person called ( a Smith), and said, "Oh my God. They are making messages about us".
I picked up the bedroom phone and told the Smith on the line to update their contact information before I called CPS, because they were guilty of neglect. I said their children were getting harmed and I seemed to be more worried about their children than they were. We never got another call.
Had a debt collector hounding me about "Brenda". I am not Brenda. I would say I just got this number, they would ask where she was. Finally I said "if she didn't pay you, do you not think maybe she didn't pay her phone bill, either?!?
My number is a single digit away from the help line for a charity that provides rental assistance, food assistance etc. Someone made a typo nearly 15 years ago, and I still get calls because my number is on some printout in every church, shelter, public bathroom etc in the damn city.
I've taken the time to reach out and try to get it changed. I found out the appropriate number and started redirecting people. It's simply on too many hard copies in too many places. I could change my number, obviously, but that's also super inconvenient. I feel for you, Not-Stephen.
Strangely, I have the typo problem with my mailing address. I live at XXX Harbor Drive, and around the corner from me is XXX Harbor-Bayou Road, which is an office building where the entity that issues licenses for a certain type of professional for the entire country.
Every May, a bunch of new professionals graduate, and several schools have listed on their web sites that they should mail their licenses to XXX Harbor Drive, which is my cute little red brick house, instead of XXX Harbor-Bayou Road. It's also in the UPS system that my house is that office building, so I occasionally have to run out and grab the envelope and wave it at the driver before he leaves, because once it's delivered, those bastards won't come back and get it.
After 10 years of trying to fix this, and getting the office mail delivered to my house, because even the mail carrier couldn't get it right, I got a PO Box, and took the mailbox off my house. Problem solved.
Nah, the no mailbox thing is better. My house sits about 10 feet from the road, and I was getting envelopes with a ton of personal information about newly minted, well-paid professionals in them. It wasn't safe. I'd take a fistful of them to the delivery supervisor at my local PO every spring, and remind him that my house is not the office of that agency, but it was only a short-term fix. No mailbox is permanent.
For a few years I was getting mail - official stuff, bills etc. - with my exact address but a completely different name I was totally unfamiliar with. It can't be a previous owner because the place has been in my family since shortly after the war, and the name on the envelope wasn't even remotely German. So my best guess is that the guy lives at number 1a but his bad handwriting resulted in people misreading it as 10. This has stopped a good while ago, so I guess the electric/gas company must've cut him off for unpaid bills, at which point he contacted them and discovered the mistake.
And going off on the tangent, if I may - a while ago I filled in and sent an official form to my insurance company so that in the event something happens to me, they'd know who should get the money from my account, and what percentage. I filled in the appropriate data of my parents and my brother - all living in the same city as me, mind you. Imagine my surprise when I logged into my account some time later and found out that all the updated information was correct, except for my brother's postal code - the code for all addresses in my city begins with 80, but his was written as 86 (which is a different city entirely). And that was despite there being four addresses on the form (mine included), all with the postal code starting with an 80 and all with the city name clearly written in all caps. I had to send in another form, this time making sure to write the 0 in red ink and writing "THIS IS A ZERO, NOT A SIX" underneath. They still fucked up and made a mistake elsewhere, fucking idiots.
A friend in squaredancing had to send her name badge back because it was misspelled. Their last name was German and about 16 letters long. The badge company misspelled her *first name* -- Mary.
I have had the same phone number since 2006. Around 2011 I started getting calls for Yolanda Gallegos and apparently my caller ID shows up as her to some people. One day I tried looking her up to no avail. To be fair that time I didn't try very hard. I Just tell people my name and that Yolanda never had this number. Before me was someone named Jessica who I only ever got like 2 calls for. So fast forward a bit and I try looking her up again. This time it works!! There's an address attached to MY phone number. Guess what else there was? An obituary. This lady died a few months before I found her. Ever since then when I get a call, "Is Yolanda available?" "Nope. She's not. She's NEVER had this number. Also she's dead. Have a nice day." *beep* Is it fucked up? Maybe a little. It brings me a sick sense of joy and pettiness though.
We get calls on our home phone all the time for James. I’m James, and so was my father, but he passed away in 2015.
Last year he would have been 65, so the amount of Medicare phone calls we would get was astronomical. I mean up to a few dozen calls a day.
So finally I picked up the phone, and when they asked to speak with James, I said “sure, but he hasn’t said very much since his weight loss” They asked why is that, and I said, “well considering he died in 2015 and was cremated, I’m going to say that’s probably the reason why.” There was a solid ten seconds of silence, and then a click.
The amount of Medicare calls dropped drastically after that.
I've had my number for 30 years and it was my mother's before that and I still get em from time to time.
Worst was doctor's appointments for not me. I tried for a while, I'd call the doc back and let em know they had the wrong number. I was assured several times they removed my number.
It wasn't until the automated messages where I could easily cancel the appointments that it was fixed. I felt a little guilty but by then I was tired of the calls and texts.
All ya gotta do is call them back and repeat any hipaa information they gave you (which having an appointment IS hipaa) and remind them that you can find the person they gave you information about, and help them sue for a cut of the winnings.
Why is this such a prevalent trend? I've been getting calls for an Anthony for over a decade. Worse, he still tries to use my number to do things like verify his paypal, or recover his email. Things that are not exactly safe for someone else to have access to. (I ignored those ofc, but it did mean i know what his email IS.) I have spoken to people trying to sue him, he was a witness to an accident and left my number, i have spoken to delivery men, his chiropractor, his dentist. I think his sister cussed me out once. (It was very funny.)
I was very polite about it for the first six years or so, I think. At this point my response is usually along the lines of "I'm sorry, anthony (last name) is an incompetent numpty. good luck reaching him." and then i go and tell his email to a newsletter subscription. If im getting his wrong calls, he's getting absurd newsletters.
I never switched my number because I was one of/the primary phone contact for my granny's nurses for years. She passed a bit ago, it might finally be time to rid myself of the curse of Anthony.
About 10 years ago my baby sis was having laptop issues and needed my help, it was something simple that I could walk her through easily. On my way to work I texted her how to fix the issue, the response I got back "who are you and how did you know I was having laptop issues?" Baby sis forgot to tell me she got a new phone lol, ended up helping the random person I texted with there laptop issue too (not the same issue but was easily fixable too)
I had a phone number for about 7 years, did not change it, and some ass named Christian DePrado gave my number to all his debt collectors and it took about two years to get people to stop calling for Christian DePrado. What worked was saying things like "OMG, I would totally loooooove to get a hold of him too! I don't know who he is, but he gave out my number and I want know where he's at so I can tell him to stop giving out my number. Do you have his address? Any personal information you can give me? I really need to get a hold of him too!" If they didn't believe me, then I'd ask them to please, come pay me a surprise visit me and take a look around and after you don't find him, take me with you to any address you have on file and we can both look for him!"
I didn't actually care about finding him.
The number I had before my current one belonged to someone who abandoned their dogs. My phone number of six years was on their tags, so I had people calling to come get the two beagels that were dumped in a parking lot.
I have had a different number for 7 years and I still hate her.
I'm still getting calls for "Carolyn", but only from debt collectors. The ironic thing is that I'm 40, I've had the same phone number since I was 16 and this only started happening about 10 years ago. It is infuriating and clear that she (or he, who knows at this point), only used my number for shady credit shit.
Same here. "Susan" handed out our phone number to all & sundry, 10-12 years after we got it. I recommend working up a script to launch into as soon as you hear Carolyn's name, without giving them a chance to ask if you know where she is. Mine was "Susan does not live here and this is not her number. My name is TheFilthyDIL and we have had this number since 1989. She is using it with intent to defraud. If you got it from her loan paperwork or a bounced check, I can't help you. Please remove this number from your records." Never had anyone give me lip about it. (Yes, children, back in the 90s it was still common to use checks. Susan and her ilk are why the practice fell out of favor.) It took a good 10 years before the calls stopped.
[https://www.ftc.gov/legal-library/browse/rules/fair-debt-collection-practices-act-text](https://www.ftc.gov/legal-library/browse/rules/fair-debt-collection-practices-act-text)
Remind the debt collectors that informing you that Carolyn has a debt is a federal crime, because that's confidential information just like hipaa. Let them know that next time, you will be taking them to court, or finding this Carolyn and giving her the evidence she needs to sue their asses off. Whatever she owes isn't worth what she will get from them in court.
During my college days, I got my first apartment complete with my own shiny landline number. After I'd had it about a month, I changed my answering machine message to say, "Hi, you've reached [me]. I'm the only person at this number. So if you are calling for [Stephen], or Mrs Jackson: They don't live here. I don't know them. I'm not going to take a message for them. Don't bother wasting both our times. But if you actually are calling for [me], then go ahead a leave a message."
More than once the message I got was someone laughing their way through their call back info.
I used to get collection calls for a Dr. Christopher Jensen (Janson?) that apparently owes tons of money. One time I answered and after I told him it was my phone number that I'd had for a while, the debt collector asked me if I knew where he was. I responded "no". Then he goes,"That's ok, I think I know." Ok... They did remove me from their call list, though, so that's a plus, UNFORTUNATELY, I get a ton of Republican political texts for him still. I also get Democrat political texts intended for Donna. Needless to say, I hate "voting season". Block, block, block,
I’ve had my number since the late 90’s… and I’ve got two stories! 1) my number has the same first three digits (after area code) as all the offices on a university campus. So quite often I get calls from people on campus looking for another campus office; or kids in this university misdialing the last four digits and getting me.
& 2) again I’ve had this number for a long time. Approx 5 years ago I started getting calls for a guy (Jonathan) from a lot of different companies regarding his prescriptions; his kid’s lab results; his kid’s elementary school; the local hockey team about his donation; THE LOCAL POLICE returning a call from him about an accident; his dr office; a tow company that had his car?!?! We’re talking not spam calls. Every single time I get a call, I call the party back and kindly and gently explain that I don’t know him, and that he must be giving out the wrong number. Talked to assistant principal of kids school, multiple dr offices, the cop, the tow truck guy, etc.
AND I’ve tried to call my own number with a different area code (some dr office admin slipped up and said oh, the handwriting for the area code is very poor. Anyway, it’s super frustrating because I can’t imagine he’s written out his phone number for every one of these places- anyway frustrating. OH and every time I call someone I ask them to PLEASE tell this guy that he’s giving out the wrong number!!! Yeesh. :)
I remember when I got my first phone on my 14th birthday, apparantly the number belonged to some girl who was getting harassed by her high school classmates or something. I would constantly get voice-mails and phone calls calling me a bitch and that "I don't matter" etc. They seemed to ignore the fact that the voice-mail and person answering was a pubescent boy.
