Changing phone number to stop collection calls?

[BoomerD]

We recently changed our phone numbers and have been going through the same bullshit...
:music: "hello?"

"May I speak to Billy Deadbeat?"

"Sorry, it appears he either changed his number or lost his phone service. We got this number on April 6th. Please remove this number from your database as it's no longer for the person you're looking for."

"OK, do you KNOW Billy Deadbeat. Does he maybe live with you?"

"Grrr, I just told you, this is a new number to me. Remove me from your database."

"Ah, I see. Well, I am sorry to be disturbing you, but if you hear from Billy Deadbeat, please ask him to call us at 1-800 Dumb-Fucks"

"Fuck you ya stupid "moran"



One week later...
:music: "Hello?" I am trying to contact Mr. Billy Deadbeat in regard to a personal matter."
"ARRRRGGGGHHH!"


I've spoken to AT&T. There's really nothing they (or you) can do about this. You just have to wait them out until they finally accept that you aren't Billy Deadbeat trying to scam them into thinking you've changed the number.

I get the same shit on my cell phone all the time too...

I don't know which group I hate more...the deadbeats who have skipped out leaving no contact information, or the POS collection agencies who keep calling and calling and calling...

 

[Vette73]

^

BoomerD, read my replay above you if you like to make up to $1000 for each time they call after you write them a letter and then record each offending call after that.

 

[sourceninja]

Is the person they are asking for spanish? If not just find someone who speaks spanish (not very hard) and have them answer your phone in spanish. That worked for me. I've also had success with sending letters, and in one case, telling the person that if they called back I was going to assume they wanted to have phone sex with me. They called back the next day and I attempted to have phone sex with them. That scared them off.

 

[Injury]

Originally posted by: ScottSwingleComputers

Originally posted by: Injury
You might be able to have the phone company block any calls that require payment for their usage. Would be a lot easier.

Someone might actually be trying to scam you. If your phone company can't do anything, you might want to try to see if the FCC can do anything about it. I know it seems like it's going waaaaayyyy out there, but if it's that annoying that you'd consider changing your phone number, it'd be worth at least looking in to.

Uh... debt collection calls, not collect calls.

:-X

Whoops. Misread that one.

Either way, the FCC/FTC might be able to help.

 

[Mayfriday0529]

Originally posted by: sourceninja
Is the person they are asking for spanish? If not just find someone who speaks spanish (not very hard) and have them answer your phone in spanish. That worked for me. I've also had success with sending letters, and in one case, telling the person that if they called back I was going to assume they wanted to have phone sex with me. They called back the next day and I attempted to have phone sex with them. That scared them off.

your thinking that because they will speak spanish that will scare them off?
yes they are looking for someone that has a spanish name.
oh and i'm spanish by the way. So should i say Hola bitch!

 

[RightIsWrong]

Here's a sure fire way of getting it to stop.

Get their company name, agent's name, manager's name and address. Send them a certified letter informing them that the debt that they are trying to collect is not yours and if they continue to call your house or any another number that they might have you are going to file complaints with the FTC against them and that you will have a lawyer to contact them about damages.

Be sure to keep records. If they do call back, they can be fined (which goes to you) up to $1000 per call after receipt of the letter (why you send it certified w/signature confirmation).

The Federal Trade Commission has the authority to administratively enforce the FDCPA using its powers under the Federal Trade Commission Act.[23]

Aggrieved consumers may also file a private lawsuit in a state or federal court to collect damages (actual, statutory, attorney's fee and court-costs) from third-party debt collectors. The FDCPA is a strict liability law, which means that a consumer need not prove actual damages in order to claim statutory damages of up to $1,000 plus reasonable attorney fees if a debt collector is proven to have violated the FDCPA.[24] The collector may, however, escape penalty if it shows that the violation (or violations) was the result of a "bona fide error."[25]

Alternately, if the consumer loses the lawsuit and the court determines that the consumer filed the case in bad faith and for the purposes of harassment, the court may then award attorney's fees to the debt collector.

 

[MrsPickins]

We were having the same problem (debt collection calls for unknown people), so we changed our phone number. Now we just get debt collection calls for DIFFERENT unknown people.

 

[moshquerade]

Originally posted by: MrsPickins
We were having the same problem (debt collection calls for unknown people), so we changed our phone number. Now we just get debt collection calls for DIFFERENT unknown people.

wow.. this is really rampant.

 

[NL5]

Thank you guys! I have been having this problem for over a month. The funny thing is that I have had my phone number since 2000. Somebody either entered the # wrong in the database, or the guy gave them a fake number to start. It's kinda odd though because its Sallie Mae - aren't they just home loans?

 

[EGGO]

I'm afraid it's not that easy to keep the mafia from collecting.

 

[Injury]

Originally posted by: NL5
Thank you guys! I have been having this problem for over a month. The funny thing is that I have had my phone number since 2000. Somebody either entered the # wrong in the database, or the guy gave them a fake number to start. It's kinda odd though because its Sallie Mae - aren't they just home loans?

They also do Student Loans.

 

[BoomerD]

Maybe we all need to get the canned-air airhorns and keep next to our phones...the next time we get a call like this...give em a blast...
(fucking scumbags anyway)

 

[elektrolokomotive]

Wierd... this just started happening on my cell phone in the past few weeks. I've had this number for over 4 years!

 

[sourceninja]

Originally posted by: Jnetty99

Originally posted by: sourceninja
Is the person they are asking for spanish? If not just find someone who speaks spanish (not very hard) and have them answer your phone in spanish. That worked for me. I've also had success with sending letters, and in one case, telling the person that if they called back I was going to assume they wanted to have phone sex with me. They called back the next day and I attempted to have phone sex with them. That scared them off.

your thinking that because they will speak spanish that will scare them off?
yes they are looking for someone that has a spanish name.
oh and i'm spanish by the way. So should i say Hola bitch!

