I have a problem and it is really starting to annoy the hell out of me. I put the business line in my house in about 4 years ago. For the past 3 years, I've received phone calls fairly often asking for a woman who I do not know. Recently, the calls have become more frequent. Last week, I asked one of the people calling (it is ALWAYS a sales call or something like that) what number they dialed and they read back my number. I asked if they had an alternate number for the person they were calling and they gave that to me. I called that number and got no answer. I did a reverse lookup of the phone number on the net and it belonged to some older retired woman (I checked the voter registration records) that lives about 5 minutes from me. However, it was not the same person because she had a completely different name from the person giving out my number. Anyway, today I get a call asking for a person with the same last name but a different first name. Turns out, that they want the DAUGHTER. Upon asking a few questions, it turns out the caller was calling from the Houston Chronicle. One of their sales people called to ask if the daughter wanted the Chronicle delievered to her apartment and she said, "yes" and gave out MY FREAKING NUMBER! I finally have come to the fairly obvious conclusion that these people are giving out my number to anyone who they don't want to have their real one (anyone see that Seinfeld episode with Elaine??? - Fortunately, I haven't gotten any boyfriends!). The vast majority are sales calls. I can only assume that this number was either just a random number or a number they had prior to moving. They obviously live in Houston but I can't find any listings for them. I never have been able to get the husband's name and I get the sense that everything is listed under his name! ARRRGH. Here's a wild one. About 2 years ago, a church not far from here called for this woman and said they hadn't seen her at church in a while and wanted to see if she was coming back. The woman even gave out her number to a CHURCH to avoid them!!! Of course, they wouldn't give out any other info. HELP ME GET RID OF THESE PEOPLE!!!
bite the bullet and get a new number... it might be worth it in the long run. or everytime someone calls tell them either to not call again or if it's sales, to remove your number from their phone list. maybe get caller id?? good luck rH
Caller ID doesn't solve the problem. The calls still come in and many of them leave messages. My phone still rings. It is particularly an issue in my studio where I have no place to put a caller ID box. In fact, I have a lighted ringer so it doesn't effect recording! As for changing the number, that isn't an option. I wish it was, but this number has been well-established. It would be nearly impossible to make the change. A residence is one thing but a business? Plus, I have an 800 number attached to that phone as well.
sorry for the multiple user-id's here, crispee somehow just got turned off again. Jeff, I meant to say caller ID with call blocking. My understanding is you can add numbers to your blocking list as you have problems. They are permanently blocked after that, until you take them off. But yeah, it does no good for the real problem of someone giving out your number. It's just a quick fix.
That's the problem. There is the distinct possibility that every person who has called was a first time caller (long time listener - HA HA HA!!! Oh, I crack me up), so blocking them really wouldn't fix the problem. The next call will be from a different number. Also, a note about blocker. Companies that use trunk lines for their dialouts rather than individual phone numbers (i.e. phone banks) are VERY difficult to block. I worked for an answering service for 5 years and it was nearly impossible to block a call from us. The same problem applies to the big solicitor companies.
You're only hope, other than getting a new number, is to get more information from some of the people calling you. NExt tiem they call, tell them you can't remember what address you gave them or something like that, get the address, go over and kill th...i mean, go over and politely tell them to stop giving out your number, etc, etc. Might not help immediately, but in th elong run, eventually the calls will stop...especially if you tell the sales people to not call again...as i believe that is illegal once you ask them to stop. On a side note, prank calls are also quite annoying. However, generally speaking, I am so wierd that when someone prank calls me i usually end up messign with them more than the other way around. Sometimes I'll just keep saying "What?" in a strange voice over and over again...I also really like the one from Adam Sandler's first CD; screaming "Hello? Who is this? For GOD sake tell me your name? What do you want?" at the top of your lungs. Are there any other good ways to "get rid of" prank callers?
JayZ750 wrote: "Are there any other good ways to "get rid of" prank callers?" yeah... get an airhorn or a whistle... when they call, let em have it!?
If you have caller ID, you can get an address from a phone number. Tell the little creeps that you just looked up their address so you will be over to see them in about ten minutes. They most likely will not call back again, especially if you drive over to their house. Or you can just call them back and ask to speak to a parent or just harrass them.