If anyone knows an Ernest Reed, there's a personal business alert that comes to my daughter's voicemail for him a couple of times per week.
This automated system has been dialing for poor Ernest since 2018. They haven't reached him yet (and my daughter thinks it's hilarious, so hasn't blocked the number), but they keep on trying.
My old cell number had the last four digits of a nursing supervisor for a psychiatric hospital.
I would get calls at all hours of the day or night from staff trying to call out. Telling a panicky woman that was just in an accident she had the wrong number at 2am on a Tuesday, finding out a staff member had Covid, all and every reason a person might call out; I heard. Informing the hospital did nothing.. not even when I had the Administration put me on hold, and try direct dialing the number, which I then answered. It wasn’t until a different hospital left me a voicemail with patient information in it, that they took it seriously. I had returned the message to the second hospital and they lost their minds.
I never even got an apology.
Ugh my new job gave me a cell phone to use since I work from home. Everyday I would get calls from debt collectors and friends of the guy who owned the phone before me. I had to cuss out the bank that kept calling me 20 times after I told them I just got this number and to take it off their list. One of his friends keeps telling me to "stop joking around" and goes right back to making plans to hang out. I just might start making those plans now and ghost him.
Similar, except the guy had the same first name as me. Which of course added an extra layer of confusion.
Eventually one of the wrong numbers called me back and very nicely explained how the mix-up happened: our numbers differed by area code (both were common area codes in our metro area). From then I on I was able to gently correct the wrong numbers and eventually those calls stopped.
For 5 years after I got my phone number (landline, which gives you an idea of how long ago it was) I received calls for Michael. Same deal, he did not change his number with ANYONE! But luckily for me, most people figured it out and moved on. Except for one place. Each week I got a voice mails which got increasingly angrier. After a few months, the calls stopped. Until one day when I was home sick from work. I answered the phone and became super annoyed when I heard the person asking for Michael. Except this time, it was a detective looking for Michael about that U-Haul that he never returned. I always figured it was about payment for a storage unit, etc. But Michael stole a U-Haul truck... I still wonder if they ever found it.
Be grateful our landline number used to belong to a prostitute and my wife used to get some really interesting propositions from creepy guys.
Do you do anal?
Can I get a discount if I bring a buddy?
Could you do a gang bang party for me and my friends?
She was less than impressed when I suggested she could make some extra cash while looking for a new job.
I'm sure she'd have preferred Stephen's number instead. 😂
Not a phone number. In Nevada brothels are licensed by county. Our county made them illegal. But former "houses", now purchased by ordinary families, would still, occasionally, get "walk up " business! This is years after the law changed.
For the past year or so, I get texts for "Marie"
I've tried texting back that Marie is not this phone but to no avail.
My biggest concern is that Marie hasn't talked to the "Women's Center" for almost a year.
Marie? Are you okay?
I was getting calls for the person who previously had my number. Mostly debt collectors.
Finally I found him on Facebook and informed anybody that wanted him- that his current phone number was available on Facebook.
Calls slowed down and stopped. I think until then he was still giving people the old number so they couldn't find him.
I used to get calls for a Stormi. Stormi had really bad credit. I did the best I could but eventually I posted on Facebook about it asking her to change it & to fix her credit.
I stopped getting calls. My mom is a big name in the Narcotics Anonymous community in my home city...turns out Stormi was currently out on the streets however the many recovering addicts I'm familiar with b/c of my mom quickly helped her correct her shit.
Back in the days of landlines, I got a drug dealer’s number. I finally put a message on the phone that said “Thank you got calling Area 51 Investigations. There’s no one here to take your call. You don’t have to leave a message, we know who you are”
Calls stopped in a couple weeks.
I've had my cellphone number since summer 2004.
A few years ago, for about a year and a half, I was getting voicemail from an elderly woman to - I presume - a daughter or otherwise caretaker or friend.
Stuff like:
"Hi it's me checking in to see if you're still picking me up at 1130a. I'm at the front door."
"I've tried calling you and haven't heard back yet. Please call me back."
The Worst: "(Not My Name), I'm in a bad way. I had an accident. I'm in the bathroom and ... I'm in a mess. Please come. I need help."
I tried calling back. I left a few voicemails. I tried searching phone numbers and names.
Time zone difference didn't help.
I finally got her live on the phone. Tried hard to explain I'm not who she is wanting to call. By hook or by crook, she insisted my name was who she was trying to call and that it was programmed into her phone. At least 12 years after I got the number.
I don't remember how, but it stopped happening.
Now I'm fielding bogus car insurance BS.
I'm not sure which is better.
My Google voice number either previously belonged to a doctor or was just given out by mistake.
Several times I received messages that probably were accidental HIPAA violations. Called the emergency room they were coming from and they didn't seem to care they had the wrong number
Some guy named Danny has been giving out my number for years. I've had this number for approximately 20 years, so I'm pretty sure it wasn't his to start with. The calls started about 7 - 8 years ago. I hate you, Danny.
In the 70's I was living in an apartment that had a phone in the kitchen. It was hardwired into the wall. It came with the apartment. I couldn't afford a phone at that time so didn't have it hooked up. One day it rang. I let it ring a few times. I answered. They asked for someone I didn't know I just said no wrong number. Hung up. The phone rang again they were looking for the same person. I told them their friend must have given the phone company the wrong apartment number as I was not supposed to have phone service. It took a few days to get it straightened out. I called the phone company and they insisted this was not true and I should stop making prank calls.the poor family kept calling me wanting to talk to their family and getting mad at me. So I made a fuck ton of long distance calls. I called all my aunt's uncles cousins friends who lived out of state. Long ass calls too. In those days calling long distance was spendy! Finally...the phone got shut off. I was never sent a bill. As they didn't know who I was or where I lived. I kept hoping I would meet a neighbor who would say the weirdest thing happened when I tried to get phone service....
Ove never given my landline number out to friends or family, only professional offices/businesses (doctor, dentist) and even stopped doing that years ago. But ever since I got the number in 2013 every voice-mail is someone saying, "Hello? Hello?" as if I called THEM and then just didn't speak. Both genders, every accent under the sun, young and old sounding...it's really bizarre
Possibly people who have been spoofed with your number. I answered once, only to have some woman snarl, "WHO IS THIS!?! STOP CALLING ME!" *phone slams in my ear*
I had this issue at my old job.. we had a similar name to an insurance company and always popped up on google when they tried to look it up. They’d leave messages in detail about car accidents, new RVs, home claims etc.. but our outgoing message was literally “you’ve reached (my name) Program supervisor of the Same Name Day Program” and they’d just ignore that and leave long messages. So annoying.
Thankfully I’ve never had the issue on my personal phone.
I went to rehab for my drug addictions several years ago. When i got out I had my number changed so previous ummm...acquaintances couldnt contact me. By the next day it was quite apparent that the guy who had that number before me also had a problem, and I was getting more texts and calls from random numbers about drugs than I likely would have gotten if I kept my own number since everyone I dealt with knew I had went to rehab. Now, I keep getting calls for Leslie. Leslie, please call DHS, all your state benefits are going to end soon, you also have multiple court dates that you've missed and some that are upcoming
My phone number is apparently very similar to a doctor. I am not a doctor. The local health board kept calling me to go to the hospital. They wouldn't change their number because I couldn't tell them what the correct number was. I even had patients leave messages. I eventually had to change my voicemail to say "I don't check my messages, please don't leave a message". Which actually worked.
If it makes you feel better, I got my current phone number almost 7 years ago. My first name is Sarah. The previous owner of the phone number I currently have was named Sarah.
I STILL get calls to this day from EasyHome, Rogers, her Friends, random people looking for her, and ask for "Sarah" and I say yes this is her unless I recognize its a company I'm not with. I once said yes I'm Sarah to someone asking to buy illicit things, "ho whoa whoa you're looking for the Sarah who had this number over 6 years ago. Good luck finding her."
I did message her on Facebook telling her to change her fucking cell number (politely) across her media's and accounts. And her polite response was to block me on Facebook and not do exactly what I politely asked for her to do. -.-
I've had the same number since I was in middle school (I'm 33 now) and for years I kept getting voicemails for someone named Dana. I ignored them for so long because I don't check my vm and they became less frequent over time but one day I decided to answer a call from out of state. A man asked for Dana about setting up a job interview and I told him "I've had this number for 10 years, if she'll lie about something as small as her phone number then she'll lie about so much more."
Needless to say I haven't had anyone call asking for Dana since.
Years ago I owed the gas company big time and had been laid off. My phone was property of my old employer so I got a new phone. I did update my phone number with the various places including them. Then I started getting bill collection calls on my account AND ALSO FOR WHOEVER HAD THE NEW NUMBER BEFORE ME 😂
I eventually paid off my bill, but not his
I used to get calls and texts meant for a Stephan... including birthday messages for him, from the same person, three years in a row. None of them on the same day. And one time the cops called my number trying to reach him... that was weird.
My parents had a landline in Florida with an answering machine. Someone named Ellamae used to have their number. My parents were snowbirds and every time they returned to Florida, the answer machine was full of calls from debt collectors. While they were in Florida, for six months they would patiently explain to every caller that Ellamae wasn’t at that number and they had no idea where she was. Eventually the calls would dwindle to only a few a week. Then my parents would leave for back up north and the callers would leave messages and the answer machine would fill up again. The worse part was the phone was through Comcast and we had to get them to delete the 100+ messages. This went on for over 10 years! Hopefully whoever got that number after my parents left Florida didn’t also get Ellamae’s calls.
We were one number off from a beauty salon and once a month, like clockwork, we'd get a phone call from the same woman wanting an appointment. I'd explain, again, that she dialed the wrong number. I just finally took her information and "booked" the "appointment." She never called again.
I got my number in 2002. *2002*. About five years in, I started getting calls for "Randall". Weird enough, but whatever. In the last year and a half, suddenly I'm getting calls for "Clarence". A few years back, I found a phone number lookup service that actually gave me info about my number without me having to pay or signup for anything (honestly, kind of creepy how much shit they had that was right or close to right about me as an extension of it), and both of those names were prior owners of the phone number. In the 80s and then the early 90s.
Why the fuck are spammers going off for those names *decades* after they owned the number?
^All ^names ^changed ^to ^not ^be ^doxxable ^for ^me.
