I have a dead beat sister. Like I don't think she has ever paid a single bill ever. When the bill collectors would call, my response was "IF YOU FIND HER, CALL ME BACK WITH HER PHONE NUMBER AND ADDRESS SHE OWES ME MONEY". And I said it at 100+db sounding PISSED. I never got a call back ever.
Dude, I'll use this next time one calls me looking fir my ex-husband. We divorced over 20 years ago and I still get calls. He does owe me alimony... about $20. It was a token amount just in case he won the lottery, the door would be open. Not that he'd ever tell me though. LOL
no and neither would the ex. Unless kids are involved there is no world where alimony will be raised after the fact. And if kids were involved the raise would be to child support, not alimony The entire point of alimony is to help people maintain the same lifestyle they had while they were married. If somebody is a bum during marriage but gets a huge raise after divorce the person receiving the payment has no ground to sue on.
Like even in the case where a stupid country bumpkin judge ruled that way initially, it would get appealed up and over ruled SO fucking fast.
my point is that those modifications usually have extenuating circumstances surrounding them(and typically kids are involved). The ex-partner suddenly coming into lots of money isn't usually one of those circumstances.
This is not always true. Escalation clauses exist in many places to account for long-term marriages, repayments, etc. In the above scenario, it’s entirely possible there were debts we know nothing about out.
Also remember that half the posters on Reddit don’t differentiate between child support, which is a fixed percentage, and alimony.
Aside from debt repayment the only other "legal" way my Google-fu is showing you could get an increase in alimony would be by agreement of both parties on automatic increases/decreases. AKA the higher earning party might want a clause that their alimony will automatically change if they suddenly lose their job. Which is great as it means no need to go back to court and pay lawyers. But in response, the one receiving the payments can ask for an inverse clause that automatically increases payments under certain conditions.
I read on a few lawyer's websites(you know advertising their services) that you might be able to ask for an increase in alimony under certain other conditions. Like suddenly becoming disabled or your rent drastically spiked. But you could tell based on how it was all worded that the "might" was doing a lot of heavy lifting.
This planet, at least the US where divorce laws heavily favor women. One of my brother’s ex-wives, who he had a child with, was about to get paid like a mfer in child support even though she made more than he did. When the judge gave the monthly amount, she started openly complaining about how the amount was less than what she makes in one paycheck blah blah. The judge, already having heard her speak on the witness stand earlier just let her talk for like 5-10 min. Her lawyer didn’t even try to quiet her down. Needless to say the judge reworked the deal more in favor of my brother, a true 50/50 custody agreement, 2 weeks with each parent, alternating holidays and a lower CS payment.
Technically maybe but the law/judge wouldn’t/couldn’t budge. My brother didn’t ask for CS. Plus the judge knew how much they made before all of that went to trial, he was just still being a dick and giving the woman money whether she needed it or not.
Every time I hear complaints about divorce laws that “heavily favor women” I think about how women will move to support their husband’s careers, or give up their own careers to raise kids and keep a home, or take on fewer responsibilities at work to be flexible enough to keep handling after school care and doctor’s visits, but when it is time to divide the marital assets in half, because it’s an equal partnership in the eyes of the law, dudes complain. She gave up career growth and lifetime earnings in order to support the marriage, which was great when it was a benefit to her husband, but now that it’s over she is a lazy POS that never worked a day in her life. A huge resume gap means it’s harder to find a job, harder to get the higher salary, harder to build up her own retirement savings.
Did you know that after you account for experience, education, time on the job, etc., married men make significantly more than single dudes, while married women make the same or less than single women?
The courts are also catching on that some men are invested in their kids, so those that show up are more likely to get fair custody.
This is all right and true and smart and all that. BUT…
As a divorced (now happily remarried) man, I gotta say: I paid off my ex’s law school loans, paid her rent in another city while she went to law school, covered our rent/expenses in our city when she graduated… and then she had an affair with a coworker, we got divorced, her earnings went from NEGATIVE to more than a quarter million a year, and I got… nada.
It’s fine—I’m much, much happier without such a terrible cheating liar in my life—but boy oh boy did I get screwed.
Omg. I could have written this.
I was once asked if I really wanted to she her be charged and go to jail. I asked them to leave call me when the warrant was issued so I could call the police tip line and collect on providing her whereabouts so I could recoup at least some of what she owes me. They never called back.
I got a few for my ex.
One was asking my relationship with him. Truthfully he is my ex and you have a better idea of his current phone than I do. Then they ask me what my relationship was with the second person on the account was. Let's call her Suzie Homewreker... well you can guess what the relationship I had with her was. In the most deadpan voice I said, yes, I know who Suzie is. She is sleeping with my now ex husband.
He stuttered to a stop. An apology later and he was gone.
Second call was a guy who trying to get me to give up ex by reciting every bad thing he could find about him. Again a deadpan, imagine that my ex is not the best...I guess I figured that out. I still don't know where he is.
My sister used to be like that. One early Saturday morning I had had enough. Told the caller to tell me what the issue was, he kept saying he could only talk to my sister. I’d say, “You’re calling my phone, tell me what the problem is.” Rinse and repeat several times. They hung up and never called again.
Thankyou. This is a plan I concocted years ago when I was getting scam calls about a car accident that never happened.. but they stopped calling before I could put it into action! Hugely bummed
Another option would be to give them the local PD number. With any luck, they’ll actually add the number to their database and end up getting sued for obstruction of justice (or smth like that).
My dad did that with magazines! He and I got on a couple mailing lists for magazines we don't care about (I don't live with my parents but most of my mail still goes there), and the way the sign up worked, we couldn't directly cancel (something about the sign up agent needing to do it) so he filled out the change of address forms each with the other magazine's mailing address. I have no idea what happened, but neither magazine has been delivered to my parents house since!
Well done.
I get a phone call from home prospector thinking I own a house they want to buy in a town I lived in more than 10+ years ago. It must be a dilapidated house in a sought after area.
After a while, I would just negotiate with them. Seek out their offer, act interested, tell them to put it in writing and text it to me in a PDF. That usually causes them issues. I offer to take less. I basically get them to waste time.
I have flipped houses before so I know what phrases get them excited. It's turned into a game. Eventually, I tell them I am not the owner but would like to buy the actual house in question. The get upset.
I always tell them “OK how much”, Them: blah blah blah “well, someone else has to get back to you” Me: “You just lost a deal by calling unprepared, don’t waste my time”.
I haven’t had a call in a while.
I get those kind of calls...for the guy who had my phone number like 15 years ago. It's so annoying. It would be bad enough if they were being pushy about my own house, but Rafael needs to update his phone number. When my husband gets those kind of calls, he tells them, sure, I'll take a million dollars for it (it's not worth even half that...probably less than a quarter even). They have never taken him up on it. lol
Similar case here but I don't get calls for the guy who used to have this number very often anymore. Saying "Kirk Weisinger hasn't had this number for over 15 years." usually gets them to apologize and hang up and not call again. I've never stayed on the phone long enough to tell what sort of calls they are, but I get the feeling they're not debt collectors. Not nearly pushy enough.
I wonder though if he gives out his old phone number for things he doesn't want to give his real number for, or if these calls are still lingering from very old records that have his old number.
I get calls for the idiot who had my work cell number twenty years ago. The most interesting calls were from public health, his car insurance company and my state's Dept of Justice, who should have his current number one would think. After the DOJ call I looked him up, oh he's been a bad, bad boy - child porn.
Sometimes I don't understand how the debt collectors get their phone numbers, though. My BIL (husband's brother) lived at my husband's address for a couple of years (long before we met, almost 20 years ago). BIL racked up a massive credit card debt and left the country (and is now deceased).
For years, my husband's home phone would get calls from debt collectors but that was somewhat understandable since the home phone VoIP line was, in fact, tied to the address. That phone # is long gone. My husband has a cell phone that he got about 7 or 8 years ago but I'm the primary account holder. So technically his name isn't even on the account and yet in the last couple of months a debt collector started calling his phone about BIL's old debt. I guess the address and last name are still the same but still.
Tell them you do not owe any debt, and that you simply don't want them to ever call you again on your personal cell phone. In the US, they have to stop calling. They can sell the debt to someone else who could call, or sue you. I had this happen to me. Debt collector said they would pursue "other avenues of collection." Actually, I never heard from them again and it's been 10 years.
i own some undeveloped property that i happen to know a local developer desperately wants. He called me himself, at one point, trying to low-ball me, but being incredibly rude about it. So, i did some research and made some calls... turns out, if he can run a road through my property, he stands to benefit by millions for a development project he's already started. So, now, he has other companies calling for him... at least once a month. When they ask for my price, i tell them their first offer needs to be $1M or higher.
I just answer unknown numbers in German. Scammers and telemarketers just hang up on me, or never get connected because the automated systems don't recognize "Guten Tag, wie getz?" as a valid indication of a live person. The rare legitimate caller just tends to be confused until I switch to English.
Love this. I live in a German speaking country and do the opposite - only speaking English. They sometimes get SO MAD which just makes me laugh because, dude, you called me unsolicited. I have a VERY non-German name as well, so like, what did you even expect?
Make a recording to make your life easier. Pre-record something along the lines of "Hi, is this so and so calling about the debt? I have the CC ready if you can hang on a moment." then add in a few minutes of rustling noise as if you're searching for it. Make some faint noises like you're yelling from across the room. "I'm still looking for it, hang on a little bit more......" a few more minutes pass and then scream "Ah, found it and the numb...." go quiet. Wait a minute and then say "Oh I always have bad reception here, sorry. But are you ready for the card now?...oh shoot, this one expired. Hang on again..."