Well if the person they are looking for is not spanish, having spanish people answer the phone everytime in spanish will waste their time. When I ran collections, if I was looking for a mid 30's white redneck i wouldn't keep calling a number where a old mexican lady keeps answering the phone in another language.

 

[NL5]

Originally posted by: Injury

Originally posted by: NL5
Thank you guys! I have been having this problem for over a month. The funny thing is that I have had my phone number since 2000. Somebody either entered the # wrong in the database, or the guy gave them a fake number to start. It's kinda odd though because its Sallie Mae - aren't they just home loans?

They also do Student Loans.

I was thinking they might. Seems like one of mine was through them, but I thought I was just mis-remembering.

Thanks!

 

[onlyCOpunk]

Tell them they have the wrong phone number and to please stop calling. If they don't then sue their asses. It's harassment and they can't do that, ESPECIALLY if the people do not live there.

 

[Viper GTS]

FDCPA is your friend, use it to extract money from them.

They'll either stop or you'll be able to buy a bunch of fun stuff with their money. Treat it like a highly profitable game & it will frustrate you much less.



Viper GTS

 

[Mayfriday0529]

Originally posted by: Pale Rider

Originally posted by: Jnetty99
We keep getting collection calls for two people that do not live at our location. We don?t know even know who they are? I was thinking of calling the phone company and asking them to change our phone number. But I wonder if that would help with the problem or would be only a temporary fix?

We have had our current phone number for about 12 years. First at one house in the same town and then we moved to another house in the same town. Ever since moving to the new house the calls started. I usually call back the agency calling and tell them that no such person lives at this location. This stops the calls for a few weeks and then they start again usually from another agency.

Anyone know if there is any remedy to this besides changing the phone number?

The next time the collections people call ask for the address of the company. Send them a letter stating that the person they are looking for doesn't live there and you are considering legal alternatives to stop their constant harassment.

They will stop.

Update 5/13/2008
I got a call yesterday from a 866 area code about 7:40pm. I picked up the phone and it was silent, after about 4 seconds a lady came on and asked for ?Julie?. I said she doesn't live here and she ask ?where she could reach her??. I then told her that meant I never heard of this person before and asked for who was she calling for? bank or agency?

The lady then started attacking me with questions, "If you don't know her why would you ask such a question?". I said because I want you to stop calling me for a person that doesn?t live here and I was about to explain my situation when she said "just say wrong number" and she hung up on me.

 

[SirStev0]

Shaniqua don't live here no more. Is Shaniqua there? Hell No!

 

[Sphexi]

Originally posted by: Pale Rider

Originally posted by: Jnetty99
We keep getting collection calls for two people that do not live at our location. We don?t know even know who they are? I was thinking of calling the phone company and asking them to change our phone number. But I wonder if that would help with the problem or would be only a temporary fix?

We have had our current phone number for about 12 years. First at one house in the same town and then we moved to another house in the same town. Ever since moving to the new house the calls started. I usually call back the agency calling and tell them that no such person lives at this location. This stops the calls for a few weeks and then they start again usually from another agency.

Anyone know if there is any remedy to this besides changing the phone number?

The next time the collections people call ask for the address of the company. Send them a letter stating that the person they are looking for doesn't live there and you are considering legal alternatives to stop their constant harassment.

They will stop.

Mostly correct. Collection agencies are required to follow specific guidelines/rules when calling people. Ask for their name and the name of their company. Write down the date/time that they called you, and tell them to not call this number again for any reason. They are required by law to stop if you request it, if they do not you can report them to your state AG or the FCC and they will be hit with a fine. If they simply hang up on you before you can get that all out, call back the next day, ask for a manager, and go to town on them. Very unlikely you'll get calls from that specific agency again, although you my continue to get them from other agencies if the debt is passed around.

I suppose it's state by state though, state I lived in had different rules it sounds like.

 

[KeithTalent]

Why doesn't everyone just use call display and not answer the phone? That's what I do for all telemarketers and stuff. I get the occassional collection call for my deadbeat cousin too, but if I see a number I don't know I just don't answer and they can leave amessage if it's important.

KT

 

[Anubis]

Originally posted by: KeithTalent
Why doesn't everyone just use call display and not answer the phone?
KT

because
1) not everyone has that
2) they leave messages

 

[Mayfriday0529]

Originally posted by: KeithTalent
Why doesn't everyone just use call display and not answer the phone? That's what I do for all telemarketers and stuff. I get the occassional collection call for my deadbeat cousin too, but if I see a number I don't know I just don't answer and they can leave amessage if it's important.

KT

It gets annoying because usually when I get home between 7-9pm we get about 6 calls from at least 2 collection agencies. They also usually don't leave a message, the calls just disconnects when the answering machine picks up. You are trying to relax after work and these annoying calls start coming in every single day.

There has also been some calls than when the answer machine picks up it actually has a message that goes like this :
?We are (collection agency) looking for "person's name", by continuing to listen to this message you acknowledge that you are "person's name", if you are not this person please hang up now.?

 

[KeithTalent]

Originally posted by: Anubis

Originally posted by: KeithTalent
Why doesn't everyone just use call display and not answer the phone?
KT

because
1) not everyone has that
2) they leave messages

1. It seems like a better alternative than changing your number.
2. Delete? Not too difficult.

KT

 

[jaqie]

https://www.donotcall.gov/

Register your phone, while it will not make a difference with collection agencies, at least it will stop the stupid salesmen calls.

I would love to see a collections agency database with auto caller ID blocking / forwarding to your own answering service.