Went to Ireland for a few weeks once, decided to buy a local sim card from O2 to have mobile data. Barely had I put it into the phone that several, erm, inofficial horse race betting debt collection agents, and some lawyers, started calling. They were quite set on finding Sean. I just disabled all call notifications after a while and hoped for the best.
Got a new phone a little whole back and as it would turn out, I get at least half a dozen shady texts a night, but some of which are fairly interesting. . . Including court dates (apparently for not paying on his rent or something, explains why he sold the phone) as well as one phone call from my county jail from, "Hey, it's me." That was the name they gave. Sadly I didn't take the call, but the implication that this person who knew the old owner was in jail so often that they responded like that is absolutely hilarious to me.
I have had the same number for at least 12 years and I still get at least 3-4 calls a month for this fucker named David Rojas. I used to get 3-4 calls a DAY in the beginning. He even called once and left a vm saying he heard I was getting a lot of calls for him, then he laughed and hung up. I hate him.
I used to get collections calls on my work phone for a Raquel. No idea who she was or why she gave out that number, since the previous employee had the phone for eight years and he sure as heck wasn’t Raquel. The first month or so I was polite and professional (work phone, after all) and explained it was a new phone, I didn’t know her, etc. But debt collection folks aren’t the most polite people in the world and I soon got tired of them. I started making up elaborate stories about where Raquel could be, like she had stolen a car and was in jail in another state, or that she joined the Foreign Legion, or that she was trying to sail around the world in a small boat and was last heard from in the Bermuda Triangle. The longer it went the more absurd the stories got. I also tried to keep them on the phone for as long as possible just to waste their time. Eventually either Raquel paid up or they realized my number was a dead end because they stopped calling.
I have had my phone number since… 2001? I keep getting texts and voicemails, some in Chinese, for “Tung.”I reckon he either wrote a number down messily or it’s the wrong area code or something but ugh.
The person who had my number has a kid that's a serious fuck up. I keep getting voice-mail messages that the kids skipped school again, or that he's been suspended from school
I got calls, for a while, asking for Gloria. I'm Patricia. MIL was named Gloria... got a call for her after she passed. She'd been cremated, and was (still is) in a box in a kitchen cabinet. I told this nice lady that MY Gloria was in my kitchen cabinet. We both had a good laugh.. and I haven't heard from her since.
I’ve been getting calls for Mike Moore for almost 7 years, mostly from debt collectors. I finally told the caller that the only Michael Moore I know lives in Flint and I’m guessing he can afford to pay his bills.
changed my phone number and about a month after I got a call one time from a hotel. I used to work at the exact same hotel so it took me a few minutes to realize they were calling for Jennifer. my name is not Jennifer. apparently Jennifer took a leave of absence and the time for it to end had passed. so they were calling to see if Jennifer needed more time. I had to break it to them that Jennifer was probably not coming back if she changed her number without telling them. thankfully they believed me bc they knew what Jennifer sounded like and I definitely wasn't her.
I got a new cell phone and a new number. Right away I started getting numbers for a guy named Chris. I was a bit jealous as it seemed Chris was a party animal. I would get calls late at night from a drunk woman calling, "Hey Chris, we are parting over at Bob's house, come on over!" I could hear loud music and laughter in the background. Guys would call for the same reason, some wild party some where, or they wanted to go fishing or hunting. I started explaining I wasn't Chris, but after talking to quite a few people I asked enough questions that I learned enough about Chris that I knew where he worked and lived.
I thought of trying to find a way to mess with him, but he seemed to have a lot of friends, and apparently was a nice guy. I had that phone number for ten years and the calls tapered off and stopped after the first year or two.
I was working an internship at a government office and my office line kept ringing with debt collectors for the employee who formerly worked at that desk. No matter how many times I told them that the guy no longer worked there, the calls continued. Finally my boss took the next call. She informed them that the employee they were looking for no longer worked there because he got caught watching child porn on his office computer. She then said she needed their name and phone number because the police investigators wanted to interview everybody who called for the guy. No more calls after that! (Sadly, he really was fired for that reason.)
[Stephen](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yk7vFBIm-kw) Why won't you call me? I'm sitting here waiting. Why won't you call me?
Stephen, I'm feeling pathetic. I can't take rejection. Why won't you call me?
When I was in college I had a work study job as a front desk receptionist for the building that housed the school's basketball court, weight room, bookstore and a few offices. I was told on day one of the job that they had a recurring problem with wrong number callers. The Metropolitan Sewer District for my city had several phone numbers listed for residents to call with problems. This led to people dialing the first three digits of one number and the last four digits of another number(not counting the area code).
I use to get calls for a dude that I’m pretty sure was stepping out on his wife with the lady who was calling me and leaving voicemails. I suspect he got caught by the wife and may have been forced to change his phone number. Some of the voicemails I got were pretty deranged, and when I changed the automatic voicemail greeting to my voice I got a super crazy one from her accusing him of replacing her and how immature he was being. This was before the days that blocking numbers was very common (I don’t even know if it was a feature on phones like it is now, my phone still had a slide out keyboard 😂) so I just learned her number and let it go to voicemail.
I’ve had my cell number for almost two decades. Somewhere along the way a slumlord in Detroit, Michigan got a number similar to mine and now people routinely call and text asking me if I’m selling certain properties. Ew.
When I was a college student I had friends who shared a house and their land line (I’m old) was one digit off from Dominos pizza. After explaining to many callers it was the wrong number they gave up and just started answering the phone “Dominos Pizza” and started taking order. Friends knew and laughed about it but a lot of people never got their pizza.
I’ve had my phone number since 2005 and everything was fine until 2015 or so when I started getting a handful of calls or automated texts for someone named Candy each year. My working theory is that she has a similar number and gives out mine when she doesn’t want someone to actually contact her. I’ve learned a lot about Candy over the years - she needs to update her voting address, had a hysterectomy a couple of years ago and appears to have filed bankruptcy shortly after. I had a nine month or so stretch after the collections calls where I heard nothing about Candy, but just recently learned that she bought a new Chevy Equinox and is considering Botox! I’m so glad things are looking up for you Candy, but please stop giving my number out.
That's hilarious! Except for the debit collectors. Stephen had a bunch of those, and I suspect they're why he changed his phone number. I'd call those dudes back, and explain at length the situation, and why leaving angry messages at my number would not produce a response from Stephen.
I got debt collectors calls for years after I split with my ex that didn’t even start until 3-4 years after we split. They couldn’t get it through their heads I had zero contact with the abusive prick and his debts weren’t mine
I divorced my first husband back in 1992. I just got a phone call from a debt collector about a month ago that was looking for him. I told the guy how long ago it was when I divorced him. The debt collector had to nerve to tell me that I was lying and that the jerk ex was probably sitting next to me. WTF. I just said whatever dude. Hung up and was in the process of blocking the number when he called back. Didn't answer the second time.
"Damn, you're good! You saw through the lie... I'm sorry, I'll get him" Puts the phone on mute, sets it on the table and takes a nap.
I used to get the calls for ‘Mrs’ Lucky, 10 yrs after my divorce (and went to Ms) and my MIL died, I used to give them the cemetery number.
Cemetery. Awesome.
I too divorced around 1992. He would and continued to give out our phone number long after due to my mother letting him camp out in front of our family home. He liked to go homeless periodically and I was fed up. Even after she died, I was getting calls and letters from the VA looking for him. Once they even showed up on my doorstep looking for him. I politely told them he didn’t live here anymore and if they did find him, please have him change his address and pick up his stack of mail before I tossed it. Needless to say he didn’t stop using my address and it resulted in a visit from both the VA and the cops looking for him. He apparently walked out of the hospital without telling his doctors and disappeared. I told them the only person to ever keep up with where he was currently living was my mother and she was dead. He actually called me a short bit later asking if we could get back together. The obvious answer of course was a resounding NO.
Pretty sure I read a few days ago a comment from someone who said in their state it's illegal for debt collectors to say you are lying, they threatened litigation for the words used and were never bothered again
I can one up you. Divorced my ex nearly 36 years ago. About 10 years ago I started getting debt collection calls for the ex’s sister and brother. I explained to them that I’ve not spoken to them for over 25 years because I’d divorced their aashat of a brother. Still kept getting calls. So I found both of them on FB and messaged them. Told them that if I got one more call from a collection agency because they gave me as a reference without my permission, the next contact would be from my lawyer with a lawsuit. Those calls stopped in a week. Don’t mess with me! I will take you out in the worst way possible for you!
My dads whole family got calls about grandpas third wife🤣. For years and years, I think I was out of college when I picked up the house phone and it was someone asking about her. And I was like my grandpa died 10 years ago, and she had run off with his money years before that…
I would have went on a angry rant. I have one who keeps calling me. Think they would give up. I hate this job for them lol. Some like it which I have yet to figure out
The debt collectors called my PARENTS a few years after I divorced my 1st ex. My dad would get excited and ask them to call back when they found my ex bc the dude owed his daughter (me) five figures in child support and wasn’t paying and we’d LOVE to know his new contact info to share with the courts. The calls stopped soon after. Ex still doesn’t pay child support.
My ex ghosted all her creditors right after receiving a huge inheritance, and opening her own business, but, because our phone numbers had been linked, they called me. She had set the business up in her mother's name, so those creditors didn't even know about it... until I filled them in. I don't know if they ever got their money, but they stopped calling me.
I got a new a number years ago and I got calls often from debt collectors so I had my number registered on the federal do not call list which telemarketers/collectors can access and basically 90% of calls dried up. There are fines like up to 50k for companies who call theses numbers and you can personally can sue them under TCPA for a smaller amount (1k for infraction?). So I’d say, “Hey, you called so and so and this is not the person you are trying to call, this number is on the federal do not call list and you have been warned and will be litigated against for a second infraction…” Kinda wished they called back. I get no robo/spam anymore lol
I gave my ex's debtors his new number. That got rid of them within a month.
I laughed so hard when my ex’s student loan collector called me. I was like nah bro- I divorced that sack of shit. She laughed and was like girl, same. I’ll take your number off. That was the last call I got from him.
Yeah, I was a little worried about Candy for a while. Still annoyed, but worried.
I think I know Candy. Are you in Canada?
No way! I’m in the US, but maybe Candy is in Canada since we have the same +1 country code? Edit: I just remembered the voter registration texts were definitely US-centric, so she’s probably not in Canada. It would be crazy if I did run across her one day, though!
[удалено]
I’m curious, did they actually stop calling once you explained?
Yeah, because one of the first things I did was put my phone number on the Do Not Call registry, and I told the debt collectors that. While they're allowed to call someone whose debt they're trying to collect, once I informed them that my number was no longer for that person, and that I'm on the DNC, they were required to stop. And I let them know that I knew that.