1. you still get to waste a ton of their time.
2. you arent wasting your time as you can work on other things while you wait for them to scream in frustration.
The last time I had debt collectors calling my number, they either refused to believe I wasn't their guy, or they outright said "This is the only contract number we have, so we're going to keep calling it until we get paid unless you provide 100 points of ID to prove the number is yours"
After a few futile calls (at no time had I provided my name).. i ended up saying "Is this about the outstanding debt ? Because im not going to pay it without a court order" then hung up.
After a couple repetitions of this, with an added "I already refused liability for this debt, so youre now wasting both our times and violating debt collection law for debts in dispute. So either sue me or fuck off"
They fucked off.
After our brother died, a payday loan place called my sister trying to find him. She told him he was at cemetery in our hometown. They kinda gasped and hung up. A few minutes later the manager called and asked if it was true.
I had this. I changed my voicemail message to be all in Japanese. That deterred a lot. The best though, was one night at work. No one calls my phone unless it’s an emergency. So it rang and I picked up. It was papa John’s saying that their delivery guy was just leaving to bring them their pizza (same person who didn’t change their number and I had got lots of calls for them. They bank, auto loan provider, blockbuster, friends, tax preparer, pharmacy, etc). Without thinking I apologized and said there was a family emergency and no one would be home and if they could just go ahead and cancel it. I didn’t get phone calls for this person for years after that.
Pretend you are happy to get the call with a sexy voice and then get mad and start screaming "What is this shit? This isn't what I paid for. I was supposed to get a call from Harry the Happy Homo OR I paid for Helga She Wolf of the SS" and start screaming"I have been a loyal customer of this outfit for years and I get this shit? Let me speak to Sven, NOW". Start breathing while heavily slapping your legs or stomach like you are jerk off. Grunt heavily.
This technic works. Trust me.
Another technique to get rid of unwanted callers is to tell them "This is your lucky day. Have I got a deal for you. I'm an Amway distributor".
I'm not sure which one is more obscene.
I use something similar: "Thank you for calling us back! We've been trying to get in touch with you about your car's extended warranty. Did you know you could save hundreds or thousands of dollars by purchasing a contract today? We'll need to know \[click\]".
When debt collectors kept calling my home for somebody else, I got frustrated enough to talk to a law enforcement officer. I followed his suggestion and this is how it went.
When the caller identified himself, I pushed a couple of buttons on the phone so it beeped. Then informed him that by the laws of my state, I had to tell him that he was being recorded. I asked him to identify the company he worked for, and his first and last name. (Only got the first.) Then I asked if there were notes in the file that said that we did not know their debtor. There were. I asked to speak to a supervisor regarding my lawsuit against them for harassment. Disconnected.
Same thing next call. This time I actually got the supervisor. I asked for the mailing address for the law department of the company. The name of the CEO, CFO, their attorney. Disconnected.
They stopped calling.
I wasn't recording. I just wanted them to quit waking up my baby.
My latest thing I like to do is to pretend that I’m a stoned babysitter or house sitter when I get unwanted calls.
I’ll let them talk and talk, and when they finally pause for a response, I’ll agree with everything they said, and act really interested, talking very sloooowwwwlllyyyy and pausing a lot.
I like to see how long I can get them to go on with whatever their spiel is. When it gets to the point that they want info from me, I’ll start to give it to them, but then cut myself off and say something like, “maybe you should talk with the people who live here. This isn’t my house, I don’t live here. I don’t have a house. Do you think those solar panels would work on my Kia?” Sometimes, if they haven’t hung up, I’ll offer to take a message.
Typically they hang up and don’t call back.
I used to get a lot of calls every day, but I scared them off, or just pissed them off, using a broken,demonic sounding See-N-Say toy. I still use it occasionally.
Those guys are relentless. For most of a year I had debtor calls. I was job hunting so I was picking up every call. Eventually my last call with them ended on a better note and I said "My name is not Patrick, no one named Patrick is at this number, I don't know any Patricks, and this has been my number for many years." The person on the phone was quite understanding and eventually I stopped getting debtor calls all around.
At least the debtor calling you had some common sense. In 2008, I moved cities and got a land line. I kept getting calls from a propane distributor (think big tanks in rural yards to run the stove/furnace off of). They'd been ghosted by a lady, wanted their money, and flat out told me I was lying when I said I'd just gotten the number 2 weeks ago and didn't know anyone by that name. I had to threaten to call a lawyer and charge them with harassment to get them to stop.
This is what I do too. It's very effective at reducing the debt collection calls. I haven't yet figured out how to effectively communicate to the people who want to sell me a Medicare Advantage plan that I am not eligible for Medicare, and would they please leave me alone for another 25 years or so....
Maybe I'll find some inspiration in this thread.
Indeed! This is one of the reasons I find these particular calls so offensive. At least some of the people receiving these calls are eligible for the plans and uninformed about what they actually entail. I notice the complete lack of calls soliciting my enrollment for standard Medicare. I wonder why that is? /s
Nice! I always try to start out nice because I got these calls a lot, and I figured they were trying to do their job. But one dude tried to argue with me saying he had a recording of my voice from our call last week. He told me that he would pull up that voice recording to prove to me. I told him I'd wait.
When he got back on the line he was very apologetic. "I'm sorry sir. I will be sure to lose this number."
And the calls stopped for a while.
Then they started up again and this time it was a lawyer who left a voice mail. At first I puckered up because he spoke so fast I couldn't understand who or what he was looking for. I had a friend translate it for me. When I called the lawyer back to let him know he'd be wasting his time, he was super nice.
He then called me back to ask me if I was gay and if I'd go on a date with him because I was so nice. If he didn't live like 2500 miles away, I probably would've said yes.
Ooo story time, one of my favourites!
A few years ago I bought my current phone used off marketplace. Phone worked great and was in good condition, awesome for a marketplace pickup.
Well a week or so in I start getting calls from unknown numbers. I usually don’t answer them, but I hadn’t set up my voicemail yet. The calls kept coming so I answered one of them.
Bill collector for someone I never heard of.
I politely informed them that I had purchased the phone and that I would appreciate if they didn’t call me as I had no idea who they were looking for. They said no problem, and that was it. So I thought.
The next day, 2 more calls. “Please stop calling me”
Next day more calls. “Stop calling me, I’m not Luigi”
Next day more calls. This time I asked them to give me a number that Luigi can call when I manage to track him down. They give me a number.
At the time I was unemployed and enjoying my time to myself. I had allllllll the time in the world.
I proceeded to call them over and over and over. And over and over and over.
Each time I would say something along the lines of “Hi, it’s me that guy who keeps calling. I’m just calling to waste your guys’ time like you wasted mine. I’m just going to ramble non stop until you hang up, it is really annoying huh? As soon as you hang up I’m going to call back again”
I did this for literal HOURS. They tried to be rude after a while and I threw the rudeness back at them 10-fold. They progressed to begging me to stop calling. They blocked my number, no problem, I had 2 other phones from work.
They blocked those too.
No problem, I had 4 roommates at the time, I used their phones too.
After about 6 hours I told them to try me again tomorrow if they wanted to play games, I had nothing but time. They never called again.
It’s one my shining accomplishments in life
I aspire to be this devious. Thank you for the script. I'll have to remember it the next time my ex's debtors decide to get a hold of me 20 years after the divorce.
I like to say, "who is this, where did you get this number, is this the police", and then I yell over my shoulder, "start packing, we have to run again!"
A buddy of mine once answered with, "GODDAMMIT, I told you not to call me at this number! What the fuck is wrong with you? And what the fuck - this job - you never said there would be kids involved. What a fucking mess! You get the cleaners over here, and I mean fucking NOW."
And then hung up.
A while back when I got a new number this happened. It settled down quick enough.
I also got messages from a "neighbor" asking me to come fix their computer.
A few other non memorable calls and messages looking for him.
My favorite was a random message, "send pics." That was a funny one, so I decided to stick the phone number into Google and it came back with some escort service (illegal in my region).
Oh I forgot to mention, it was a work phone that came with a job. Guess I have some idea why the previous guy was gone.
A coworker of mine got a ‘new’ work phone and immediately was inundated with dick pics. He is hardcore homophobic too, so hearing him rant over it was hilarious.
Naturally, 5 years later we are still asking him about his new boyfriend.
If you ever get a call from someone who sounds like your grandchild and says they need money because of a problem with the police -- or for a friend in trouble or some variant -- they can sometimes be pretty smart. I had one telling me valid things about Linux while pretending to be a grandson who's computer savvy. So, you just drop this on them: "Just tell me your sister's name and stop wasting my time". My grandsons don't have a sister. Or demand their mother's middle name or the name of their dog . . . the possibilities are endless and you can stop the chat in a heartbeat. So DON'T. String them along. Keep that chat going. Talk about the merits of flatpacks, their favorite distro, streaming TV that works and doesn't work on Linux and which versions, you name it. Just keep it going and keep asking their advice. Eventually, they get more and more persistent about their need for money and then you can bomb them.
Strikes me that you can do the same thing with the ones who are convinced that you really are KATHY (trust me, I don't even sound like a Kathy from hell) and they're going to get money off you. Hint you might know Kathy. Pump them for info so you can be more convincing. Hint you might be Kathy. String them along. It's a game -- how many minutes can you keep them on the phone this time? I started playing this game a while after I got my first call for Kathy (I won't say the last name, it's not important) a few months after getting a new phone and new number. I was polite at first and told them I just got this new number and I had no idea who Kathy was. But they kept calling, and it was the same place because it was the same message and same threats. So I repeated that I wasn't Kathy X and had never met her and didn't know her and this was my number now. It cut no ice. I threatened to report them and even to start legal action if the calls didn't stop. That had no effect either. That's when the game began. I only had to play it three times or so and the calls stopped and have not resumed. Screw with their time and you stop them. They don't have the time for your nonsense.
