We just got our home phone 3 months ago--

[wy_kid_wrangler04]

after years and years of just using our cell phones. We did it because it was going to be cheaper for our internet with a home phone ($69.99 for just internet and 49.99 for internet and a home phone-- go figure) but it seems our new home phone number was a number with somebody with bad credit because we are CONTANTLY getting creditor calls for somebody names Karen Kingsman :glare: (besides changing our number) I finally asked a creditor I just hung up with how they are getting this number for that person and he said its on her credit report :glare: These calls have just started about 3 weeks ago but its daily. Its every single day more than 1 time a day. I am so tired of this. Is there ANY way to get this stopped? Like through the phone company or something?

[abbeyej]

Do you still have the cell phones? Why not just unplug and ignore the new line? It'll give you the discount whether you use it or not.

[wy_kid_wrangler04]

Do you still have the cell phones? Why not just unplug and ignore the new line? It'll give you the discount whether you use it or not.

 

 

UGH thank you very much! Simple answer and yet very effective. (this is a duh moment for me :o) We only gave a few places the new home phone number. Thank you I am unplugging now and calling those few places with a number change :)

[snickelfritz]

This happened to us. After explaining over and over and over that the person had the number before us and, "NO I didn't know them"....I started telling them they needed to stop calling or I would report them to the Federal Trade Commission.

 

I actually did report them once, but it was to the Federal Communication Commission....who sent me a nice form letter that it was the wrong organization...:tongue_smilie: (Or maybe I should have reported to the FCC..... I can't remember, but you could google) Out of laziness, I didn't do it again. But, the threat stopped them and the calls finally did stop.

[Mom2absh]

We had the same problem when we first moved to this house! It was SO annoying! I just told the callers that person no longer had this number. Sometimes I had to say that I had no idea who that person was, etc. That usually kept that person from calling again, but there were still more! It did eventually taper off.

 

Do you have caller ID? That is a real help in this situation - the numbers usually come up with "Unknown Caller" as the name. I don't answer those calls at all - I let the machine get them.

 

We also do not accept blocked calls - if the caller doesn't want his number displayed in caller ID, we don't want the call!

 

Finally, if the same number calls back several times, we block that number. Again, this is possible because of caller ID.

 

We still, 6 years later, occasionally get a call looking for the guy. I just tell them he hasn't had that number for YEARS, and they don't call back.

 

I'm not sure any of this will be helpful for you, but I DO know how ANNOYING those calls are! :grouphug::grouphug:

 

J

[nukeswife]

I feel for you we had the same issues when we lived in RI and we would get calls for a Hung Nygen, problem was it wasn't creditors it was family, who would call ask for him and then start speaking in a foreign language which we couldn't understand, and places of business. One time about 6 months into the problem we got a call from a local tire place saying his car was ready to be picked up. I explained to them that we didn't know him he hadn't had that phone number for 6 months. The guy said "Oh well this is the one he gave me this morning when he dropped off the car" I asked him to please let Mr. Nygen know that it wasn't his phone number anymore and to stop giving it out, maybe his wife had changed it and he was unaware or just couldn't grasp that. The Tire guy said he'd pass the message on and low and behold we never again got a call for Mr. Nygen.

[Moxie]

This is OT but I think about it every time I see your avatar. Did you get things cleared up with your sister-in-law (I think she was the one that was always calling asking about your DD)?

[gingersmom]

For months after I changed phone numbers I got calls for Tawana Cherry and Torey Battle.

 

Tawana missed her daughters doctors appointment and Torey Battle was invited to a barbeque at Rent-A-Center.

 

The calls finally stopped after I yelled at the creditors looking for them. Telling them nicely did not work the first time. By the 199th time I was yelling.

[Dawn in OH]

We have that situation too, and we have had our phone number for 3 years!

They call at 8:O5 AM (I'm usually still in bed with the baby), during lunch, while I'm cooking dinner and when I'm doing the bed time routine with the kids.

 

We didn't get a single call for these people during the first 6 months we had the number.