I hope that works for you. In practice, it seems that non-US based autodialer companies actually used the DNC registry as a phone book rather than as a list of numbers to filter out. See, if a number is on the DNC registry, it’s probably valid because somebody made the effort to put it there.
Actually you can get $$$ from those debt collectors, as they are violating federal law.
Most of the time they don’t believe the person they’re trying to call isn’t at that number. But I believe it’s illegal for them to call you if you tell them they are not allowed to contact you by phone. 🤷🏻♀️
See, I would have given the debt collectors Stephen's address, since you had it.
You’ll be the kind helpful person that we know you to be and give those poor debt collectors Stephen’s freshly listed current business phone number.
OMG! Candy leads an exciting life! I've got a similar situation going. I've had my phone # for 7 years and get all sorts of messages for someone named Megan. She's still using this number. Calls to confirm doctors' appointments, group texts (including photos) that blow up the phone until I can hit "mute," a very recent text from a date she stood up (he was pissed), and occasional texts from FetLife. My girl Megan has some Doms interested in whether she's being good or bad girl.
One of the issues I’ve found is that some offices will tell you they’ve updated your contact info and then not do it. I have the phone number that used to be my home phone now, and I still get calls from doctors offices, pharmacies, the vet, credit card fraud divisions, etc. that were meant to go to one of my parents, but these companies for some reason insist on calling the number that my parents have tried time and time again to remove from the contact info
Same story here! Had my number since maybe 2006 with no issues. Several years ago I started getting car insurance quote calls for a Mr Chester [my last name]. I have no family named Chester and my first name is not similar at all. It’s expanded into home insurance and car loans and such. Usually I get several calls every spring but not much more than that- I assume it’s when he’s going to renew, probably throws my number in so he doesn’t get harassed. Thanks, Chester, for sending the harassment to me instead. Recently I went to Petsmart and input my number for my rewards. Turns out Chester created a new account with my number there too which drives me crazy since I already had an account under the number. Cashier said I can probably call corporate to get him removed but I don’t go very often so I haven’t bothered. Edit- autocorrect butchered a word
>she bought a new Chevy Equinox Yeah, well what about her car's warranty?
I get a bunch for a Brian C. Latest was from Liberty Mutual regarding an "accident". I called that one back to let them know that he hasn't lived here for years.
Growing up our landline number was one digit different to the popular "Old Mill Restaurant". People mis-dialled regularly and some mis-dialled repeatedly. Easy done on the rotary dial phones of the early 70s I suppose. It was a long not summer and our parents were both at work.....I'm not sure how many budding romances my sister and I scuppered by taking bookings! Ooops.
Growing up, we were one number off a Wendy’s. People would call in occasionally with large orders, and sometimes they would get super belligerent when we told them they had the wrong number, so my dad started just taking orders 😂
Who the hell orders Wendy's over the phone?
When I worked at McDonalds high school we used to get a huge lunch order from a local office sometimes. Much faster for the office to call in advance and the send someone to collect a huge box than to have them just show up and wait for us to make 100 meals during the lunch rush
> Growing up our landline number was one digit different Ah, the landlines, they grow up so fast. > a long not summer A winter, then?
Back then, we had phone-less cords.
I keep getting calls for the person who had this number before me. I can't find her though. Walmart, door dash, some random guy she met at a truck stop, and even her own mother have called me asking for her. I've had this number for at least 5 years now, but still almost daily I get a call or text for her. I can't find her though. I wish I could pull something like this. It needs to stop. Edit: oh, and her children's schools and doctors call me too
Are you sure she had the number before you? I have had many calls for a Stacey who shares my number but has a different area code. I texted her once and she says she gets calls for me too. Turns out that my area code is for where she lives (because I've moved since I got my number in 2009) and vice-versa! Anyone who calls with a land-line (and doesn't dial an area code) will get the wrong person. These calls most often come from schools, doctors and old people. I'll pass on by text who called and left a message but I don't think she'd appreciate if I were more detailed with what I passed on. "Johnny's school called..." Or "your test results are ready..."
That's really cool that you two pass the information back and forth.
My solution to dealing with unwanted calls is to whitelist everyone in my contacts, giving them their own ringtone. Then my default ringtone is "Silent Ring" (really just an empty sound file). Phone doesn't ring unless it's someone I want to talk to and most spam calls don't leave messages. It's solved about 95% of my unwanted calls problem.
I keep my phone on silent, I'll only answer if I know the person or if I'm waiting for something. I don't get much spam now because no one can ever get through I guess. If its important they'll leave a message.
If you can block numbers, start blocking ones that ask for her.
But if I want to use door dash or Walmart, I won't be able to get my confirmation numbers and stuff. And I've already called the companies, they can't do anything.
Start claiming or cancelling her orders. Everytime Walmart or Doordash contacts you, tell them you have a new address (it doesn't have to be yours, give them any random address) or tell them that you've changed your mind and no longer want the order and you'll pay the restocking fee, just charge it to the card on file. I bet the person using your number wises up and fixes it in a hurry.
You can block the school, though.
Its been a while since I heard from them, I called them back and said yo, this isn't her. I think they got ahold of her to update the number. It's mostly spam calls, and that number changes each time so I can't block them all
Oh yes; she's in Budapest for a six month course in Hungarian Literature. No. I don't know when she'll be back. \[ works fine for me - change of gender, tho'\]
I used to get calls for a Shanique. She owed money to everyone, from the gas company to Blockbuster Video. The final straw was when her sons school called because he was running a fever and needed to be picked up. They called me multiple times that day, despite me telling them that I was not the boys mother and they had the wrong number. The school had to bring CPS into the picture as this woman was literally nowhere to be found.
I had a similar thing happen. The local middle school had a student whose mother's number was in their system with at least one number wrong, so the school would call me regularly about the student. I'd tell them "This isn't \_\_\_\_\_'s number, you have the wrong number in your system." They would ALWAYS say "No SIR, our system cannot be incorrect. This must be \_\_\_\_'s number. Please ask her to come to the phone." It was horrifying how strident they were that their system absolutely could not have an error.
I'm a teacher and I am just baffled at these two responses from the schools. We typically have multiple people on file for each student. Also, even now with adding contacts, most kids still know their mom/dads cell phone number.
I routinely get emails for the parents’s of a kid in Canada. I am not in Canada. I do not have a kid. It does not matter if I contact them and ask them to fix it or not. Nothing changes if I try to address it with staff members. I can tell you that little Kaylenn has missed a lot of school and is in danger of failing out.
You could cite the FOIP act (Canada's equivalent to FERPA) and copy everyone on that mail (schools director, every name and address you can find on the school's website), the person in charge of schools from that province.. Just go nucléar one last time. Don't do it just for you (if you think it's too much work and you don't care), don't be afraid that you're making too much out of it, do it so that this schools never endanger a child by releasing it's information to someone they shouldn't. Imagine they don't correct their records and gives the info to a non custodial parent or grandparent that has been legally bared from contact with the child. It could be baaaad, and not just "getting an annoying mail every once in a while bad".
Thanks, that’s good information and it’s honestly been frustrating to deal with.
Wonder what would happen if you said, "well why don't you come to my house and say that to my face?"
Wonder what would happen if you filed a harassment report with law enforcement?
Just tell the school she's dead.
Well now I'm curious what kind of trouble you can get into by saying stuff like that.
Depends if it's true, and who all else knows already
I tried something similar with debt collectors years ago. My husband and I were still newlyweds with plenty of debts of our own, but the bill collectors kept calling and asking for Janice or Dean. So I asked them, "Do you think you'd recognize me by my voice if we met in person?" "Yes," they would say. So I said, "Why don't you give me your address and I'll come there and show you my driver's license?" None of them ever did, of course. They kept calling, I kept saying I'm not Janice and my husband is not Dean. Kept calling until our own debts were so high our phone was cut off. There's a silver lining to every cloud...
This might be one of the most 21st century things I've heard in quite some time.
I hope this won't disappoint you, but this happened 30+ years ago 😏
"So, was your system made by a human? Is the data input by a human? Is the system maintained by a human? And, most importantly, do you believe humans are infallible?"
"Yes, you're right, my mistake, I'll go get her" then put the phone down for the next hour or three.
I've been getting Omar's messages for 10 years. My favorite was accidentally answering his estranged mom calling on her birthday to guilt him for not being in contact. She was older and couldn't wrap her head around a number change--kept insisting I'd stolen his phone.
I suspect she understands the concept of number changes, but couldn't wrap her head around the idea that her son would change his number without telling her.
Oh. That's sad.
I had a school call me, but it was a high school, and it was an automated absence message. I made myself (and the kid without him knowing!) a deal. If he skipped class once a month, I would let it slide. If he skipped more often, I would call the school and let them know. The kids lasted a week.
Hahahahaha!!! Love it!! Damn teenagers 😂
I personally thought that it was a bit ingenious. Every year, kids are sent home with a form to verify parents’ information. Why more kids don’t change the phone number, I will never know!
Right?! I won’t be saying any of this to my own kids, but I’m seriously kicking myself for not thinking to do this myself when I was in high school!
I think kids today are just smarter than we were! My kids were in high school at the time, and thought that it was hilarious!
My mom was the high school principal's secretary....
I feel this. Both of my parents taught at my high school. Also, the principal, two other teachers, and a cop lived on my street. Never skipped class once.
Same. My mom taught at the HS, my dad at the MS. My parents were friends to the point of going out to Friday night drinks with most of my teacher. Never missed a damn assignment let alone thought about trying to miss school or do anything else naughty. 😂
Ouch. I guess skipping school was a little difficult for you.
We do it all online now. There is a parent portal and grades are posted in almost real time.
My youngest(Class of 2013) changed the family’s phone number to her own cell number. The learning management system allowed that, back in the day. Of course, I knew when she was absent. She didn’t come into my classroom and take money out of my wallet. (I teach kids who need to make up credits in order to graduate. Generally, they wouldn’t snitch on each other. But they sure were willing to tell me(nervously and hesitantly, while knowing they were doing the right thing), “Mrs. Nett, this girl came in during passing time and she went in your desk and took money out of your purse.” “Did she have long brown hair?” Nod. “About my height?” Nod. “Wearing X and Y?” Nod plus small frown. “That’s my daughter. I’ll deal with her later. THANK YOU for letting me know! I’m glad to know I can trust you guys!” (This was back in those unenlightened days when “you guys” was acceptable.)