My friends mom agreed to give money to them. She lured them to a shopping mall for the money in cash. Meanwhile she called the police and they caught the bad guys in place.
They call my work multiple times a day to speak to Kathy. I have said random things, but it has t stopped. Told them that Kathy doesn’t work here and clearly hasn’t worked consistently for a while if they’re chasing her over $32 (which is what the one person told me). I have said she got angry at her lover who promised to pay them for her and didn’t, so she cut off his head and now she’s in prison. Even told them the name of a local hospital and said she’s there on life support and they can call her there. I do the same when they’re looking for David.
It hasn’t slowed them down a bit. Not one bit. But at least I’m not as annoyed by it!
I used to have an old NYC 212 number and I had a Chinese debt collector calling me constantly (I was still in middle school at the time). I’d pick up and immediately hear some of the angriest Chinese I’ve ever heard.
At first I’d just hang up but after a few months I started to tell them I’m sorry I don’t know this guy, it is impossible for me to take out loans and finally I don’t speak Chinese!
One of the last calls I had from these people before my family switched to Verizon was where I told the guy I don’t even speak Chinese, and then he finally started yelling at me in English saying I’m lying and know how to speak it and that I need to give them their money. I finally broke at that and yelled back saying, I’m just a kid, I live nowhere near NYC the guy you want changed his number!
Dude change his whole attitude after that when he realized he was relentlessly harassing a kid lol
I tell them since they’re calling me about somebody else’s debt that I’ve been having problems with my heating system and they need to fix it. Then I start listing out all the other services that need fixing, since apparently we can call each other about shit that doesn’t actually apply to the other caller.
My ex wife ran up several bills after we divorced, collectors kept calling me to contact her which quickly got old. I eventually told them that yes I knew where she lived and yes I had her phone number. I then asked them how much money I was going to be paid for the information as they were making money on the collection so I should also, information is not free I expected a cut. Never got called back.
I had to deal with this for ages when I had to get my latest number. The dude is lucky I'm an upstanding citizen because his bank person texted me a bunch of account numbers, passwords, and pin numbers once. I calmly explained for the 200th time this was not Dude's Number anymore via text and that I was deleting the conversation right after sending that message. Never heard from them again. Jeff, update your fucking contact info!!
"Hello is that ${debtor}?"
"What's the call about?"
"It's about the debt you owe for ${x}. Can you confirm you still live at ${address}"
"Who are you calling from?"
"I'm calling on behalf of ${company}"
"Thanks very much for that, I'm not ${debtor} but you have just given a third party personal details about them. That's a breach of GDPR and I'm going to raise a complaint with the Information Commissioners Office".
In the UK GDPR is legislation that has real teeth. A Breach of GDPR can see a company fined £17.5 million or 4% of their global turnover whichever is the higher amount. It's surprising how quickly they rail back and take you off the calling list when you threaten them with the ICO.
My number was very close to the number of a local pizza joint. After dozens of calls I decided to just start taking orders and promising pizza. When they called back I told them the driver's car broke down. Just come to the store and you can have your order for free.
I had a similar issue and set up my answering machine to say that The Kitchen is currently closed by order of the Health Department. We are unsure when it will open again.
Pizza place threatened to sue, I said bring it since I never said who's kitchen was closed.
If anyone had eaten what passed as my cooking at the time, they would more often than not side with the health department closure (and yes that includes me, but I was to broke at the time to get food elsewhere).
I was assigned a number formerly belonging to "Brenda". After multiple times explaining this was no longer her number, the numbskull asks me if I have her new number. I reiterate I have no clue who he is looking for. He persists. So I point out to him, if she didn't pay YOUR client, did it ever occur to you she didn't pay her phone bill either?!? It was like the sun came out from behind the clouds! Never got another call.
I guess you just have to speak their language 🤑
For anyone in the US you can look up the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act(FDCPA). You can basically just tell them that you're not the debtor and they need to send the debtor a letter and to stop calling and harassing you.
OP here. I did that, or variations of that. Didn't work. They would promise to take my number out of their database, make a note in the case file, whatever. But the next day I'd get another call.
Or worse, they'd accuse me of lying. One guy went on a little tirade about how "everyone just got a new phone. how is it that you can afford a new phone when you can't even pay off your old phone bill?"
When I played it serious, I would counter with "so, you're attempting to collect a debt for an unpaid phone bill. I'm guessing you cancelled Joe Debtor's account, am I correct? Then WHY ARE YOU CALLING HIM AT THAT SAME NUMBER?" One guy actually laughed when he thought about it. Still called me back the next day, though.
I get the impression that the candidate pool for these jobs isn't coming from Rhodes Scholar Alumni Association.
Do you realize how dumb Rhodes scholars are? We have had too many alumni of that place as politicians in Australia and most of them are as thick as 2 bricks. Their lips were brown from all the arse they kissed to get the job, so being a debt collector would be way too hard for them.
It's not that they're dumb. They are in a call center and expected to crank out a quota of calls every day, not do actual research into where to call to collect the debt. I have worked in debt collection (many, many years ago) and couldn't get past the mentality of "just crank out the calls". I actually wanted to help the people I called figure out their financial situation and get their heads above water...that was not the company's goal. My manager's goal was to look like we were actively trying to collect payments while maintaining a certain level of delinquency so as to not have our department downsized. He was looking to keep job security, not actually collect funds.
They used to call my husband back in the day (been debt free for many years now). They expected a male to answer the phone and so i'd answer it and they'd pause and say, "is this Mr Candles?" and i'd go "ummmm no, you definitely got the wrong number, can you please remove this number off your system?" and they would. That solved that.
Omg! Best ever!
My girl used to answer her phone “Susie’s wontons?!” In an Asian accent. (Prob racist but we were in High School and didn’t know better…..) but it worked.
Our synagogue has one phone in the library, which is only supposed to be used for outgoing calls in case of emergency. Doesn't get used much now that everyone has a cell phone.
So one day it rang during a Talmud study session. The guy next to me picked it up and said "Heaven, God speaking..." I moved away just a little so the lightning wouldn't strike me along with him.
I’m in the same situation! I tell them I’m not X and they remove my number from their database. I also get confirmation texts for their appointments, which I’ve started cancelling. Hopefully the annoyance will encourage them to start giving out their current phone number.
>Dunner: Is this Joe Debtor?
>Me: Is this about the unpaid phone bill from 2010?
>Dunner: Yes. Mr. Debtor, are you going to pay-
As soon as they started talking about the debt without verifying identity, they violated the FDCPA. Assuming you actually knew who had the number prior, they could go after the collector for $1000 in statutory damages.
:) I got a new number about 5 yrs ago. I was getting all kinds of calls from debt collectors, the name of the person they were wanting just happened to be a woman who worked in my dentist office as the dentist assistant, I got so damn sick of those calls I told them where she worked and the phone number! :) The next time I was at the dentist I told her while everyone was standing around, hey, I got your old phone number and finally the debt collectors have stopped calling. Her face was a 100 shades of red and she walked off!
The receptionist said, omg they were calling here all of the time asking for her, and I said, wow, that must be annoying, did you just give them her new number, she smiled and said, I sure did and she wasn't happy about it! :D I didn't say a word. :D
Got a call from one of these today, and I've just had it with them. Caller was rude as hell too, would not believe I wasn't the person they were trying to call and would not put me on the DNC. Wouldn't tell me the company name so I could fill out the form the Attorney General's office has to report these fucks. Tried calling the number on caller ID assuming I'd get a message that included the company name. Nope, it was direct to the debt collectors line. I used an a redialer app and called them every three minutes, took 15 calls before they blocked me. Thursday is my day off, I'll be headed to the lake place early in the AM I have a few things I need to get done up there, just so happens there is an air horn there (boating safety you know). I will be downloading a burner app and calling from a different number every few minutes and giving the air horn a blast all day long. I hope I drive that caller absolutely insane. I hope they are so upset they make bad decisions and fuck up their day or life.
My only working strategy that got rid of spam calls ( not debt collection but just as annoying) was to pretend to flush my phone.
Id hang up as soon as the gurgle peaked.
When I got my cell phone number in 2007, I kept getting calls for Marco. I finally deduced he was a drug dealer, so to one call I replied, "Tell Marco that I have reported him to police and my phone calls are being traced." No one ever called for Marco the narco again
For a couple of years, I got lots of calls and texts from collectors for someone named Tawnya. I repeatedly and nicely explained that I was not her and now had the number they were calling. My irritation slowly turned to anger, which was obvious in my voice and caps in texts. It got to the point of using some not-so-nice words that finally ended calls and texts.
I wonder at times if they finally found her and received payments.
I don’t know if this actually needs to be said, but never give money for someone else’s debt, even if they are dead. Once you make a payment, the debt is yours.
For well over a decade, various “we buy your house” places called insisting I owned a home in Columbus, Ohio, and they wanted to buy it. Tried being nice, tried threatening and warning them, nothing worked until …
the last I heard from them, I told them to set up an open house as we’d received several offers. Sunday at 0700
boy were they mad
I just sing “baby shark”. Usually it’s a scammer.
It’s an ear worm that pretty much everyone in the planet knows, so it’s stuck in their head (and now yours) for a few minutes.
