How do I stop harassing phone calls?

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LivinLaVivaPollo

Senior member
Dec 29, 2000
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Well, in particular, there has been this unscrupulous woman named April that keeps calling my house asking for my dad. He is at work during the day, but she insists on calling during the day yelling and screaming at whomever answers the phone. She calls about once a day, and usually ends up talking to my mom or sister, but a couple of times she ended up talking to me.

Me: Hello?
April: CAN I SPEAK TO RAY NOW?
Me: He's not available right now, can I take a message?
April: NO. I NEED TO SPEAK WITH HIM NOW.
Me: Well, he's not here.
April: You're lying.
Me: No I'm not. May I ask what this call is regarding?
April: NO. THIS IS A LEGAL MATTER.
Me: Ok well, I'm sure you can at least give me a number where Ray can reach you.
April: NO!
Me: Well, goodbye then.
April: NO! GIVE THE PHONE TO HIM NOW OR ELSE I WILL SUBPOENA HIM.
Me: Goodbye.

END of Typical Conversation...
Don't worry though, she doesn't represent any agency, nor can she subpoena my dad on the phone hehe. I just think she is a lunatic. But this one time I did give the phone to my dad.


April: PUT ME ON THE PHONE WITH RAY NOW.
Me: He is a bit busy right now, can I take a message?
April: NO! GIVE THE PHONE TO HIM NOW!
Me: Can you not yell please?
April: SHUT UP!
Me: Well...
(At this point, I'm telling my dad that this is some crazy lady wanting to speak with him, he says if she has any legal matters with him than to put it in writing.)
Me: I'm sorry, he can't talk to you right now, but you can write a formal document to him if this is an actual legal matter.
April: NO. I HEARD YOU TALKING TO HIM! GIVE THE PHONE TO HIM NOW!
Me: Look, if you can't tell me what this is about, I'm not going to give the phone to him.
April: SOMEONE IS GOING TO TAKE LEGAL ACTION AGAINST HIM, I NEED TO GET THIS RESOLVED!
(At this point I give the phone to my dad)
Dad: Who is this?
April: THIS IS APRIL. YOU HAVE OUTSTANDING STUDENT LOANS.
Dad: What the? I don't have any student loans, you have the wrong person.
April: Does your social security number end in these four digits, ####?
Dad: No, of course not, please do not call again, you have the wrong person.
*click*


Well, that happened about a month ago, the harassing phone calls have started again a couple of days ago. What can I do about this? Since i'm at work now, this lady has begun to yell at my mother and sister. She insults my mother about her accent, asking whether or not she understands what she is saying. I want this to stop, so what do you guys think I can do?
 
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tallest1

Diamond Member
Jul 11, 2001
3,474
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Student loans? heh heh heh....I don't think he's calling about student loans. Throw some trivia questions like, 'what college did he go to' and 'when was the first loan'

Get a caller ID and find out where she's coming from. Also, make sure you warn her before you block her b/c if it is the real deal, you could get it big[ger] trouble.
 
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tontod

Diamond Member
Oct 12, 1999
3,244
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71
Get a caller id and get her number and then ask your telco to block that number.
 
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Shy

Golden Member
Dec 4, 2000
1,428
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76
Get her number, use this to figure out where she lives, and pay her a visit :D

-Shy
 
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Thegonagle

Diamond Member
Jun 8, 2000
9,773
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71
Oh God! Some collectors think they have to be abusive to get money.

I had a problem a few years ago. People were calling my number and asking for Steven. My name is Joe. Apparantly, some guy named Steven owed some money. It took a few conversations for them to get the idea that I had no idea who this person was. I asked if it was a collection agency. The person said yes. I told them "Listen, you NEED to stop calling me here. This is MY phone number now, and I don't know the person you're looking for. Goodbye." It finally worked.