 

One creditor was so determined that I was the person they were calling for that they were calling the house 5 times a day for 2 weeks straight. I finally had to call the police to get this particular creditor to stop harassing me.

[joannqn]

We had to change our phone number after an elderly gentleman kept giving out our number as his.

 

One time it was the gentleman needed help with getting money out of his account. We told him that he had the wrong number but he kept insisting that we come help him. We tracked down his son and let him know that dad was giving out our phone number and trying to get us to come down to the bank to help him withdraw money. By this time, everyone had our number as his...doctors, banks, creditors, etc.

[wy_kid_wrangler04]

I feel for you we had the same issues when we lived in RI and we would get calls for a Hung Nygen, problem was it wasn't creditors it was family, who would call ask for him and then start speaking in a foreign language which we couldn't understand, and places of business. One time about 6 months into the problem we got a call from a local tire place saying his car was ready to be picked up. I explained to them that we didn't know him he hadn't had that phone number for 6 months. The guy said "Oh well this is the one he gave me this morning when he dropped off the car" I asked him to please let Mr. Nygen know that it wasn't his phone number anymore and to stop giving it out, maybe his wife had changed it and he was unaware or just couldn't grasp that. The Tire guy said he'd pass the message on and low and behold we never again got a call for Mr. Nygen.

 

:lol: :D

[wy_kid_wrangler04]

We have that situation too, and we have had our phone number for 3 years!

They call at 8:O5 AM (I'm usually still in bed with the baby), during lunch, while I'm cooking dinner and when I'm doing the bed time routine with the kids.

 

We didn't get a single call for these people during the first 6 months we had the number.

 

One creditor was so determined that I was the person they were calling for that they were calling the house 5 times a day for 2 weeks straight. I finally had to call the police to get this particular creditor to stop harassing me.

 

One of the creditor must have been from the East coast because they called at 6:30 am (we live in Wyoming and are on Mountain time) I don't think they will be calling anymore :smilielol5::smilielol5:

[m0mmaBuck]

We had a number that had belonged to a parole officer at some time. We would get calls from the parolees as well as from institutions trying to contact the parole officer before releasing a prisoner. It was a very strange couple of months until we decided to change the number.

[Dandelion]

We had this problem recently too (we restored home phone service 2 months ago after being "cell only" for over a year). A collection service kept calling and leaving messages.

 

In our case, I just called them back, explained that the person wasn't at this number, and asked them to remove our number from their system. They said they would and I haven't gotten a call since. I would assume that they're interested in keeping their phone numbers updated and are motivated to remove numbers that are no longer valid.

 

Good luck!

[stripe]

I've gotten wrong number calls for years. Including when my number was the number for some ski shop and people would argue with me ("it says the number right here in the brochure!") when I said they had the wrong number. I got a lot of calls from realtors at another number ("we have a nice apartment building for sale for you to look at, only $800,000"). I was starting to get a lot of creditor calls for some man; I called the company and they immediately took my number off their list. I was also getting regular calls on my cell phone for some man who was looking for a job (I really felt sorry for him, missing all those interview requests....plus who would hire someone who doesn't know his own phone number?); he also set my number up to receive his Yahoo password. I feel your pain.

[wy_kid_wrangler04]

We had this problem recently too (we restored home phone service 2 months ago after being "cell only" for over a year). A collection service kept calling and leaving messages.

 

In our case, I just called them back, explained that the person wasn't at this number, and asked them to remove our number from their system. They said they would and I haven't gotten a call since. I would assume that they're interested in keeping their phone numbers updated and are motivated to remove numbers that are no longer valid.

 

Good luck!

 

We have done that. They keep saying they will and yet the calls keep coming in. I almost wonder if they do not believe it- like we are trying to hide from them. Ugh. So frustrating!

[Giraffe]

We recently moved to a new home and got a new phone number. I could tell by the mail that John Smith (not real name) used to live here and didn't bother to change his address at the post office. After we'd been here about a month I started getting phone calls for John Smith. I explained to the callers (creditors, I assume) that Mr. Smith didn't live here anymore, we were the new tenants and I had no idea where he went. I'm not sure how they got MY number, except if they were searching phone records based on address. I didn't even know that was possible! Took a few weeks, but the calls seem to have stopped. Weird, still.