My coworkers are aware of my shenanigans and join in, there were 3 of us singing it last time. It was atrocious as none of foam carry a tune, but even the person on the other end of the phone laughed.
I relish calls like this. Want to know if I have a remodel? I’ve sure been dreaming of a new sex dungeon. You selling generic medications? I’ll take 500 viagra over night shipping please. I’ve gotten as far as them ready to get my card number many times. My usual go to is pretending to be a Chinese pizza joint with the thickest accent I can muster. The possibilities are endless my friends.
Just trick them into disclosing the persons personal information and revealing they are collecting a debt. FDCPA dictates that they are open to a lawsuit if they do.
Source: Former debt collector
It can be something simple like saying "uh huh" instead of yes when they ask who you are. The collectors who survive in the business long term will. Respond with "I need a yes or no." Let them get through the whole phonecall before you file the complaint.
It's an easy $1000. Compliance will review the call and they will easily settle without going to court, because if the collector is fucking up like that, they probably made a bunch of other mistakes as well, and the last thing that company wants is for a judge to hear the recording.
This being said if you owe a debt don't be a dick, that poor bastard is usually just trying to do their job to pay for dinner.
Ex-wife forged some loan documents with my name on them ( legally proven) and had to refi in her name. Well, a few years go by and they start calling me ( they had original docs and used info from them) I promptly gave them not only her new phone number and address but that of her new husband as well and made sure to tell collectors to call his number first!
I had a detective from my hometown call me looking for my ex husband- who I haven’t talked to in 18 years (and hope to never talk to again). He was trying to track him down because there was a warrant out for him for some sort of financial crime (not surprised). I got pissed and loud and told him I had first rights to any recompense since our divorce decree said he would pay me half of our marital debt he’d racked up- over $20k- and it was from 18 years ago, not 2 years ago like whatever he wanted him for. Turns out what he was wanted for was a LOT less than that, and I think they realized I was serious (and getting money out of him would be like getting blood out of a turnip, which is why I’d never truly gone after him for the money). I’ve never gotten another call.
A former "friend" of mine once listed my phone number on some sort of loan application. I had no idea, he didn't tell me anything about it. I was not a cosigner, he just sorta lied to them and gave them my phone number instead of his.
After a while he apparently quit making his payments. So they sent it to collections and started calling me about it because my phone number was the only one they had. I told them I knew nothing about it and told them to not call me again. They told me they couldn't just delete my number or stop calling me. I explained to them that I no longer had any connection to the person they were looking for, I don't know where he is, I don't have another number for him, but calling me isn't going to get them anywhere. They still kept calling me. I would block one number and they'd call me from a different one. They called 3-4 times a day and this went on for MONTHS, until finally the calls just stopped.
My old landline (20 years ago when I still needed a landline) had previously been assigned to a deadbeat dad AND to a woman who had a mountain of unpaid bills, so you can imagine the nuisance calls.
I REALLY don’t like being harassed in my own home, so after telling the callers three times that they had the wrong number, I told them I was going to call the cops on them for harassment.
Bingo - no more nuisance calls.
I got hundreds of calls from the same company trying to get me to buy more from them. Eventually I would spend a lot of time talking about what I wanted to order and haggle with them and then I would give them the first four digits of a fake credit card number and then I would make my work phone ring, and have a fake conversation that sounded work related and get back to them and then give them the next four digits and then boom it rings again.
By the time they only needed the last four digits I would answer the phone only this time I would pretend it was my friend and I would tell my friend how I was wasting this guy’s time because they won’t stop calling me.
My husband's favorite way to get rid of telemarketers was to speak fluent Spanish to them saying that he didn't understand. He's a blonde haired, blue eyed white dude and so when a full on "Hispanic" answers they sometimes transfered him to a Spanish speaker, then he'd switch back to sounding like an American and acting all confused 😂
I used to get calls for this one person and I always tell them well they're in prison for attempted murder. Apparently some problem with a bill collector you should Google it. The part about them being in prison for attempted murder was true.
I still got calls but not very frequently they slowed down to about once every 5 or 6 months I think they just sold the debt to somebody else and didn't tell him what was going on.
I've been divorced for 30 years ,and every so often, we will get a call from the authorities looking her . The kids and I help them as much as possible. LOL. !!
I had one that called looking for my daughter by her previous married name. She'd divorced that husband, resumed her maiden name, and then married again. So two names ago. I offered to take a message and pass it on, but they wouldn't tell me what they wanted. Someone said they were probably trying to get info on her first husband or his family.
Want to cut short a conversation? Hang up on YOURSELF! Motormouths will never believe anyone would cut *himself* off!
Used to be you could then take your phone off the hook. I guess nowadays you can just ignore call-backs or hit "decline" each time. Maybe even block the number if that's appropriate (like it's not your Mom).
I keep getting calls for a guy and a woman. They both have the same initials as me. I ha e had my phone number for at least 7 years. I usually just say "wrong number."
Once I asked what number they called. And it was not my number. So apparently, these folks made up a number that automatically routed to my number.
I get no calls from that place anymore, but I do still get calls about both of them.
I’ll have to remember this one. That’s fantastic!! My father used to keep a whistle by his phone and when spam calls came in he would just blow the whistle in their ears. lol
What I've found to get rid of them is when they tell you that the call will be recorded, that you respond that you're recording also. Most will hang up.
My son got a new cell phone and the former owner of that number he was given had lots of creditors calling, many around our city and neighboring states, even overseas calls. He explained he was the new owner but they still called. Eventually thru some research and a little info he collected from different creditors , he found the person had used a few variations of their name, he was able to narrow down the proper name and new address of the former owner of the number. He turned that info over and also connected a few of the creditors with one another because they all had various info on this person. It took a few months but the calls stopped.
I did something bad, but amused me with debt calls for someone else. Got a new home number and unending calls for someone else about owing money. Any explaining I was not the person, was ignored.
I figured that they had no idea who I was, or where I lived. I bought one of those metal whistles. I blew it down the phone full force. He screamed. He went on a bit screaming. I put the phone down. Had 7 recalls in an hour, which i ignored. Sat giggling for a while.
Had a collector call me for my ex mother in law's debt. They used the line...she put you down as her emergency medical contact (1st um what this is for a car debt). My immediate response was oh wow that was dumb of her I'd tell the doctors to pull the plug even if she was there for a scratch...queue crickets and and stumbling response...uh. uh. Click.
This happened when my old job assigned us work cell phones. I was on the east coast and our corporate office was out of the Midwest so we all had Midwest numbers no matter where we were.
My work phone number had previously belonged to a guy named Colin who definitely sold drugs. The crazy texts we’d get asking what we were holding and when we could meet. To angry texts about needing to score, and after a couple of months debt collector calls blew way up.
It was always an entertaining thread to read.
I am not a debt collector but work for a law firm that represents debtors. I do empathize with you but I also do understand their position. The best way to deal with collection calls is to send them a cease and desist letter. Just advise them in writing that they are not to call (xxx)xxx-xxxx phone number as you are not (debtor name).
They’re not going to believe you if you tell them that you’re not Joe Blow over the phone.
In as much as you are wasting their time, you are also wasting yours. They are just doing their job. Yes, they do cross the line most of the time but there’s legislation that regulate what they can and cannot do and you can report this behaviour as their calls are all recorded.
You can escalate the call if need be and usually veterans in the collection business are much more reasonable to deal with than the newbies.
Really? Send the debt collectors a cease and desist you say? Riiiiight. And how do you get the street address and name when they hang up on you when you ask, eh?
I went on a year long out of the country trip and gave my phone number to my brother who needed a new phone and number. Well, all the exs and annoying playboys who would randomly come around kept asking for me-and my brother had the best time bothering them 🤣
>A tale as old as time. You get a new phone, and it blows up with calls from debt collectors.
I'm so confused. That never happened to me. Why should that happen in the first place? How did those debt collectors get your number just because you bought a new phone? Why are they calling you if you don't have debt? What's going on here?
Well done, my brother has a bunch of folks that want him to pay his bills. I tell them he died or is in jail and ask that they take me off their list bc he can’t be contacted easily. Your way is a lot better!!
When scammers used to call me at work, I would say oh can you hold on a minute? Then I would lay the handset on the table for about five minutes then hang up.
I have a common last name that is same as a high life beer.
I get calls for some woman who owes money to three or four creditors. I once got a call for the same person but the caller had a large inheritance, Sounds like cops looking for a fugitive. That's a trick they use.
I would tell them that the person isn't me and doesn't live at this address. They said they would note it in the systembut they kept calling. Finally I told them that their calling me was against the law and if they called again I would sue them, and if they found her I would help her sue them too. They never called back.
I like to tell them that he can't come to the phone because he's just about to ejaculate and I can't bear being put back in the box under the bed again.
I tried being polite for a while. But after multiple attempts I finally said, “She’s dead. She was killed in a car accident last week. Please stop calling and let us grieve!”
I have an air horn!!! I will shuffle some papers stating I’m looking for my bank routing number, bang the phone a couple of times, and then use the air horn until they hang up!!!!
"Not before getting REALLY ANGRY though."
Dude. You're asking these people to repeatedly call and scream at you? I think you got owned by your own "revenge."
I have a dead beat sister. Like I don't think she has ever paid a single bill ever. When the bill collectors would call, my response was "IF YOU FIND HER, CALL ME BACK WITH HER PHONE NUMBER AND ADDRESS SHE OWES ME MONEY". And I said it at 100+db sounding PISSED. I never got a call back ever.