Get the name and main business phone number of the collection agency that's calling. I believe they need to supply this information when asked. Call back and speak to a manager, and you should be able to clear this up. While you're at it, tell them that "April" (most likely not her real name, BTW) needs to be sure of who she's calling before she gets abusive. You might want to record her phone calls to your mom and remind the manager that there is no room for racism in American business, and ask that "April" be reprimanded. "April" might get a little talking to after that.

Good Luck,

Joe.
 
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lo5750ul

Senior member
Jul 18, 2001
744
0
76
Livin,

Your telecom provider has procedures to deal with abusive callers. Give them a call. Give them the times and dates of the calls and they can trace it from their end. If you don't have any logs, start logging the time, date and length of the call and get everyone in your family to do it.
If you want to look into it yourself you will need CallerID. Try getting it for a month. It does not guarantee that you will get her number because she may block it before she calls.
 
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dafatha00

Diamond Member
Oct 19, 2000
3,871
0
76
DUDE, find out her phone number for me!! i'll prank call her for you every hour and tell her to leave you alone
 
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bozo1

Diamond Member
May 21, 2001
6,364
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0
I doubt callerid would help. Most collection agencies have their number blocked.
 
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Thegonagle

Diamond Member
Jun 8, 2000
9,773
0
71
It sounds like a collection agency, not some random caller. The telecom company won't be able to do as much as your state's attorney general's office. There are federal and state laws governing collection agencies. That's why I suggest calling someone other than "April" at the company an clearing it up with them. "April" is an idiot collect-droid who just calls who she's told to call. Talk to a supervisor. It's in their best interest to follow the law.

Joe.
 
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StrangeRanger

Golden Member
Oct 9, 1999
1,316
0
0


<< Student loans? heh heh heh....I don't think he's calling about student loans. >>


Dood, have you ever had any student loans or been late w/ a payment for student loans? Holy crap, trust me, they can get fu*kin' naaaasstttyyyy! :)
Log the calls, call your phone co. and have the number traced and blocked. easy to do.
j
 
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Optimus

Diamond Member
Aug 23, 2000
3,618
0
0
Some great advice in here already - log the times/days of the calls, then call your phone company.

Good luck :)
 
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Thegonagle

Diamond Member
Jun 8, 2000
9,773
0
71
Some guy named Ray, who obviously has the same last name as the poster's father defaulted on his student loans. The issuing bank failed in their efforts to locate Ray the scofflaw, and &quot;sold&quot; the account to a third party collection agency. April, being the slick skip-tracing masterette that she thinks she is, got Ray the working father's phone number out of the phone book, and now makes the legally allowed 1 collection attempt per day. She might even be able to get your address from the local Domino's/Pizza Hut/Papa Juan's if you've ever ordered from them. I doubt that's legal, but it's one of their skip tracing methods.

That's probably what's going on. It sucks, but what are you going to do? Get it cleared up ASAP. Mention the words &quot;attorney general&quot; while explaining that they're harassing the wrong family. They'll listen.
 
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LivinLaVivaPollo

Senior member
Dec 29, 2000
954
0
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The problem is that she won't listen and thinks that my dad is avoiding her by not answering her phone calls. She won't leave a number, nor will she give me any information from her agency. She just insists on saying that my dad has outstanding student loans.. yadda yadda yadda... keep the advice coming though guys, my dad and I will look through it tonight when he gets back from the Agilent STE Champion thing.

BTW, UCSC has been great to me, and schools are usually only boring if you make them out to be, besides I plan on joining a bunch of clubs because i missed out on getting involved three years in HS. My girlfriend is also one floor on top of me, so i figure it works out really well. I could have went to SJSU, Cal Poly SLO, and some of the lower end UC's, I didn't apply to berkeley and UCLA rejected me, so that's that.
 
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Thegonagle

Diamond Member
Jun 8, 2000
9,773
0
71
OK, then your father needs to talk to her himself. They might not need to give out information to anybody except the ?debtor,? your father in this case. He should ask to be put through to a supervisor or manager. The abusive ones are rough. You don't need to put up with it.

Good luck,

Joe.
 
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