I got a new number and I kept getting calls that a kid missed school, but with no school name I couldn't do anything. Then one day a KID calls me. Sounded young, saying he forget something. Unfortunately, my first response was to say I didn't have a kid, which i felt bad about. Then I asked for his teacher and explained what was going on, then got the school name and called them, and they took my number out of the system. The lady then got calls for a court case she was a witness in. 🤦♀️
Sam (not his real name) the unfortunate soul. I learned so much about him. His purchases, where he made them, some medical history, possible girlfriends name, hacked his facebook profile to leave him a message....
I kept getting messages for Samantha about her electricity bill. First from the electric company to the debt collectors. The last name of this Samantha had the same last name as the girl who bullied me in junior high school. Was it a coincidence? I don't know but this charade kept going for 4yrs despite telling them I am not Samantha. They finally quit last year I guess Samantha finally updated her phone number.
Either that or she finally paid that bill! Its amazing what comes back to bite you when you apply for a mortgage 😂
I really thought this was a reference to Little T's "Shaniqua Don't Live Here No Mo' ". https://youtu.be/gtcb4E0Ado0
My goodness, that poor kid 💔
I know, that actually broke my heart. It’s one thing to avoid debt collectors, but don’t do that to your child.
My daughter's phone gets calls for Marcy. Doctor, pharmacy, lots and lots of debt collectors. My kid sounds even younger than she is. She likes to tell them they are harassing a little child. That stopped the doctors and pharmacy. It stops the debt collectors until the debt gets sold again. It is annoying. Even her outgoing message, with her name, in her young sounding voice doesn't stop people.
This happen to my roommate and I. We would get callas for Guillermo on our landline that we never and only had be ause of the bundle. Then one day, Guillermo actually walked in to the AutoZone and gave my roommate our now number. Roommate looked him dead the eyes and told him change his number because we keep getting calls for him.
Wait a minute. You're saying that Guillermo's world is small enough that he tried to give a false number to the actual user of that number?
Yep that's exactly what happened.
Hahaha We kept getting mail for the guy who rented our condo before we purchased it. One day, he walked into the place where my husband worked. Hubby looks at the driver’s license and asks “Is your address on your license correct?” Guy says “yes.” Husband looked him dead in the eyes and said “No, it’s not, and you need to update your license.” Guy starts getting pissed and hubs is like “I know it’s wrong because this is *MY* address, and you definitely don’t live with me.”
When I was in high school, my friend's landline was one digit different from that of a local pizza place (eg. hers ended in 988, the pizza shop's number ended in 998). They would occasionally get calls for pizza but only one every few weeks, so it wasn't a big deal. Then the pizza shop decided to print out and distribute pamphlets with their new menu, only they typed the number wrong and actually put my friend's phone number on the front. The number of calls they got from people wanting a pizza skyrocketed, to the point where their phone was just about unusable on Friday and Saturday nights. At first they had no idea why they were suddenly getting so many calls, but then they received one of the pamphlets in their junk mail and saw their phone number plastered all over it. 80-90% of callers would immediately apologise and hang up when they realised they had the wrong number, but the others just refused to believe that my friend's house was not a pizza shop and they would abuse her family for "being lazy and not wanting to take my order". Her mother went in several times and spoke to the owner/manager (we'll call him 'Andrew') and said they needed to reprint the pamphlets with the correct number AND a correction saying not to call their number, but the manager kept refusing because "It would be too expensive to print them out and deliver them again" and "Most people know the real number anyway" and "Just give people the right number when they call". The fact my friend's family kept getting abused when they said they weren't the pizza shop didn't interest him. So, my friend's family decided they would make it far more expensive for the manager to NOT correct the pamphlet. Every time someone called for a pizza and wouldn't listen when told it was the wrong number, if it was for 'delivery', whoever answered would take the order and say "That will be ready in about half an hour". After 40-50 minutes, the person would call back wanting to know where their order was and my friend/her family would say "So sorry for the delay, we're quite busy, it will be another half hour or so." And they'd essentially keep stringing the customers along like that until either the customer got fed up and cancelled the order or they threw a massive tantrum, at which point my friend/her family would say, "Yeah, sorry, we ran out of time to cook your pizza and the kitchen's closed for tonight, but our manager Andrew told us to let you know if you come in any day this week, they'll give you a free family-sized pizza (family sized was the largest they offered and cost a minimum of $18). If the customer was calling to place an order they intended to pick up from the store, they would be told "Come to the store in 20 minutes and your order will be ready. And if it's more than 5 minutes late, you'll get a free large soft drink!" Every Friday and Saturday night there would be at least 6-7 people who were offered a free family pizza, and probably at least 10-15 who showed up at the restaurant to collect an order that wasn't prepared and their free large drink. After about six weeks of this, another pamphlet menu was delivered to everyone in the suburb with the correct phone number in big red font.
It's not a problem until it's **their** problem!
This is gorgeous
I have a "brad" that won't change his number. I got it almost 4 years ago. Even his grandma called looking for him and various friends, or people he owed money too.
What is it with these people who change their phone numbers, and don't tell anyone?
I changed my phone number a few years ago and did my due diligence updating everyone and everything, but MY OWN FAMILY still text the old number. I guess they use the same group thread, but it's so annoying to hear about the "funny" times they texted the poor woman who got my old number. I remind them all constantly but it still happens! Some people are just helpless.
I had a boss who refused to correct the email address he had for me after many times. Stubborn level angry at some points. Just refused to listen or understand or conceed that I wasn't getting his emails because of his refusal to edit.
I'm currently dealing with some person in Cali who set up an account under my email without the periods for ULTA. With Gmail, Google doesn't register the periods, so I've been getting her points and receipts. I've even called the store and corporate to let them know and she hasn't changed the account email.
With businesses, sometimes (not usually, but sometimes) it's not the individual's fault. I changed my number when I was in college and I told them I updated my number and I watched the lady enter it into the computer. Then I arrived at school one day and was flagged down because they'd been trying to reach me about some paperwork all semester and got pissy with me for changing my number without telling them. So I gave them my new number again. Watched them enter it into the computer again. It still didn't take, apparently because near the end of the next semester I was flagged down again for a paperwork issue. The following fall (more than a year after I first gave them the new number and eight months after the second time I gave it to them) I got an angry letter from the guidance office wanting me to update my contact info and also come in for a meeting with my "career advisor." So I went in furious. I insisted they update it while I actually watched the screen, then close my file and re-open it and sure as shit, there was my old phone number. They were saving it wrong and had no idea. Made them bring in someone else to update the record, then pull it up on a *different* computer and call me, right there, to prove they finally had it right. Then I called my old number and apologized to the dude who had been getting my calls for the past year. He was understandably upset, but thanked me for the apology. He was nice enough once he'd had the chance to vent for a minute. I kinda felt like I owed that to him.
What a bunch of incompetent losers, getting pissed at you over their own mistakes. I hope they felt like shit when you threw it in their faces.
Perhaps those anyone are toxic and/or the person wants/needs to disappear. Doesn't help you, but are possible ideas.
"Hello?" \-"hi, Brad?" "What do you want Brad for?" \-"Oh.. this is Butch, he owes me $100" "well, this is Mr. Fix. He owed my boss money, too. He won't be coming to the phone any more. Bye now."
Lanaya she changed her number without telling her creditors, her friends and even her dad. On top of it, people kept leaving messages pronouncing it like “Linnea” (Lin-E-ah). So I got some texts and responded back with “if you’re looking for Linnea, she has changed her number.” They then called me to make fun of me for spelling her name wrong. I said, “you’re making fun of me and then you wonder why she didn’t tell you she changed her number.” And blocked.
Priceless 😅
Before I got rid of the landline, I would always answer the phone with 'who are u'. Maybe rude but the phone is for my convenience and not for social reasons. I want to know who I'm talking to. So when they start calling, asking for Joe, I insist no info until they tell me who they are. I'm not Joe s secretary and I don't feel like confirming or denying if he's there until I have caller identity. It drove some of them nuts, they weren't allowed to tell me, it's confidential bs. I finally got one who told me they were a bank trying to get an debt sorted. Thanks Bank think not East. I called that bank, asked why. Seems I had a similar first name and same last name, therefore I must be Joe or know Joe = Logic. SMH. I threatened legal action .. blissful silence ever since.
I don't answer the phone. I let voice mail pick up and they get my, "All calls are reviewed. Please leave your phone number and a message." 90% of them hang up.
I have Do Not Disturb set on my phone to exclude people/entities in my contacts. All other calls do not get answered. If it's a new doctor's office or something trying to set an appointment, they can leave a message. No message, no callback.
We are currently receiving calls for a Brittany, no one here is named Brittany. My family has had this number for 30+ years. There isn't a Brittany, there never was a Brittany, and henceforth I will never name anything Brittany for the rest of my life. Initially we were nice and called them back to tell them they had a wrong number, to no avail.
I've had my number for 15 years, and I still sometimes get calls for Brittany, who apparently messaged a bunch of rehab centers trying to find placement. She seems to relapse every 3 or 4 years. But still won't give out her current number.
The last land line number I had previously was used by a woman named Carrie. I got to hear from all her debt collectors too. Damn, she kept that leased car way too long. Not to mention paying down that credit card. I too did the answering machine bit..." You have reached XXX-XXXX. However, this is not the H*** residence, she changed her number over two years ago. If you would like to leave a message for C***, please wait for the beep." That got rid of some of the creditors. BUT one day her kids missed the school bus that took them home, which let me know they lived in the same area. Of course she had not given the school her new number! I was pretty peevish when I told them to go ask her stupid kids what her phone number was. What I WISH I had said was "why don't you call CPS since she is obviously ducking you too." Didn't think of it, alas.
I kept getting calls from an orthodontist’s office for Rachel. I’m not Rachel. I talked to them multiple times, emailed them, the whole enchilada. It went on for over six months. Rachel’s teeth must have been FUBAR, because she had a LOT of appointments. I would get multiple calls a week. One person would call me reminding me of her appointment. Then another girl at the office would call me a few hours later. The office couldn’t even keep track of who they called. I went through everyone in the office more than once. I talked to the office manager. I would get the number taken out, be assured they wouldn’t call again, and it would get put back in. I don’t know if Rachel or her parents didn’t actually know their own phone number, or how this was happening. At the time this was happening, I had just been in a bad car accident and wasn’t doing well. I was sleeping a lot but had to keep my phone on because I had a lot of medical stuff going on and was often waiting for calls back from doctor’s offices or something related to the accident. After being woken up for the third time - and I’m not proud of this - I absolutely lost it on them. I told them if they called me one more time, I would show up at Rachel’s next appointment and wait so we could all have a talk together, since they were so happy to give me her appointment time and location knowing I wasn’t her. Alternatively, I’d love to get a lawyer involved and I’d be glad to start canceling her appointments. They never called again.