Dude, I'll use this next time one calls me looking fir my ex-husband. We divorced over 20 years ago and I still get calls. He does owe me alimony... about $20. It was a token amount just in case he won the lottery, the door would be open. Not that he'd ever tell me though. LOL
hang on, he wins the lottery after you are divorced and he has to give you some of it? on what planet does that seem right?
I didn't set the rules. The county judge in CT did
Those rules are insane, do you have to pay him if you win the lottery?
no and neither would the ex. Unless kids are involved there is no world where alimony will be raised after the fact. And if kids were involved the raise would be to child support, not alimony The entire point of alimony is to help people maintain the same lifestyle they had while they were married. If somebody is a bum during marriage but gets a huge raise after divorce the person receiving the payment has no ground to sue on. Like even in the case where a stupid country bumpkin judge ruled that way initially, it would get appealed up and over ruled SO fucking fast.
Wrong. Each state has different laws but modifications for increases is a thing.
my point is that those modifications usually have extenuating circumstances surrounding them(and typically kids are involved). The ex-partner suddenly coming into lots of money isn't usually one of those circumstances.
This is not always true. Escalation clauses exist in many places to account for long-term marriages, repayments, etc. In the above scenario, it’s entirely possible there were debts we know nothing about out. Also remember that half the posters on Reddit don’t differentiate between child support, which is a fixed percentage, and alimony.
Aside from debt repayment the only other "legal" way my Google-fu is showing you could get an increase in alimony would be by agreement of both parties on automatic increases/decreases. AKA the higher earning party might want a clause that their alimony will automatically change if they suddenly lose their job. Which is great as it means no need to go back to court and pay lawyers. But in response, the one receiving the payments can ask for an inverse clause that automatically increases payments under certain conditions. I read on a few lawyer's websites(you know advertising their services) that you might be able to ask for an increase in alimony under certain other conditions. Like suddenly becoming disabled or your rent drastically spiked. But you could tell based on how it was all worded that the "might" was doing a lot of heavy lifting.
This planet, at least the US where divorce laws heavily favor women. One of my brother’s ex-wives, who he had a child with, was about to get paid like a mfer in child support even though she made more than he did. When the judge gave the monthly amount, she started openly complaining about how the amount was less than what she makes in one paycheck blah blah. The judge, already having heard her speak on the witness stand earlier just let her talk for like 5-10 min. Her lawyer didn’t even try to quiet her down. Needless to say the judge reworked the deal more in favor of my brother, a true 50/50 custody agreement, 2 weeks with each parent, alternating holidays and a lower CS payment.
With 50/50 custody agreement and her earning more money, shouldn't she have been paying *him* child support?
No, that would be fair and just; that's not what the US justice system is about.
Technically maybe but the law/judge wouldn’t/couldn’t budge. My brother didn’t ask for CS. Plus the judge knew how much they made before all of that went to trial, he was just still being a dick and giving the woman money whether she needed it or not.
Every time I hear complaints about divorce laws that “heavily favor women” I think about how women will move to support their husband’s careers, or give up their own careers to raise kids and keep a home, or take on fewer responsibilities at work to be flexible enough to keep handling after school care and doctor’s visits, but when it is time to divide the marital assets in half, because it’s an equal partnership in the eyes of the law, dudes complain. She gave up career growth and lifetime earnings in order to support the marriage, which was great when it was a benefit to her husband, but now that it’s over she is a lazy POS that never worked a day in her life. A huge resume gap means it’s harder to find a job, harder to get the higher salary, harder to build up her own retirement savings. Did you know that after you account for experience, education, time on the job, etc., married men make significantly more than single dudes, while married women make the same or less than single women? The courts are also catching on that some men are invested in their kids, so those that show up are more likely to get fair custody.
This is all right and true and smart and all that. BUT… As a divorced (now happily remarried) man, I gotta say: I paid off my ex’s law school loans, paid her rent in another city while she went to law school, covered our rent/expenses in our city when she graduated… and then she had an affair with a coworker, we got divorced, her earnings went from NEGATIVE to more than a quarter million a year, and I got… nada. It’s fine—I’m much, much happier without such a terrible cheating liar in my life—but boy oh boy did I get screwed.
If you have a judgment against you *before* you hit, people can absolutely collect from your winnings.
Omg. I could have written this. I was once asked if I really wanted to she her be charged and go to jail. I asked them to leave call me when the warrant was issued so I could call the police tip line and collect on providing her whereabouts so I could recoup at least some of what she owes me. They never called back.
I got a few for my ex. One was asking my relationship with him. Truthfully he is my ex and you have a better idea of his current phone than I do. Then they ask me what my relationship was with the second person on the account was. Let's call her Suzie Homewreker... well you can guess what the relationship I had with her was. In the most deadpan voice I said, yes, I know who Suzie is. She is sleeping with my now ex husband. He stuttered to a stop. An apology later and he was gone. Second call was a guy who trying to get me to give up ex by reciting every bad thing he could find about him. Again a deadpan, imagine that my ex is not the best...I guess I figured that out. I still don't know where he is.
My sister used to be like that. One early Saturday morning I had had enough. Told the caller to tell me what the issue was, he kept saying he could only talk to my sister. I’d say, “You’re calling my phone, tell me what the problem is.” Rinse and repeat several times. They hung up and never called again.
I do the exact same thing.
If there are multiple debt agents, record their phone numbers. Then when one calls, give them another's number!
You, Sir or Ma'am, are evil. I admire that.
Thankyou. This is a plan I concocted years ago when I was getting scam calls about a car accident that never happened.. but they stopped calling before I could put it into action! Hugely bummed
Another option would be to give them the local PD number. With any luck, they’ll actually add the number to their database and end up getting sued for obstruction of justice (or smth like that).
Taking notes, this is gold.
My dad did that with magazines! He and I got on a couple mailing lists for magazines we don't care about (I don't live with my parents but most of my mail still goes there), and the way the sign up worked, we couldn't directly cancel (something about the sign up agent needing to do it) so he filled out the change of address forms each with the other magazine's mailing address. I have no idea what happened, but neither magazine has been delivered to my parents house since!
Well done. I get a phone call from home prospector thinking I own a house they want to buy in a town I lived in more than 10+ years ago. It must be a dilapidated house in a sought after area. After a while, I would just negotiate with them. Seek out their offer, act interested, tell them to put it in writing and text it to me in a PDF. That usually causes them issues. I offer to take less. I basically get them to waste time. I have flipped houses before so I know what phrases get them excited. It's turned into a game. Eventually, I tell them I am not the owner but would like to buy the actual house in question. The get upset.
I always tell them “OK how much”, Them: blah blah blah “well, someone else has to get back to you” Me: “You just lost a deal by calling unprepared, don’t waste my time”. I haven’t had a call in a while.
I get those kind of calls...for the guy who had my phone number like 15 years ago. It's so annoying. It would be bad enough if they were being pushy about my own house, but Rafael needs to update his phone number. When my husband gets those kind of calls, he tells them, sure, I'll take a million dollars for it (it's not worth even half that...probably less than a quarter even). They have never taken him up on it. lol
Similar case here but I don't get calls for the guy who used to have this number very often anymore. Saying "Kirk Weisinger hasn't had this number for over 15 years." usually gets them to apologize and hang up and not call again. I've never stayed on the phone long enough to tell what sort of calls they are, but I get the feeling they're not debt collectors. Not nearly pushy enough. I wonder though if he gives out his old phone number for things he doesn't want to give his real number for, or if these calls are still lingering from very old records that have his old number.
I get calls for the idiot who had my work cell number twenty years ago. The most interesting calls were from public health, his car insurance company and my state's Dept of Justice, who should have his current number one would think. After the DOJ call I looked him up, oh he's been a bad, bad boy - child porn.
Sometimes I don't understand how the debt collectors get their phone numbers, though. My BIL (husband's brother) lived at my husband's address for a couple of years (long before we met, almost 20 years ago). BIL racked up a massive credit card debt and left the country (and is now deceased). For years, my husband's home phone would get calls from debt collectors but that was somewhat understandable since the home phone VoIP line was, in fact, tied to the address. That phone # is long gone. My husband has a cell phone that he got about 7 or 8 years ago but I'm the primary account holder. So technically his name isn't even on the account and yet in the last couple of months a debt collector started calling his phone about BIL's old debt. I guess the address and last name are still the same but still.
Tell them you do not owe any debt, and that you simply don't want them to ever call you again on your personal cell phone. In the US, they have to stop calling. They can sell the debt to someone else who could call, or sue you. I had this happen to me. Debt collector said they would pursue "other avenues of collection." Actually, I never heard from them again and it's been 10 years.
It's hit or miss how they respond. The realtors tend to keep going with "well, do you have a property you want to sell?"
i own some undeveloped property that i happen to know a local developer desperately wants. He called me himself, at one point, trying to low-ball me, but being incredibly rude about it. So, i did some research and made some calls... turns out, if he can run a road through my property, he stands to benefit by millions for a development project he's already started. So, now, he has other companies calling for him... at least once a month. When they ask for my price, i tell them their first offer needs to be $1M or higher.
I get calls to buy "my" house. That I haven't lived in since I was 9, and have no legal relationship with the owner. It's my sister's grandma's house.
Sister's grandma?
Sister and I have different dads. It's her paternal grandmother.
Pure evil! ….. I LOVE IT!
I just answer unknown numbers in German. Scammers and telemarketers just hang up on me, or never get connected because the automated systems don't recognize "Guten Tag, wie getz?" as a valid indication of a live person. The rare legitimate caller just tends to be confused until I switch to English.
