S: I have the phone number of a deadbeat

[jstreet]

I got a phone number about 3 months ago and on a daily basis, I get one or more recordings on my answering machine from debt collectors for some jackass that used to have this number. I'd change it, but the number's catchy.

After trying to respond to one of the calls in an attempt to make them stop, I got this company's voicemail and left them a polite message. I identified myself, gave my phone number, and asked that they stop calling or that an actual person rather than a machine call to resolve the issue.

Another recording.

So today, I left the following message: "Hello. My name is Ben Williams and my phone number is 703-xxx-xxxx. You call my house on a daily basis, and you are going to stop. I left you a message asking to do as much last week. IF YOU CONTINUE TO CALL MY HOUSE, I WILL DRIVE THE 10 MINUTES FROM MY ADDRESS TO YOUR ADDRESS AND I WILL SCREAM THIS OVER AND OVER AGAIN UNTIL YOU STOP CALLING. Thanks, and have a great night!"

I'm curious what will happen next. I will happily rent a Zipcar and drive to their call center - it's close enough I could do it on my lunch break.

[Markel]

Send them a certified letter demanding that they stop calling. If they call again after receiving the letter, report them for harassment. This is the only "language" that collection agencies understand.

[gear02]

I think they keep calling because this is a tactic among deadbeats to stop people from calling. Can you identify yourself as not a deadbeat and that the guy with the previous number is their target?

[Prngr44]

I think they keep calling because this is a tactic among deadbeats to stop people from calling. Can you identify yourself as not a deadbeat and that the guy with the previous number is their target?

Actually you can. You just have to be there when they call. Most of the time it's not just some automated message and rolls over to an actual person. I've been going through this off and on with my current number as well. I've had to do it about 5 or 6 times.

[jstreet]

We get wrong number calls so often that this is literally my answering machine message:

You've reached Ben and Eric - only Ben and Eric - at 703-xxx-xxxx. If you are calling for someone whose name is not Ben or Eric, please hang up now. Otherwise, please leave a message. Thank you.

Despite the catchy number, I may just get it changed. We have an equal volume of mail for other people. It's like no one is aware that the phone company and USPS can forward your previous calls/mail to your new address.

[BigJon]

Is your number 867-5309?

Man..that just sucks. And I agree with gear02, they probably think that when you call back that it's just the guy they want trying to trick them. Losers. You'd think they'd try using Zabasearch or something...

[Kevster]

When Merlin and I were living in Hermosa beach, we kept getting phone calls for someone named Jose. They spoke spanish and got very irritated when you spoke english to them. So I amended our phone message to say the following:

'..and for our spanish-speaking callers today: Jose no está.. no está aquí. Jose es muerto.'

One thing I can say is the phone calls did stop.

Then my wife got a cell phone that was formerly owned by someone named Carlos who had lots of bill collectors and spanish people calling him. No matter what we said, the spanish-speaking people kept calling all the time, burning up our minutes. This was on my wife's outgoing voicemail message for a while:

'Carlos es una puta que no puede pagar sus cuentas. Ahora tenemos este número así que colgar para arriba o llamaremos el INS.'

You'd be surprised how fast the spanish-speaking calls stopped with that one.

[avlena]

Actually you can. You just have to be there when they call. Most of the time it's not just some automated message and rolls over to an actual person. I've been going through this off and on with my current number as well. I've had to do it about 5 or 6 times.

we get them a few times too.

Collections agencies aren't terribly smart. Every now and then I get calls for another person with my same name, and similar history (we both used to live in Minnesota, and moved to Cali, and actually lived in the same city and had the same bank for awhile). Once I told them the last 4 digits of my social, and gave them enough info to convince them I wasn't the one they were looking for, they stopped.

[kgsilvas]

...'Carlos es una puta que no puede pagar sus cuentas. Ahora tenemos este número así que colgar para arriba o llamaremos el INS.'...

Hmmm. My Spanish to English translation site gave me this: "Carlos is a prostitute that cannot pay its accounts. Now we have this n? ace? eu to hang for up or we will call the INS." Here I figured the translator would give me some sort of kitty reference.

p.s. Thought the INS threat was a good approach Kevster.

[thresher]

Never ran into the problem of someone else having my name (nice part of being named Thresher) and my phone number has been the same for last 15 or so years, but I suspect I might one day run into this problem. Can't you just, oh, I don't know, get a new line immediately after finding out you have a problem? How catchy can a phone number be?
One funny number in Austin: 459-2222 is the Mr. Gattis pizza number. It used to be the weight watchers number. Can you imagine some poor gal who made it for years and then finally had a moment of weakness and decided to call for help... "Mr.Gatti's pizza, will this be for delivery or pickup?" ..."oh dear God!".

[johnnymk]

Never ran into the problem of someone else having my name (nice part of being named Thresher) and my phone number has been the same for last 15 or so years, but I suspect I might one day run into this problem. Can't you just, oh, I don't know, get a new line immediately after finding out you have a problem? How catchy can a phone number be?
One funny number in Austin: 459-2222 is the Mr. Gattis pizza number. It used to be the weight watchers number. Can you imagine some poor gal who made it for years and then finally had a moment of weakness and decided to call for help... "Mr.Gatti's pizza, will this be for delivery or pickup?" ..."oh dear God!".

"...and we have a special this week only...2 large pies for $12.99"

[ryan_self]

Time to have some fun:

"yeah, I got your money right here, and you can do whatever you want...credit ruination, car repo, whatever - and I ain't paying."

[riskykougra]

I read the title and thought " Wow how did you get my ex-husbands phone number?" But that is an entirely different deadbeat....

[jstreet]