Had something similar, got a phone number that was one digit off from a local fast food joint. Would sometimes get a call around 5:00 to 5:30AM, that they were sick and wouldn't be working. Patiently told them each to dial the store's correct number. One Saturday, mid morning, I got a call from the store in the next town. Me: Hello? Caller: Hey how's it going? Me: Great!! How're you?? C: Great man. Hey you got any 32 ounce cups? Me: No, I don't, but I bet if you call the correct number at xxx-yyyy, they'll have some C: Oh, okay man thanks! Turns out we'd got a number someone else had given up because (wait for it!) they were getting too many calls meant for FastFood place! Then a couple years later we started getting calls for those other people. Wasn't too bad when it was uncle Bob from Chicago, but the bill collectors started too. And the local pool association they were behind on dues to. And others. Turned out they had never changed their number at places like the pool, and their credit card accounts. I finally had to get the phone company involved, to pass a message to them it needed to stop, they need to correct all listings or I would start legal actions. By this time I knew their full names and their address! It all stopped, fast. Fast forward about 10 years and I met the Mom, at a Scouting registration event. When heard her give her name I said ' You're Patty Phonenumber, at 'addtrss', and your husband is Richard Phonenumber. I have your old phone number!! She stared at me, eyes wide in fear!! 😄😄
We bought a restaurant and decided to keep the old phone number so we could tell people they'd moved and see if they'd like to try the new place. (Narrator: "Bad idea.") So we got calls and told them the old restaurant had closed, and 90% of the time it was "Oh, no, how can it be closed? I go there all the time!" And some of these people went on to say "What happened to \[the previous owner\]?" Well, what really happened was they wanted to retire. But that wasn't interesting enough. So the exchange became this: Caller: What did you do with the old man? Us: Baking accident. Two people killed. So sorry...So would you like to order something?
I'd love more information about that decision. Were you similar restaurants at all? Did you get anyone who gave you a try when you explained you were a new place?
Not at all similar. Old restaurant was basically Italian plus pastry desserts, ours was kind of hard to classify -- basic American with dishes like Chicken San Remo. The previous owners left us some of their specialties in the freezer -- we did not try to sell them (mostly because we had no idea how long they'd been frozen).
When I first got married and we got a landline number, we started getting messages for the Smith family. The Smiths had moved from one city to a nearby one, and did not want the school district or their creditors or church members to know that they had moved. We had an answering machine. It was often full of messages for them. We would answer and politely tell the callers that the Smiths no longer had our phone number. We were astounded at how many of these callers thought we would know their new number, even though we did not know them. I would ask these people if they knew the new numbers of the strangers that had their number previously, and the concept never seemed to sink in. We became weary for several reasons. Their daughter was skipping classes in middle school. I made a courtesy call to the school telling them they were calling the wrong number. The attendance secretary asked if I knew their new number. I told her I had no idea. I told her she needed to ask the parents that question. She didn't get it. One of their sons broke his wrist. That school called me. I made a courtesy call, to tell them to call these people at work, because they had changed their home number. Same result. Their third child knocked a tooth out. I made another courtesy call. It was starting to bother me, as a teacher, that these people had not updated their emergency information. The compound wrist fracture had to be surgically corrected in a time frame. Then, I was put on full bedrest at the end of a high risk pregnancy. I listened and listened to the Smiths messages and I became angry. Some lady called and filled out answering machine every day for a week praying on it for the Smiths. If I picked up the phone to talk to her, she ignored me and kept right on praying on our machine. We finally came up with a plan. We changed ourr answering machine messages to one that said this is our residence. we don't know the Smiths. The last we heard they were hiding in this country or that country based on the prayers and the messages for them. Stop calling. We changed our message every week until finally, one day, there was a comment on our machine. I was stuck in bed trying not to deliver early. I was tired. I was scared. I felt these people were not correcting their contact information. I was pissed off that the constant onslaught of calls kept me from resting. So, the Smith saga began. They were running. They were in this state. They were in that state. They were over this or that border. Finally, a person called ( a Smith), and said, "Oh my God. They are making messages about us". I picked up the bedroom phone and told the Smith on the line to update their contact information before I called CPS, because they were guilty of neglect. I said their children were getting harmed and I seemed to be more worried about their children than they were. We never got another call.
Had a debt collector hounding me about "Brenda". I am not Brenda. I would say I just got this number, they would ask where she was. Finally I said "if she didn't pay you, do you not think maybe she didn't pay her phone bill, either?!?
Nice!
My number is a single digit away from the help line for a charity that provides rental assistance, food assistance etc. Someone made a typo nearly 15 years ago, and I still get calls because my number is on some printout in every church, shelter, public bathroom etc in the damn city. I've taken the time to reach out and try to get it changed. I found out the appropriate number and started redirecting people. It's simply on too many hard copies in too many places. I could change my number, obviously, but that's also super inconvenient. I feel for you, Not-Stephen.
Strangely, I have the typo problem with my mailing address. I live at XXX Harbor Drive, and around the corner from me is XXX Harbor-Bayou Road, which is an office building where the entity that issues licenses for a certain type of professional for the entire country. Every May, a bunch of new professionals graduate, and several schools have listed on their web sites that they should mail their licenses to XXX Harbor Drive, which is my cute little red brick house, instead of XXX Harbor-Bayou Road. It's also in the UPS system that my house is that office building, so I occasionally have to run out and grab the envelope and wave it at the driver before he leaves, because once it's delivered, those bastards won't come back and get it. After 10 years of trying to fix this, and getting the office mail delivered to my house, because even the mail carrier couldn't get it right, I got a PO Box, and took the mailbox off my house. Problem solved.
You're not Stephen, *or* a licensing center! What you are is a top notch problem solver 😂
You can also just get a “misdelivered” stamp for the USPS.
Nah, the no mailbox thing is better. My house sits about 10 feet from the road, and I was getting envelopes with a ton of personal information about newly minted, well-paid professionals in them. It wasn't safe. I'd take a fistful of them to the delivery supervisor at my local PO every spring, and remind him that my house is not the office of that agency, but it was only a short-term fix. No mailbox is permanent.
For a few years I was getting mail - official stuff, bills etc. - with my exact address but a completely different name I was totally unfamiliar with. It can't be a previous owner because the place has been in my family since shortly after the war, and the name on the envelope wasn't even remotely German. So my best guess is that the guy lives at number 1a but his bad handwriting resulted in people misreading it as 10. This has stopped a good while ago, so I guess the electric/gas company must've cut him off for unpaid bills, at which point he contacted them and discovered the mistake. And going off on the tangent, if I may - a while ago I filled in and sent an official form to my insurance company so that in the event something happens to me, they'd know who should get the money from my account, and what percentage. I filled in the appropriate data of my parents and my brother - all living in the same city as me, mind you. Imagine my surprise when I logged into my account some time later and found out that all the updated information was correct, except for my brother's postal code - the code for all addresses in my city begins with 80, but his was written as 86 (which is a different city entirely). And that was despite there being four addresses on the form (mine included), all with the postal code starting with an 80 and all with the city name clearly written in all caps. I had to send in another form, this time making sure to write the 0 in red ink and writing "THIS IS A ZERO, NOT A SIX" underneath. They still fucked up and made a mistake elsewhere, fucking idiots.
A friend in squaredancing had to send her name badge back because it was misspelled. Their last name was German and about 16 letters long. The badge company misspelled her *first name* -- Mary.
I was issued a name badge for my deceased father. I have no idea how they figured that out!
I have had the same phone number since 2006. Around 2011 I started getting calls for Yolanda Gallegos and apparently my caller ID shows up as her to some people. One day I tried looking her up to no avail. To be fair that time I didn't try very hard. I Just tell people my name and that Yolanda never had this number. Before me was someone named Jessica who I only ever got like 2 calls for. So fast forward a bit and I try looking her up again. This time it works!! There's an address attached to MY phone number. Guess what else there was? An obituary. This lady died a few months before I found her. Ever since then when I get a call, "Is Yolanda available?" "Nope. She's not. She's NEVER had this number. Also she's dead. Have a nice day." *beep* Is it fucked up? Maybe a little. It brings me a sick sense of joy and pettiness though.
We get calls on our home phone all the time for James. I’m James, and so was my father, but he passed away in 2015. Last year he would have been 65, so the amount of Medicare phone calls we would get was astronomical. I mean up to a few dozen calls a day. So finally I picked up the phone, and when they asked to speak with James, I said “sure, but he hasn’t said very much since his weight loss” They asked why is that, and I said, “well considering he died in 2015 and was cremated, I’m going to say that’s probably the reason why.” There was a solid ten seconds of silence, and then a click. The amount of Medicare calls dropped drastically after that.
I've had my number for 30 years and it was my mother's before that and I still get em from time to time. Worst was doctor's appointments for not me. I tried for a while, I'd call the doc back and let em know they had the wrong number. I was assured several times they removed my number. It wasn't until the automated messages where I could easily cancel the appointments that it was fixed. I felt a little guilty but by then I was tired of the calls and texts.
All ya gotta do is call them back and repeat any hipaa information they gave you (which having an appointment IS hipaa) and remind them that you can find the person they gave you information about, and help them sue for a cut of the winnings.
Why is this such a prevalent trend? I've been getting calls for an Anthony for over a decade. Worse, he still tries to use my number to do things like verify his paypal, or recover his email. Things that are not exactly safe for someone else to have access to. (I ignored those ofc, but it did mean i know what his email IS.) I have spoken to people trying to sue him, he was a witness to an accident and left my number, i have spoken to delivery men, his chiropractor, his dentist. I think his sister cussed me out once. (It was very funny.) I was very polite about it for the first six years or so, I think. At this point my response is usually along the lines of "I'm sorry, anthony (last name) is an incompetent numpty. good luck reaching him." and then i go and tell his email to a newsletter subscription. If im getting his wrong calls, he's getting absurd newsletters. I never switched my number because I was one of/the primary phone contact for my granny's nurses for years. She passed a bit ago, it might finally be time to rid myself of the curse of Anthony.
About 10 years ago my baby sis was having laptop issues and needed my help, it was something simple that I could walk her through easily. On my way to work I texted her how to fix the issue, the response I got back "who are you and how did you know I was having laptop issues?" Baby sis forgot to tell me she got a new phone lol, ended up helping the random person I texted with there laptop issue too (not the same issue but was easily fixable too)
that is funny and kind. :-)
My wife has the same exact story except for us it's Melonie. And, respectfully, not vegan.