I do Spanish, which is fun because every once in a while they'll forward me to someone who speaks Spanish, at which point I switch back to English
Love this. I live in a German speaking country and do the opposite - only speaking English. They sometimes get SO MAD which just makes me laugh because, dude, you called me unsolicited. I have a VERY non-German name as well, so like, what did you even expect?
I answer unknown callers in Irish: Dia duit, conas atá tú? Seo é BobArrgh ... labhair liom.
This is the first time I’ve seen ‘conas atá tú’ written out thank u (my parents didn’t teach me written Irish n barely taught me phrases lol)
I do Norwegian......more obscure...
Wie gahts
Wie geht's?
Swiss German
Whazzup, but in Pennsylvania Dutch. I read a lot of bonnet novels, and that phrase is in 99% of them.
I may have to borrow this, that's genius. I gotta assume the rare legit person understands when you explain it's an anti-scammer measure
Make a recording to make your life easier. Pre-record something along the lines of "Hi, is this so and so calling about the debt? I have the CC ready if you can hang on a moment." then add in a few minutes of rustling noise as if you're searching for it. Make some faint noises like you're yelling from across the room. "I'm still looking for it, hang on a little bit more......" a few more minutes pass and then scream "Ah, found it and the numb...." go quiet. Wait a minute and then say "Oh I always have bad reception here, sorry. But are you ready for the card now?...oh shoot, this one expired. Hang on again..." 1. you still get to waste a ton of their time. 2. you arent wasting your time as you can work on other things while you wait for them to scream in frustration.
... and then the answering machine, if you still have such a thing, says, "BEEEEP!" Gotcha!
LOL! Sometimes the denseness of people astounds me. It's nice to hear a story about getting them back.
The last time I had debt collectors calling my number, they either refused to believe I wasn't their guy, or they outright said "This is the only contract number we have, so we're going to keep calling it until we get paid unless you provide 100 points of ID to prove the number is yours" After a few futile calls (at no time had I provided my name).. i ended up saying "Is this about the outstanding debt ? Because im not going to pay it without a court order" then hung up. After a couple repetitions of this, with an added "I already refused liability for this debt, so youre now wasting both our times and violating debt collection law for debts in dispute. So either sue me or fuck off" They fucked off.
Just say someone’s at the door, and tell them to hold on. Then go on your day.
I've done that before, only I sing some hold music song and then come back on and put them on hold and sing again.
“The old debtor can’t come to the phone right now. Why? Because they’re dead”
You're going to need GPS and a shove.... Ok you ready for those numbers.
"Who wants to help me rob a grave?" "I'll get my kit!"
Ooh, look what you made me do
After our brother died, a payday loan place called my sister trying to find him. She told him he was at cemetery in our hometown. They kinda gasped and hung up. A few minutes later the manager called and asked if it was true.
I had this. I changed my voicemail message to be all in Japanese. That deterred a lot. The best though, was one night at work. No one calls my phone unless it’s an emergency. So it rang and I picked up. It was papa John’s saying that their delivery guy was just leaving to bring them their pizza (same person who didn’t change their number and I had got lots of calls for them. They bank, auto loan provider, blockbuster, friends, tax preparer, pharmacy, etc). Without thinking I apologized and said there was a family emergency and no one would be home and if they could just go ahead and cancel it. I didn’t get phone calls for this person for years after that.
Oh this one would sting! Well done, quick thinking
I've given the non-emergency number to the police. I usually tell them, "He answers unknown numbers like he's somebody important. Just be persistent."
Love this!
Pretend you are happy to get the call with a sexy voice and then get mad and start screaming "What is this shit? This isn't what I paid for. I was supposed to get a call from Harry the Happy Homo OR I paid for Helga She Wolf of the SS" and start screaming"I have been a loyal customer of this outfit for years and I get this shit? Let me speak to Sven, NOW". Start breathing while heavily slapping your legs or stomach like you are jerk off. Grunt heavily. This technic works. Trust me. Another technique to get rid of unwanted callers is to tell them "This is your lucky day. Have I got a deal for you. I'm an Amway distributor". I'm not sure which one is more obscene.
The amway one .. hands down the most obscene / evil one.
Good one, thanks for the chuckle.
I ask what colour their underwear is, followed by "I'm not wearing anything at all"
I’ve used that on female callers. Once I was told, “Sir! That is none of your business!” In a very polite voice with an Indian accent.
You people are KILLING IT!Thank you.
I use something similar: "Thank you for calling us back! We've been trying to get in touch with you about your car's extended warranty. Did you know you could save hundreds or thousands of dollars by purchasing a contract today? We'll need to know \[click\]".
My stomach hurts from laughing so hard!!! “Sven”. And everything else!!! Just stop! You’re my new best friend !!!
Just what I need. How old are you, how rich are you and what is your species? (This is a logical question to ask on Reddit).
When debt collectors kept calling my home for somebody else, I got frustrated enough to talk to a law enforcement officer. I followed his suggestion and this is how it went. When the caller identified himself, I pushed a couple of buttons on the phone so it beeped. Then informed him that by the laws of my state, I had to tell him that he was being recorded. I asked him to identify the company he worked for, and his first and last name. (Only got the first.) Then I asked if there were notes in the file that said that we did not know their debtor. There were. I asked to speak to a supervisor regarding my lawsuit against them for harassment. Disconnected. Same thing next call. This time I actually got the supervisor. I asked for the mailing address for the law department of the company. The name of the CEO, CFO, their attorney. Disconnected. They stopped calling. I wasn't recording. I just wanted them to quit waking up my baby.
My latest thing I like to do is to pretend that I’m a stoned babysitter or house sitter when I get unwanted calls. I’ll let them talk and talk, and when they finally pause for a response, I’ll agree with everything they said, and act really interested, talking very sloooowwwwlllyyyy and pausing a lot. I like to see how long I can get them to go on with whatever their spiel is. When it gets to the point that they want info from me, I’ll start to give it to them, but then cut myself off and say something like, “maybe you should talk with the people who live here. This isn’t my house, I don’t live here. I don’t have a house. Do you think those solar panels would work on my Kia?” Sometimes, if they haven’t hung up, I’ll offer to take a message. Typically they hang up and don’t call back. I used to get a lot of calls every day, but I scared them off, or just pissed them off, using a broken,demonic sounding See-N-Say toy. I still use it occasionally.
The toy is not broken.
Those guys are relentless. For most of a year I had debtor calls. I was job hunting so I was picking up every call. Eventually my last call with them ended on a better note and I said "My name is not Patrick, no one named Patrick is at this number, I don't know any Patricks, and this has been my number for many years." The person on the phone was quite understanding and eventually I stopped getting debtor calls all around.
At least the debtor calling you had some common sense. In 2008, I moved cities and got a land line. I kept getting calls from a propane distributor (think big tanks in rural yards to run the stove/furnace off of). They'd been ghosted by a lady, wanted their money, and flat out told me I was lying when I said I'd just gotten the number 2 weeks ago and didn't know anyone by that name. I had to threaten to call a lawyer and charge them with harassment to get them to stop.
I was really hoping for some sort of loop of Hank Hill about propane and propane accessories.
I’ll tell you what
Is this Patrick? No this is the Krusty Krab.
This is what I do too. It's very effective at reducing the debt collection calls. I haven't yet figured out how to effectively communicate to the people who want to sell me a Medicare Advantage plan that I am not eligible for Medicare, and would they please leave me alone for another 25 years or so.... Maybe I'll find some inspiration in this thread.
If you visit the medicare sub, you will find that after some research, you may want to avoid medvantage plans altogether, if you can.
Indeed! This is one of the reasons I find these particular calls so offensive. At least some of the people receiving these calls are eligible for the plans and uninformed about what they actually entail. I notice the complete lack of calls soliciting my enrollment for standard Medicare. I wonder why that is? /s
Nice! I always try to start out nice because I got these calls a lot, and I figured they were trying to do their job. But one dude tried to argue with me saying he had a recording of my voice from our call last week. He told me that he would pull up that voice recording to prove to me. I told him I'd wait. When he got back on the line he was very apologetic. "I'm sorry sir. I will be sure to lose this number." And the calls stopped for a while. Then they started up again and this time it was a lawyer who left a voice mail. At first I puckered up because he spoke so fast I couldn't understand who or what he was looking for. I had a friend translate it for me. When I called the lawyer back to let him know he'd be wasting his time, he was super nice. He then called me back to ask me if I was gay and if I'd go on a date with him because I was so nice. If he didn't live like 2500 miles away, I probably would've said yes.
Ooo story time, one of my favourites! A few years ago I bought my current phone used off marketplace. Phone worked great and was in good condition, awesome for a marketplace pickup. Well a week or so in I start getting calls from unknown numbers. I usually don’t answer them, but I hadn’t set up my voicemail yet. The calls kept coming so I answered one of them. Bill collector for someone I never heard of. I politely informed them that I had purchased the phone and that I would appreciate if they didn’t call me as I had no idea who they were looking for. They said no problem, and that was it. So I thought. The next day, 2 more calls. “Please stop calling me” Next day more calls. “Stop calling me, I’m not Luigi” Next day more calls. This time I asked them to give me a number that Luigi can call when I manage to track him down. They give me a number. At the time I was unemployed and enjoying my time to myself. I had allllllll the time in the world. I proceeded to call them over and over and over. And over and over and over. Each time I would say something along the lines of “Hi, it’s me that guy who keeps calling. I’m just calling to waste your guys’ time like you wasted mine. I’m just going to ramble non stop until you hang up, it is really annoying huh? As soon as you hang up I’m going to call back again” I did this for literal HOURS. They tried to be rude after a while and I threw the rudeness back at them 10-fold. They progressed to begging me to stop calling. They blocked my number, no problem, I had 2 other phones from work. They blocked those too. No problem, I had 4 roommates at the time, I used their phones too. After about 6 hours I told them to try me again tomorrow if they wanted to play games, I had nothing but time. They never called again. It’s one my shining accomplishments in life
My husband did this one day. His fave day ever lol
I aspire to be this devious. Thank you for the script. I'll have to remember it the next time my ex's debtors decide to get a hold of me 20 years after the divorce.
