Bizarre phone calls

[supremespleen]

They started about a month ago. I would get calls from a No Name/No Number. I'd answer and there would be a long pause before anyone said anything. The first two times I hung up, then I started waiting. The first time the caller (in some sort of foreign accent) asked for a name that I didn't understand, but was not me. I told them they had the wrong number and the guy apologized and hung up. A few times later I told them they'd been calling me often and that it was the wrong number, they profusely apologized and hung up.

The weird thing is, once after I told them they had the wrong number they asked if it was *my cell number here*. I said it was, but there was no one by the name of the person they were looking for here.

I was starting to think the calls were finished, when I got another today. This was from 1-800-399-5166. I've googled around and found the following:

http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-800-399-5166

http://800notes.info/

http://fraudandphishing.com/phishing/unknow-calls-may-be-a-sign-of-identity-theft

supposedly the 800 number is this: http://www.gemoney.com/

That last site looks kind of crappy and like it may be some sort of advert in disguise. But it looks like the 800 number that called is some sort of bill collector? What the hell? I am not even old enough to have bills to deal with.

[The Damned]

1. Make phone calls that confuse the hell out of people.

2. ???

3. Profit.

[kamoh]

4. Swear profusely. It's very professional!

[Moseph]

How long have you had this number? There are only a finite amount of phone numbers available, and especially with cell phones you can wind up being assigned a number that used to belong to someone else. I've had my cell phone number for over a year and I still get calls intended for whoever used to have the number before I got it. Maybe the guy the bill collectors are trying to reach has stopped making his payments but "forgot" to tell them that the phone number they have for him is no longer accurate, and you had the misfortune to get the number that used to be his.

[supremespleen]

How long have you had this number? There are only a finite amount of phone numbers available, and especially with cell phones you can wind up being assigned a number that used to belong to someone else. I've had my cell phone number for over a year and I still get calls intended for whoever used to have the number before I got it. Maybe the guy the bill collectors are trying to reach has stopped making his payments but "forgot" to tell them that the phone number they have for him is no longer accurate, and you had the misfortune to get the number that used to be his.

I've had it for 2-3 years.

[Majin GeoDooD]

Well, I can tell you that GE Money is legit. They're the guys that provide PayPal's Buyer Credit line (of which I have $250 of).

What I couldn't tell you is why they'd have your number. Maybe someone got credit with them, charged it up, and provided a false number that happened to be yours?

[EOnizuka]

gemoney.com is a credit agency. They employ foreign English speakers to man the phones of their collection office. Most likely somebody took out a loan and put their cell phone as your number, or...more likely, GE Money Bank screwed up. I received a call from their company 3 months after taking out a loan stating they had sent me bills and I hadn't paid them. In reality, they sent bills to an address I never even gave them that I had lived at nearly 3 years ago. /rant

So don't sweat it. Next time tell them the person they are trying to collect from does not use your number, and if they continue calling them you will file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau.

[Kanthos]

I've also noticed that nearly every telemarketing company to call us in the last 4 months will have a fairly long pause between when you pick up and when they start talking. If I hear any kind of pause, I hang up. Sure, there's the chance that the caller was a friend or family member, but my thought is that if they can't give me the respect to actually be on the phone when they call me, they can call back

[Airwalker]

My parents' house started getting calls like that apparently. Some telemarketers keep calling and asking for some name I've never heard of. Constantly they've told them that person does not live there. But they keep calling back. I assume they think whoever has the debt is hiding from them and they are trying to harass them.

Sometime they use a machine that says "We have an important phone call for..." *insert name here* "...if..." *insert name here* "Is available, press 1. If not, press 2." And you press 2, and it hangs up. I assume if you press 1, they'd harass you more.

[Nutritious]

I've had similar calls recently from some collections agency for a person I didn't know. I told them to take me off their calling list. They said they would, but I kept getting calls. I told them again to take me off their calling list and the second time it worked. So, even if it's collections, I think you can request they stop calling and they have to comply.

A worse situation for me, though, was when I started getting 1-2 calls a day from random people across the country asking if I'd just called them. Apparently, my number was showing up on their caller ID under some random company name (ACE Corporation or something). When they'd pick up the phone, it would just be dead air on the other side.

I was probably just the victim of caller ID spoofing, which is all kinds of lame. What really made me mad was that most of the people were elderly and had trouble getting to their phones in time to answer. So, they'd just call back whomever showed up on the caller ID. One guy in particular was probably in his 70's and 80's and said he was blind, so it was hard to get to his phone when it rang - which is why he called back. I mean, I can handle the occasional annoyance that this type of stuff can cause, but people like him don't need to be bothered by this crap.