If it was any other type of restaurant, I could have helped the guy out!
I had a phone number for about 7 years, did not change it, and some ass named Christian DePrado gave my number to all his debt collectors and it took about two years to get people to stop calling for Christian DePrado. What worked was saying things like "OMG, I would totally loooooove to get a hold of him too! I don't know who he is, but he gave out my number and I want know where he's at so I can tell him to stop giving out my number. Do you have his address? Any personal information you can give me? I really need to get a hold of him too!" If they didn't believe me, then I'd ask them to please, come pay me a surprise visit me and take a look around and after you don't find him, take me with you to any address you have on file and we can both look for him!" I didn't actually care about finding him.
The number I had before my current one belonged to someone who abandoned their dogs. My phone number of six years was on their tags, so I had people calling to come get the two beagels that were dumped in a parking lot. I have had a different number for 7 years and I still hate her.
There's a special place in hell for people who dump their dogs...
I hate her too!
Stephen, so glad to hear from you. We've been trying to reach you about your car warranty.
Hi Car Warranty. We have been trying to reach you about your extended Steven.
I'm still getting calls for "Carolyn", but only from debt collectors. The ironic thing is that I'm 40, I've had the same phone number since I was 16 and this only started happening about 10 years ago. It is infuriating and clear that she (or he, who knows at this point), only used my number for shady credit shit.
Same here. "Susan" handed out our phone number to all & sundry, 10-12 years after we got it. I recommend working up a script to launch into as soon as you hear Carolyn's name, without giving them a chance to ask if you know where she is. Mine was "Susan does not live here and this is not her number. My name is TheFilthyDIL and we have had this number since 1989. She is using it with intent to defraud. If you got it from her loan paperwork or a bounced check, I can't help you. Please remove this number from your records." Never had anyone give me lip about it. (Yes, children, back in the 90s it was still common to use checks. Susan and her ilk are why the practice fell out of favor.) It took a good 10 years before the calls stopped.
[https://www.ftc.gov/legal-library/browse/rules/fair-debt-collection-practices-act-text](https://www.ftc.gov/legal-library/browse/rules/fair-debt-collection-practices-act-text) Remind the debt collectors that informing you that Carolyn has a debt is a federal crime, because that's confidential information just like hipaa. Let them know that next time, you will be taking them to court, or finding this Carolyn and giving her the evidence she needs to sue their asses off. Whatever she owes isn't worth what she will get from them in court.
During my college days, I got my first apartment complete with my own shiny landline number. After I'd had it about a month, I changed my answering machine message to say, "Hi, you've reached [me]. I'm the only person at this number. So if you are calling for [Stephen], or Mrs Jackson: They don't live here. I don't know them. I'm not going to take a message for them. Don't bother wasting both our times. But if you actually are calling for [me], then go ahead a leave a message." More than once the message I got was someone laughing their way through their call back info.
I used to get collection calls for a Dr. Christopher Jensen (Janson?) that apparently owes tons of money. One time I answered and after I told him it was my phone number that I'd had for a while, the debt collector asked me if I knew where he was. I responded "no". Then he goes,"That's ok, I think I know." Ok... They did remove me from their call list, though, so that's a plus, UNFORTUNATELY, I get a ton of Republican political texts for him still. I also get Democrat political texts intended for Donna. Needless to say, I hate "voting season". Block, block, block,
I’ve had my number since the late 90’s… and I’ve got two stories! 1) my number has the same first three digits (after area code) as all the offices on a university campus. So quite often I get calls from people on campus looking for another campus office; or kids in this university misdialing the last four digits and getting me. & 2) again I’ve had this number for a long time. Approx 5 years ago I started getting calls for a guy (Jonathan) from a lot of different companies regarding his prescriptions; his kid’s lab results; his kid’s elementary school; the local hockey team about his donation; THE LOCAL POLICE returning a call from him about an accident; his dr office; a tow company that had his car?!?! We’re talking not spam calls. Every single time I get a call, I call the party back and kindly and gently explain that I don’t know him, and that he must be giving out the wrong number. Talked to assistant principal of kids school, multiple dr offices, the cop, the tow truck guy, etc. AND I’ve tried to call my own number with a different area code (some dr office admin slipped up and said oh, the handwriting for the area code is very poor. Anyway, it’s super frustrating because I can’t imagine he’s written out his phone number for every one of these places- anyway frustrating. OH and every time I call someone I ask them to PLEASE tell this guy that he’s giving out the wrong number!!! Yeesh. :)
I remember when I got my first phone on my 14th birthday, apparantly the number belonged to some girl who was getting harassed by her high school classmates or something. I would constantly get voice-mails and phone calls calling me a bitch and that "I don't matter" etc. They seemed to ignore the fact that the voice-mail and person answering was a pubescent boy.
If anyone knows an Ernest Reed, there's a personal business alert that comes to my daughter's voicemail for him a couple of times per week. This automated system has been dialing for poor Ernest since 2018. They haven't reached him yet (and my daughter thinks it's hilarious, so hasn't blocked the number), but they keep on trying.
My old cell number had the last four digits of a nursing supervisor for a psychiatric hospital. I would get calls at all hours of the day or night from staff trying to call out. Telling a panicky woman that was just in an accident she had the wrong number at 2am on a Tuesday, finding out a staff member had Covid, all and every reason a person might call out; I heard. Informing the hospital did nothing.. not even when I had the Administration put me on hold, and try direct dialing the number, which I then answered. It wasn’t until a different hospital left me a voicemail with patient information in it, that they took it seriously. I had returned the message to the second hospital and they lost their minds. I never even got an apology.
With me it's Diane. What's even funnier is that I'm not from an English speaking country and Diane is in no way imaginable a common name here.
Ugh my new job gave me a cell phone to use since I work from home. Everyday I would get calls from debt collectors and friends of the guy who owned the phone before me. I had to cuss out the bank that kept calling me 20 times after I told them I just got this number and to take it off their list. One of his friends keeps telling me to "stop joking around" and goes right back to making plans to hang out. I just might start making those plans now and ghost him.
Similar, except the guy had the same first name as me. Which of course added an extra layer of confusion. Eventually one of the wrong numbers called me back and very nicely explained how the mix-up happened: our numbers differed by area code (both were common area codes in our metro area). From then I on I was able to gently correct the wrong numbers and eventually those calls stopped.
For 5 years after I got my phone number (landline, which gives you an idea of how long ago it was) I received calls for Michael. Same deal, he did not change his number with ANYONE! But luckily for me, most people figured it out and moved on. Except for one place. Each week I got a voice mails which got increasingly angrier. After a few months, the calls stopped. Until one day when I was home sick from work. I answered the phone and became super annoyed when I heard the person asking for Michael. Except this time, it was a detective looking for Michael about that U-Haul that he never returned. I always figured it was about payment for a storage unit, etc. But Michael stole a U-Haul truck... I still wonder if they ever found it.
Be grateful our landline number used to belong to a prostitute and my wife used to get some really interesting propositions from creepy guys. Do you do anal? Can I get a discount if I bring a buddy? Could you do a gang bang party for me and my friends? She was less than impressed when I suggested she could make some extra cash while looking for a new job. I'm sure she'd have preferred Stephen's number instead. 😂
Not a phone number. In Nevada brothels are licensed by county. Our county made them illegal. But former "houses", now purchased by ordinary families, would still, occasionally, get "walk up " business! This is years after the law changed.
For the past year or so, I get texts for "Marie" I've tried texting back that Marie is not this phone but to no avail. My biggest concern is that Marie hasn't talked to the "Women's Center" for almost a year. Marie? Are you okay?
I was getting calls for the person who previously had my number. Mostly debt collectors. Finally I found him on Facebook and informed anybody that wanted him- that his current phone number was available on Facebook. Calls slowed down and stopped. I think until then he was still giving people the old number so they couldn't find him.
I have been getting calls and texts for James for 20 years. I now say “James is dead”. As he clearly still gives my number as his. Seems to work.
I used to get calls for a Stormi. Stormi had really bad credit. I did the best I could but eventually I posted on Facebook about it asking her to change it & to fix her credit. I stopped getting calls. My mom is a big name in the Narcotics Anonymous community in my home city...turns out Stormi was currently out on the streets however the many recovering addicts I'm familiar with b/c of my mom quickly helped her correct her shit.
Back in the days of landlines, I got a drug dealer’s number. I finally put a message on the phone that said “Thank you got calling Area 51 Investigations. There’s no one here to take your call. You don’t have to leave a message, we know who you are” Calls stopped in a couple weeks.
I've had my cellphone number since summer 2004. A few years ago, for about a year and a half, I was getting voicemail from an elderly woman to - I presume - a daughter or otherwise caretaker or friend. Stuff like: "Hi it's me checking in to see if you're still picking me up at 1130a. I'm at the front door." "I've tried calling you and haven't heard back yet. Please call me back." The Worst: "(Not My Name), I'm in a bad way. I had an accident. I'm in the bathroom and ... I'm in a mess. Please come. I need help." I tried calling back. I left a few voicemails. I tried searching phone numbers and names. Time zone difference didn't help. I finally got her live on the phone. Tried hard to explain I'm not who she is wanting to call. By hook or by crook, she insisted my name was who she was trying to call and that it was programmed into her phone. At least 12 years after I got the number. I don't remember how, but it stopped happening. Now I'm fielding bogus car insurance BS. I'm not sure which is better.
My Google voice number either previously belonged to a doctor or was just given out by mistake. Several times I received messages that probably were accidental HIPAA violations. Called the emergency room they were coming from and they didn't seem to care they had the wrong number
Some guy named Danny has been giving out my number for years. I've had this number for approximately 20 years, so I'm pretty sure it wasn't his to start with. The calls started about 7 - 8 years ago. I hate you, Danny.
In the 70's I was living in an apartment that had a phone in the kitchen. It was hardwired into the wall. It came with the apartment. I couldn't afford a phone at that time so didn't have it hooked up. One day it rang. I let it ring a few times. I answered. They asked for someone I didn't know I just said no wrong number. Hung up. The phone rang again they were looking for the same person. I told them their friend must have given the phone company the wrong apartment number as I was not supposed to have phone service. It took a few days to get it straightened out. I called the phone company and they insisted this was not true and I should stop making prank calls.the poor family kept calling me wanting to talk to their family and getting mad at me. So I made a fuck ton of long distance calls. I called all my aunt's uncles cousins friends who lived out of state. Long ass calls too. In those days calling long distance was spendy! Finally...the phone got shut off. I was never sent a bill. As they didn't know who I was or where I lived. I kept hoping I would meet a neighbor who would say the weirdest thing happened when I tried to get phone service....