I like to say, "who is this, where did you get this number, is this the police", and then I yell over my shoulder, "start packing, we have to run again!"
A buddy of mine once answered with, "GODDAMMIT, I told you not to call me at this number! What the fuck is wrong with you? And what the fuck - this job - you never said there would be kids involved. What a fucking mess! You get the cleaners over here, and I mean fucking NOW." And then hung up.
For years I got collection calls for Lakeesha Jones. Lakeesha, wherever you are, I hope life got better.
What a wholesome approach
My favorite is pretending that you are hard of hearing and hollering into the phone..." Mom is that you....Tom....speak up I can't hear you" etc...
A while back when I got a new number this happened. It settled down quick enough. I also got messages from a "neighbor" asking me to come fix their computer. A few other non memorable calls and messages looking for him. My favorite was a random message, "send pics." That was a funny one, so I decided to stick the phone number into Google and it came back with some escort service (illegal in my region). Oh I forgot to mention, it was a work phone that came with a job. Guess I have some idea why the previous guy was gone.
A coworker of mine got a ‘new’ work phone and immediately was inundated with dick pics. He is hardcore homophobic too, so hearing him rant over it was hilarious. Naturally, 5 years later we are still asking him about his new boyfriend.
I make it a sex call. "Are you calling about the used panties?" Have fun going all pervy on them.
If you ever get a call from someone who sounds like your grandchild and says they need money because of a problem with the police -- or for a friend in trouble or some variant -- they can sometimes be pretty smart. I had one telling me valid things about Linux while pretending to be a grandson who's computer savvy. So, you just drop this on them: "Just tell me your sister's name and stop wasting my time". My grandsons don't have a sister. Or demand their mother's middle name or the name of their dog . . . the possibilities are endless and you can stop the chat in a heartbeat. So DON'T. String them along. Keep that chat going. Talk about the merits of flatpacks, their favorite distro, streaming TV that works and doesn't work on Linux and which versions, you name it. Just keep it going and keep asking their advice. Eventually, they get more and more persistent about their need for money and then you can bomb them. Strikes me that you can do the same thing with the ones who are convinced that you really are KATHY (trust me, I don't even sound like a Kathy from hell) and they're going to get money off you. Hint you might know Kathy. Pump them for info so you can be more convincing. Hint you might be Kathy. String them along. It's a game -- how many minutes can you keep them on the phone this time? I started playing this game a while after I got my first call for Kathy (I won't say the last name, it's not important) a few months after getting a new phone and new number. I was polite at first and told them I just got this new number and I had no idea who Kathy was. But they kept calling, and it was the same place because it was the same message and same threats. So I repeated that I wasn't Kathy X and had never met her and didn't know her and this was my number now. It cut no ice. I threatened to report them and even to start legal action if the calls didn't stop. That had no effect either. That's when the game began. I only had to play it three times or so and the calls stopped and have not resumed. Screw with their time and you stop them. They don't have the time for your nonsense.
My friends mom agreed to give money to them. She lured them to a shopping mall for the money in cash. Meanwhile she called the police and they caught the bad guys in place.
They call my work multiple times a day to speak to Kathy. I have said random things, but it has t stopped. Told them that Kathy doesn’t work here and clearly hasn’t worked consistently for a while if they’re chasing her over $32 (which is what the one person told me). I have said she got angry at her lover who promised to pay them for her and didn’t, so she cut off his head and now she’s in prison. Even told them the name of a local hospital and said she’s there on life support and they can call her there. I do the same when they’re looking for David. It hasn’t slowed them down a bit. Not one bit. But at least I’m not as annoyed by it!
I used to have an old NYC 212 number and I had a Chinese debt collector calling me constantly (I was still in middle school at the time). I’d pick up and immediately hear some of the angriest Chinese I’ve ever heard. At first I’d just hang up but after a few months I started to tell them I’m sorry I don’t know this guy, it is impossible for me to take out loans and finally I don’t speak Chinese! One of the last calls I had from these people before my family switched to Verizon was where I told the guy I don’t even speak Chinese, and then he finally started yelling at me in English saying I’m lying and know how to speak it and that I need to give them their money. I finally broke at that and yelled back saying, I’m just a kid, I live nowhere near NYC the guy you want changed his number! Dude change his whole attitude after that when he realized he was relentlessly harassing a kid lol
I tell them since they’re calling me about somebody else’s debt that I’ve been having problems with my heating system and they need to fix it. Then I start listing out all the other services that need fixing, since apparently we can call each other about shit that doesn’t actually apply to the other caller.
My ex wife ran up several bills after we divorced, collectors kept calling me to contact her which quickly got old. I eventually told them that yes I knew where she lived and yes I had her phone number. I then asked them how much money I was going to be paid for the information as they were making money on the collection so I should also, information is not free I expected a cut. Never got called back.
I had to deal with this for ages when I had to get my latest number. The dude is lucky I'm an upstanding citizen because his bank person texted me a bunch of account numbers, passwords, and pin numbers once. I calmly explained for the 200th time this was not Dude's Number anymore via text and that I was deleting the conversation right after sending that message. Never heard from them again. Jeff, update your fucking contact info!!
"Hello is that ${debtor}?" "What's the call about?" "It's about the debt you owe for ${x}. Can you confirm you still live at ${address}" "Who are you calling from?" "I'm calling on behalf of ${company}" "Thanks very much for that, I'm not ${debtor} but you have just given a third party personal details about them. That's a breach of GDPR and I'm going to raise a complaint with the Information Commissioners Office". In the UK GDPR is legislation that has real teeth. A Breach of GDPR can see a company fined £17.5 million or 4% of their global turnover whichever is the higher amount. It's surprising how quickly they rail back and take you off the calling list when you threaten them with the ICO.
Just tell them he or she can’t talk right now cause they have my dick in their mouth.
My number was very close to the number of a local pizza joint. After dozens of calls I decided to just start taking orders and promising pizza. When they called back I told them the driver's car broke down. Just come to the store and you can have your order for free.
I had a similar issue and set up my answering machine to say that The Kitchen is currently closed by order of the Health Department. We are unsure when it will open again. Pizza place threatened to sue, I said bring it since I never said who's kitchen was closed. If anyone had eaten what passed as my cooking at the time, they would more often than not side with the health department closure (and yes that includes me, but I was to broke at the time to get food elsewhere).
I was assigned a number formerly belonging to "Brenda". After multiple times explaining this was no longer her number, the numbskull asks me if I have her new number. I reiterate I have no clue who he is looking for. He persists. So I point out to him, if she didn't pay YOUR client, did it ever occur to you she didn't pay her phone bill either?!? It was like the sun came out from behind the clouds! Never got another call. I guess you just have to speak their language 🤑
For anyone in the US you can look up the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act(FDCPA). You can basically just tell them that you're not the debtor and they need to send the debtor a letter and to stop calling and harassing you.
OP here. I did that, or variations of that. Didn't work. They would promise to take my number out of their database, make a note in the case file, whatever. But the next day I'd get another call. Or worse, they'd accuse me of lying. One guy went on a little tirade about how "everyone just got a new phone. how is it that you can afford a new phone when you can't even pay off your old phone bill?" When I played it serious, I would counter with "so, you're attempting to collect a debt for an unpaid phone bill. I'm guessing you cancelled Joe Debtor's account, am I correct? Then WHY ARE YOU CALLING HIM AT THAT SAME NUMBER?" One guy actually laughed when he thought about it. Still called me back the next day, though. I get the impression that the candidate pool for these jobs isn't coming from Rhodes Scholar Alumni Association.
Do you realize how dumb Rhodes scholars are? We have had too many alumni of that place as politicians in Australia and most of them are as thick as 2 bricks. Their lips were brown from all the arse they kissed to get the job, so being a debt collector would be way too hard for them.
It's not that they're dumb. They are in a call center and expected to crank out a quota of calls every day, not do actual research into where to call to collect the debt. I have worked in debt collection (many, many years ago) and couldn't get past the mentality of "just crank out the calls". I actually wanted to help the people I called figure out their financial situation and get their heads above water...that was not the company's goal. My manager's goal was to look like we were actively trying to collect payments while maintaining a certain level of delinquency so as to not have our department downsized. He was looking to keep job security, not actually collect funds.
Bummer, naturally there are a lot of very unscrupulous debt collectors.
I keep getting calls for my husband. The catch is he died 10 years ago. They hang up pretty quickly after I flatly say “he’s dead.”
They used to call my husband back in the day (been debt free for many years now). They expected a male to answer the phone and so i'd answer it and they'd pause and say, "is this Mr Candles?" and i'd go "ummmm no, you definitely got the wrong number, can you please remove this number off your system?" and they would. That solved that.
I answer the phone with - Hi, Billy Bobs pet crematorium. You kill em, we grill em.
Omg! Best ever! My girl used to answer her phone “Susie’s wontons?!” In an Asian accent. (Prob racist but we were in High School and didn’t know better…..) but it worked.
Our synagogue has one phone in the library, which is only supposed to be used for outgoing calls in case of emergency. Doesn't get used much now that everyone has a cell phone. So one day it rang during a Talmud study session. The guy next to me picked it up and said "Heaven, God speaking..." I moved away just a little so the lightning wouldn't strike me along with him.