I had a similar problem except some mexican lady apparently used my number. She apparently signed up for all these credit cards(like dept store ccs), ran up a bunch of debt, and skipped out of town or something. They were hounding my phone number constantly. I have this annoying answering machine message I would let them hear to piss them off. I got calls on some other issue where these automated school machines call up and tell you your kid missed school today. Now, I'm supposed to call the school and let them know about it? F that...I would rather the kid get away with skipping school. My current phone # is the best I have ever had living on my own. In college, I had the phone # of a co. called Hickory Chip Factory or some s#*t. People would call me up looking for good ole hickory chips...yee haw. They were getting the f-ing number from the local Chamber of Commerce for crying out LOUD. Back in those days, I would make my own false answering machine message busting a rhyme and didn't give a crap. I used to have people calling my phone just to hear my messages. I have to practice selective filtering on incoming calls. Anyone else can just flipping flip off . I empathize with you, Jeff. I am the king of "looking for someone else" phone calls. Surf
Jeff, Too bad you cannot reach all of your business contacts directly. If that were feasible, you could: 1. Get a new number and tell them what it is; 2. Cancel the old line and have that number forwarded to your new friends' 'alternate' number. That'll freak'm out. Have you tried Knowx.com to search for them? Real estate records, etc?
I have the same problem. However, I'm an introvert, so I never pick up the phone. I only need to talk to a select group of people. 1) Family - I call them, or they can leave a msg for me. 2) Girlfriend - I live with her, so it's a moot point. 3) Work - They suited me with a ball and chain (pager) 4) Vendors - Worse case scenario, I give them my work number. Sorry this doesn't help you much.
W.W.C.B.D <b>W</b>hat <b>W</b>ould <b>C</b>harles <b>B</b>ronson <b>D</b>o? I think we all know the answer to this one . . .
Jeff; I feel for ya! There is no 'easy" way to get rid of them. Keep blocking them as often as possible. That way, when the dialer they are using uses the call block number, it will move on. It will take a while, but, hopefully the # of "crap" calls will get smaller and smaller. On a similar, but completely diiferent issue. I had a cell phone through MCI WCOM. My cell # was on my business cards, my personal friends had it. It was how you got in touch with me. Three weeks ago, my phone doesn't work. I call Worldcom, and they tell me it is a clerical error, and that my phone should be back up within 24 hours. ! whole WEEK of talking to these people an hour a day finding out why my phone STILL wasn't working, and I got a manager who told me... VERY matter-of-factly, "your phone # has been put into a pool because it got deactivated, let me re-assign you a new one". THEY LOST MY F#$%ING PHONE NUMBER, and could have cared less! What's more, I had lost my "713" # and now could only get an "832" #! I will NEVER EVER go to Worldcom again! And highly recommend those of you that do, to get away as soon as possible! (I mean, hell, I have to reorder business cards at $66 a pop!) Anyway, just another maddening telephone story.
Just to update... Got a call from Conn's Appliances this morning (a creditor call) asking for this woman. They had two numbers listed for her, mine and one other. The other number belongs (according to reverse lookup) to another woman at a house about 5 minutes from here. However, searching voting records, it turns out the second woman doesn't live there. There is a couple living there with a third number. When I tried the second woman's number, it just rings, so I made the deduction that it must be a rent house where she maintains a phone line but no actual phone. The couple that lives there must be renting the house and had their own line put in. Apparently, the creditor said they NEVER get an answer at the other number. SO, I am thinking that this woman whose calls I'm getting must've lived at that address once before (back prior to 1998 when the Conn's account was opened and right about the time we got our new business line) and had our line as her main number but gave out her landlady's number as a second number. Ugh, it just gets more and more strange. I'm going to try the couple. I'll keep you guys posted!
My phone number in Arlington belonged to an auto repair shop before I got it. I had that number for four years, but even right before I moved, I still got calls from people wanting to bring their cars in for service or from distributors wanting to take my order for cigarettes or even for p*rn tapes (looking back, perhaps I should've found out more about the p*rn wholesaler).
Jeff, it seems that you've been pretty resourceful about fact-finding on these people. However, I'm sure more information can be had if you know where to look. Go to the library and check out some books about private investigation. I've seen one that should be helpful called How to Find Almost Anyone. Sorry I can't remember the author's name. Of course, once you find them, what are you going to do? Just ask them to stop?
Jeff, I can't explain the church thing, but it's possible that the creditors could be getting the number from a credit agency. If she gave the number to a creditor, they could report it to the credit agency. Any others would get it when they pull a credit report. Former addresses and phone numbers stick around in those files. So it might help to contact the credit agencies and ask them to remove the number from their files on that woman.