[mommytobees]

Call me strange, but it has been kind of fun to read this thread.

 

We've had two phone numbers where we would get someone else's calls.

 

When we first got here to Japan we were assigned a 757 area code phone number for our US VOIP phone line. I would get creditor phone calls for WEEKS.... in the middle of Virginia's day. Which, if you didn't know, is in the middle of Japan's night.

 

Receiving someone else's credit calls at 2 am STINKS!!!

 

I finally started ripping whomever called a new one and then would start calling the numbers back (when I could). I educated people very quickly that this is a VOIP phone and I live in JAPAN!!! I got testy... very very testy! Suddenly, they all stopped.

 

The other time we had "someone else's" phone number we would just get "normal" calls. Doctor's appointments calls and one day her daughter's eye glasses "had arrived" and would she like to come get them. Huh, no big deal, until the local police station called and when I say local, I mean the one down the street from where we lived. Low and behold, the detective calling me was livid that this phone number was given out again. I guess it was to be put under a "do not use" list for a period of time. The woman owning our number prior to us having it and been "seriously" assaulted by someone she knew. This man was "no longer in police custody" and he wanted to be sure she had changed her number when she moved. He told me to have my number changed right away and NOT to return any unknown phone numbers.

 

As for what to do, if you want to use your land line.... then I would screen calls via voice mail/ answering machine. Leave on the message, "so-and-so does NOT live here, we do NOT know him/her" and leave it at that!

 

Kris

 

Kris

[Radish4ever]

Do you still have the cell phones? Why not just unplug and ignore the new line? It'll give you the discount whether you use it or not.

This is exactly what we do!

[hsmom]

Change your number. I know the phone company here does it for free. Since you have not given it to many people of places it should not make too much of a difference.

[cani e porci]

This happens to us every time we move, and we've moved a lot.

 

This time around, I have these calls both on my land line and my prepaid cell phone. The people who last had these numbers did not live exemplary lives. I've gotten calls from endless creditors, three different school districts, and angry personal messages. I have to pay $.20 a minute to listen to the cell calls, at least the first time (before I tag them "do not answer").

[Guest Cheryl in SoCal]

I had this happen, but it was my cell phone. Not only was it my cell phone number but I'd had the same number for 10 years:001_huh: Some guy had apparently made up a number when he opened up a bunch of accounts/credit cards and it happened to be mine:cursing: Despite me telling everyone calling that I'd never heard of him it continued for MONTHS so I changed my cell phone number. I was really irritated because I'd had it for so long.

 

Then something similar happened with my land line. Creditors began calling looking for "Cheryl my-last-name" but they were looking for a different person who had the same name. The first time it happened it was from someone collecting from Verizon and I panicked thinking my bill somehow hadn't been paid. When I told them I just paid it and was going to see if the check had cleared they asked if my SSN was ###-##-####. I said no and they said sorry, they were looking for someone else.

 

Then someone else started calling but when I would tell them they had the wrong Cheryl because I'd never had the credit card they were trying to collect on they wanted to know either the last 4 digits of my SSN or my street address, and they wouldn't stop calling unless I could give them one or the other to confirm that I wasn't this other Cheryl. I don't think so!! My ds said I should tell them I live at 1313 Mockingbird Lane:lol::lol::lol::lol: They continued for a while but seem to have stopped, at least for now.

[Krista in LA]

I kind of have the opposite problem. When I worked from home, I had a second line. I canceled that line YEARS ago. Since then, a new Gap store opened and they got my old phone number. Now, I get mail for the Gap all of the time because their number is still associated with my address in several places that I have found on-line and who knows where else. I've notified the websites where I found it, but it hasn't done any good. I just wish I could talk the mailman into not putting their mail in my box anymore.

[stripe]

I loved the time I got a message on the machine from "Mom." Not my mom. I was amused that "Mom" didn't know her own daughter's voice. I also liked the time I got a message that so-and-so would be stopping by. Surprise!