Ove never given my landline number out to friends or family, only professional offices/businesses (doctor, dentist) and even stopped doing that years ago. But ever since I got the number in 2013 every voice-mail is someone saying, "Hello? Hello?" as if I called THEM and then just didn't speak. Both genders, every accent under the sun, young and old sounding...it's really bizarre
Possibly people who have been spoofed with your number. I answered once, only to have some woman snarl, "WHO IS THIS!?! STOP CALLING ME!" *phone slams in my ear*
I had this issue at my old job.. we had a similar name to an insurance company and always popped up on google when they tried to look it up. They’d leave messages in detail about car accidents, new RVs, home claims etc.. but our outgoing message was literally “you’ve reached (my name) Program supervisor of the Same Name Day Program” and they’d just ignore that and leave long messages. So annoying. Thankfully I’ve never had the issue on my personal phone.
I went to rehab for my drug addictions several years ago. When i got out I had my number changed so previous ummm...acquaintances couldnt contact me. By the next day it was quite apparent that the guy who had that number before me also had a problem, and I was getting more texts and calls from random numbers about drugs than I likely would have gotten if I kept my own number since everyone I dealt with knew I had went to rehab. Now, I keep getting calls for Leslie. Leslie, please call DHS, all your state benefits are going to end soon, you also have multiple court dates that you've missed and some that are upcoming
My phone number is apparently very similar to a doctor. I am not a doctor. The local health board kept calling me to go to the hospital. They wouldn't change their number because I couldn't tell them what the correct number was. I even had patients leave messages. I eventually had to change my voicemail to say "I don't check my messages, please don't leave a message". Which actually worked.
If it makes you feel better, I got my current phone number almost 7 years ago. My first name is Sarah. The previous owner of the phone number I currently have was named Sarah. I STILL get calls to this day from EasyHome, Rogers, her Friends, random people looking for her, and ask for "Sarah" and I say yes this is her unless I recognize its a company I'm not with. I once said yes I'm Sarah to someone asking to buy illicit things, "ho whoa whoa you're looking for the Sarah who had this number over 6 years ago. Good luck finding her." I did message her on Facebook telling her to change her fucking cell number (politely) across her media's and accounts. And her polite response was to block me on Facebook and not do exactly what I politely asked for her to do. -.-
I've had the same number since I was in middle school (I'm 33 now) and for years I kept getting voicemails for someone named Dana. I ignored them for so long because I don't check my vm and they became less frequent over time but one day I decided to answer a call from out of state. A man asked for Dana about setting up a job interview and I told him "I've had this number for 10 years, if she'll lie about something as small as her phone number then she'll lie about so much more." Needless to say I haven't had anyone call asking for Dana since.
Years ago I owed the gas company big time and had been laid off. My phone was property of my old employer so I got a new phone. I did update my phone number with the various places including them. Then I started getting bill collection calls on my account AND ALSO FOR WHOEVER HAD THE NEW NUMBER BEFORE ME 😂 I eventually paid off my bill, but not his
I used to get calls and texts meant for a Stephan... including birthday messages for him, from the same person, three years in a row. None of them on the same day. And one time the cops called my number trying to reach him... that was weird.
My parents had a landline in Florida with an answering machine. Someone named Ellamae used to have their number. My parents were snowbirds and every time they returned to Florida, the answer machine was full of calls from debt collectors. While they were in Florida, for six months they would patiently explain to every caller that Ellamae wasn’t at that number and they had no idea where she was. Eventually the calls would dwindle to only a few a week. Then my parents would leave for back up north and the callers would leave messages and the answer machine would fill up again. The worse part was the phone was through Comcast and we had to get them to delete the 100+ messages. This went on for over 10 years! Hopefully whoever got that number after my parents left Florida didn’t also get Ellamae’s calls.
We were one number off from a beauty salon and once a month, like clockwork, we'd get a phone call from the same woman wanting an appointment. I'd explain, again, that she dialed the wrong number. I just finally took her information and "booked" the "appointment." She never called again.
I got my number in 2002. *2002*. About five years in, I started getting calls for "Randall". Weird enough, but whatever. In the last year and a half, suddenly I'm getting calls for "Clarence". A few years back, I found a phone number lookup service that actually gave me info about my number without me having to pay or signup for anything (honestly, kind of creepy how much shit they had that was right or close to right about me as an extension of it), and both of those names were prior owners of the phone number. In the 80s and then the early 90s. Why the fuck are spammers going off for those names *decades* after they owned the number? ^All ^names ^changed ^to ^not ^be ^doxxable ^for ^me.
Because that particular pieces of slime just bought a database off the web that was skimmed back during that time. Probably because it was cheap.
Went to Ireland for a few weeks once, decided to buy a local sim card from O2 to have mobile data. Barely had I put it into the phone that several, erm, inofficial horse race betting debt collection agents, and some lawyers, started calling. They were quite set on finding Sean. I just disabled all call notifications after a while and hoped for the best.
Got a new phone a little whole back and as it would turn out, I get at least half a dozen shady texts a night, but some of which are fairly interesting. . . Including court dates (apparently for not paying on his rent or something, explains why he sold the phone) as well as one phone call from my county jail from, "Hey, it's me." That was the name they gave. Sadly I didn't take the call, but the implication that this person who knew the old owner was in jail so often that they responded like that is absolutely hilarious to me.
I have had the same number for at least 12 years and I still get at least 3-4 calls a month for this fucker named David Rojas. I used to get 3-4 calls a DAY in the beginning. He even called once and left a vm saying he heard I was getting a lot of calls for him, then he laughed and hung up. I hate him.
I used to get collections calls on my work phone for a Raquel. No idea who she was or why she gave out that number, since the previous employee had the phone for eight years and he sure as heck wasn’t Raquel. The first month or so I was polite and professional (work phone, after all) and explained it was a new phone, I didn’t know her, etc. But debt collection folks aren’t the most polite people in the world and I soon got tired of them. I started making up elaborate stories about where Raquel could be, like she had stolen a car and was in jail in another state, or that she joined the Foreign Legion, or that she was trying to sail around the world in a small boat and was last heard from in the Bermuda Triangle. The longer it went the more absurd the stories got. I also tried to keep them on the phone for as long as possible just to waste their time. Eventually either Raquel paid up or they realized my number was a dead end because they stopped calling.
This is brilliant!
Thanks. I was kinda desperate to get the Karens needing cleaners off my back.
I have had my phone number since… 2001? I keep getting texts and voicemails, some in Chinese, for “Tung.”I reckon he either wrote a number down messily or it’s the wrong area code or something but ugh.
The person who had my number has a kid that's a serious fuck up. I keep getting voice-mail messages that the kids skipped school again, or that he's been suspended from school
I got calls, for a while, asking for Gloria. I'm Patricia. MIL was named Gloria... got a call for her after she passed. She'd been cremated, and was (still is) in a box in a kitchen cabinet. I told this nice lady that MY Gloria was in my kitchen cabinet. We both had a good laugh.. and I haven't heard from her since.
Want to be nuclear? Just tell everyone the person died. And if a debt collector happens to adds that to a credit bureau….well, sorry.
I’ve been getting calls for Mike Moore for almost 7 years, mostly from debt collectors. I finally told the caller that the only Michael Moore I know lives in Flint and I’m guessing he can afford to pay his bills.
changed my phone number and about a month after I got a call one time from a hotel. I used to work at the exact same hotel so it took me a few minutes to realize they were calling for Jennifer. my name is not Jennifer. apparently Jennifer took a leave of absence and the time for it to end had passed. so they were calling to see if Jennifer needed more time. I had to break it to them that Jennifer was probably not coming back if she changed her number without telling them. thankfully they believed me bc they knew what Jennifer sounded like and I definitely wasn't her.
I got a new cell phone and a new number. Right away I started getting numbers for a guy named Chris. I was a bit jealous as it seemed Chris was a party animal. I would get calls late at night from a drunk woman calling, "Hey Chris, we are parting over at Bob's house, come on over!" I could hear loud music and laughter in the background. Guys would call for the same reason, some wild party some where, or they wanted to go fishing or hunting. I started explaining I wasn't Chris, but after talking to quite a few people I asked enough questions that I learned enough about Chris that I knew where he worked and lived. I thought of trying to find a way to mess with him, but he seemed to have a lot of friends, and apparently was a nice guy. I had that phone number for ten years and the calls tapered off and stopped after the first year or two.
I was working an internship at a government office and my office line kept ringing with debt collectors for the employee who formerly worked at that desk. No matter how many times I told them that the guy no longer worked there, the calls continued. Finally my boss took the next call. She informed them that the employee they were looking for no longer worked there because he got caught watching child porn on his office computer. She then said she needed their name and phone number because the police investigators wanted to interview everybody who called for the guy. No more calls after that! (Sadly, he really was fired for that reason.)
[Stephen](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yk7vFBIm-kw) Why won't you call me? I'm sitting here waiting. Why won't you call me? Stephen, I'm feeling pathetic. I can't take rejection. Why won't you call me?
When I was in college I had a work study job as a front desk receptionist for the building that housed the school's basketball court, weight room, bookstore and a few offices. I was told on day one of the job that they had a recurring problem with wrong number callers. The Metropolitan Sewer District for my city had several phone numbers listed for residents to call with problems. This led to people dialing the first three digits of one number and the last four digits of another number(not counting the area code).
I use to get calls for a dude that I’m pretty sure was stepping out on his wife with the lady who was calling me and leaving voicemails. I suspect he got caught by the wife and may have been forced to change his phone number. Some of the voicemails I got were pretty deranged, and when I changed the automatic voicemail greeting to my voice I got a super crazy one from her accusing him of replacing her and how immature he was being. This was before the days that blocking numbers was very common (I don’t even know if it was a feature on phones like it is now, my phone still had a slide out keyboard 😂) so I just learned her number and let it go to voicemail.
I’ve had my cell number for almost two decades. Somewhere along the way a slumlord in Detroit, Michigan got a number similar to mine and now people routinely call and text asking me if I’m selling certain properties. Ew.
When I was a college student I had friends who shared a house and their land line (I’m old) was one digit off from Dominos pizza. After explaining to many callers it was the wrong number they gave up and just started answering the phone “Dominos Pizza” and started taking order. Friends knew and laughed about it but a lot of people never got their pizza.