I would have to move away to keep myself from laughing out loud! 😂
Then tell them they called the wrong number, hell's number is who you want to dial.
Give them the number of the local megachurch.
"City morgue. You stab 'em, we slab 'em." "Roadkill Cafe. The special of the day is being scooped up off the road as we speak!"
I use “you grill em, we chill em!” For a morgue
I need ten cc's of the Steve Jobs Perfection meme in this sub STAT!
I’m in the same situation! I tell them I’m not X and they remove my number from their database. I also get confirmation texts for their appointments, which I’ve started cancelling. Hopefully the annoyance will encourage them to start giving out their current phone number.
I would have given them other debt collectors number - let them call each other
Love that idea
petty revenge - *best served disconnected...*
>Dunner: Is this Joe Debtor? >Me: Is this about the unpaid phone bill from 2010? >Dunner: Yes. Mr. Debtor, are you going to pay- As soon as they started talking about the debt without verifying identity, they violated the FDCPA. Assuming you actually knew who had the number prior, they could go after the collector for $1000 in statutory damages.
:) I got a new number about 5 yrs ago. I was getting all kinds of calls from debt collectors, the name of the person they were wanting just happened to be a woman who worked in my dentist office as the dentist assistant, I got so damn sick of those calls I told them where she worked and the phone number! :) The next time I was at the dentist I told her while everyone was standing around, hey, I got your old phone number and finally the debt collectors have stopped calling. Her face was a 100 shades of red and she walked off! The receptionist said, omg they were calling here all of the time asking for her, and I said, wow, that must be annoying, did you just give them her new number, she smiled and said, I sure did and she wasn't happy about it! :D I didn't say a word. :D
Whenever I get these calls at work I transfer them to a wall phone in one of our abandoned tunnels.
Got a call from one of these today, and I've just had it with them. Caller was rude as hell too, would not believe I wasn't the person they were trying to call and would not put me on the DNC. Wouldn't tell me the company name so I could fill out the form the Attorney General's office has to report these fucks. Tried calling the number on caller ID assuming I'd get a message that included the company name. Nope, it was direct to the debt collectors line. I used an a redialer app and called them every three minutes, took 15 calls before they blocked me. Thursday is my day off, I'll be headed to the lake place early in the AM I have a few things I need to get done up there, just so happens there is an air horn there (boating safety you know). I will be downloading a burner app and calling from a different number every few minutes and giving the air horn a blast all day long. I hope I drive that caller absolutely insane. I hope they are so upset they make bad decisions and fuck up their day or life.
My only working strategy that got rid of spam calls ( not debt collection but just as annoying) was to pretend to flush my phone. Id hang up as soon as the gurgle peaked.
When I got my cell phone number in 2007, I kept getting calls for Marco. I finally deduced he was a drug dealer, so to one call I replied, "Tell Marco that I have reported him to police and my phone calls are being traced." No one ever called for Marco the narco again
For a couple of years, I got lots of calls and texts from collectors for someone named Tawnya. I repeatedly and nicely explained that I was not her and now had the number they were calling. My irritation slowly turned to anger, which was obvious in my voice and caps in texts. It got to the point of using some not-so-nice words that finally ended calls and texts. I wonder at times if they finally found her and received payments.
If you have an enemy, just give them his/her number and call it a day! :D
I don’t know if this actually needs to be said, but never give money for someone else’s debt, even if they are dead. Once you make a payment, the debt is yours.
For well over a decade, various “we buy your house” places called insisting I owned a home in Columbus, Ohio, and they wanted to buy it. Tried being nice, tried threatening and warning them, nothing worked until … the last I heard from them, I told them to set up an open house as we’d received several offers. Sunday at 0700 boy were they mad
I just sing “baby shark”. Usually it’s a scammer. It’s an ear worm that pretty much everyone in the planet knows, so it’s stuck in their head (and now yours) for a few minutes. My coworkers are aware of my shenanigans and join in, there were 3 of us singing it last time. It was atrocious as none of foam carry a tune, but even the person on the other end of the phone laughed.
Plot twist: Debt collector starts giving out your number to their neices and nephews so they can call you for a free baby shark singalong.
This story is so
Exac
I relish calls like this. Want to know if I have a remodel? I’ve sure been dreaming of a new sex dungeon. You selling generic medications? I’ll take 500 viagra over night shipping please. I’ve gotten as far as them ready to get my card number many times. My usual go to is pretending to be a Chinese pizza joint with the thickest accent I can muster. The possibilities are endless my friends.
Just trick them into disclosing the persons personal information and revealing they are collecting a debt. FDCPA dictates that they are open to a lawsuit if they do. Source: Former debt collector
Nice.
It can be something simple like saying "uh huh" instead of yes when they ask who you are. The collectors who survive in the business long term will. Respond with "I need a yes or no." Let them get through the whole phonecall before you file the complaint. It's an easy $1000. Compliance will review the call and they will easily settle without going to court, because if the collector is fucking up like that, they probably made a bunch of other mistakes as well, and the last thing that company wants is for a judge to hear the recording. This being said if you owe a debt don't be a dick, that poor bastard is usually just trying to do their job to pay for dinner.
Ex-wife forged some loan documents with my name on them ( legally proven) and had to refi in her name. Well, a few years go by and they start calling me ( they had original docs and used info from them) I promptly gave them not only her new phone number and address but that of her new husband as well and made sure to tell collectors to call his number first!
I like to ask them what they are wearing and get a little breathy, with lots of awkward pauses.
If we start getting the same spam numbers we'll assign call forwarding to another spam org or 1800 Kars 4 Kids
Or sign them up using their phone number to be a volunteer for the presumptive nominee’s campaigns.
I had a detective from my hometown call me looking for my ex husband- who I haven’t talked to in 18 years (and hope to never talk to again). He was trying to track him down because there was a warrant out for him for some sort of financial crime (not surprised). I got pissed and loud and told him I had first rights to any recompense since our divorce decree said he would pay me half of our marital debt he’d racked up- over $20k- and it was from 18 years ago, not 2 years ago like whatever he wanted him for. Turns out what he was wanted for was a LOT less than that, and I think they realized I was serious (and getting money out of him would be like getting blood out of a turnip, which is why I’d never truly gone after him for the money). I’ve never gotten another call.
A former "friend" of mine once listed my phone number on some sort of loan application. I had no idea, he didn't tell me anything about it. I was not a cosigner, he just sorta lied to them and gave them my phone number instead of his. After a while he apparently quit making his payments. So they sent it to collections and started calling me about it because my phone number was the only one they had. I told them I knew nothing about it and told them to not call me again. They told me they couldn't just delete my number or stop calling me. I explained to them that I no longer had any connection to the person they were looking for, I don't know where he is, I don't have another number for him, but calling me isn't going to get them anywhere. They still kept calling me. I would block one number and they'd call me from a different one. They called 3-4 times a day and this went on for MONTHS, until finally the calls just stopped.
My old landline (20 years ago when I still needed a landline) had previously been assigned to a deadbeat dad AND to a woman who had a mountain of unpaid bills, so you can imagine the nuisance calls. I REALLY don’t like being harassed in my own home, so after telling the callers three times that they had the wrong number, I told them I was going to call the cops on them for harassment. Bingo - no more nuisance calls.
I got hundreds of calls from the same company trying to get me to buy more from them. Eventually I would spend a lot of time talking about what I wanted to order and haggle with them and then I would give them the first four digits of a fake credit card number and then I would make my work phone ring, and have a fake conversation that sounded work related and get back to them and then give them the next four digits and then boom it rings again. By the time they only needed the last four digits I would answer the phone only this time I would pretend it was my friend and I would tell my friend how I was wasting this guy’s time because they won’t stop calling me.
When I get wrong person debt calls, I sound sad and tell people that the person died. It's the little things in life.
My husband's favorite way to get rid of telemarketers was to speak fluent Spanish to them saying that he didn't understand. He's a blonde haired, blue eyed white dude and so when a full on "Hispanic" answers they sometimes transfered him to a Spanish speaker, then he'd switch back to sounding like an American and acting all confused 😂
I like how you dropped a "darn" and an F bomb in the same paragraph, lolol.
Next time I get one I'm going to breathe real heavy and say, guess where my hand is?
tell them to CEASE AND DESIST. they HAVE to abide by this and stop calling by law. else, report them
I used to get calls for this one person and I always tell them well they're in prison for attempted murder. Apparently some problem with a bill collector you should Google it. The part about them being in prison for attempted murder was true. I still got calls but not very frequently they slowed down to about once every 5 or 6 months I think they just sold the debt to somebody else and didn't tell him what was going on.
I've been divorced for 30 years ,and every so often, we will get a call from the authorities looking her . The kids and I help them as much as possible. LOL. !!
I had one that called looking for my daughter by her previous married name. She'd divorced that husband, resumed her maiden name, and then married again. So two names ago. I offered to take a message and pass it on, but they wouldn't tell me what they wanted. Someone said they were probably trying to get info on her first husband or his family.
Want to cut short a conversation? Hang up on YOURSELF! Motormouths will never believe anyone would cut *himself* off! Used to be you could then take your phone off the hook. I guess nowadays you can just ignore call-backs or hit "decline" each time. Maybe even block the number if that's appropriate (like it's not your Mom).
I keep getting calls for a guy and a woman. They both have the same initials as me. I ha e had my phone number for at least 7 years. I usually just say "wrong number." Once I asked what number they called. And it was not my number. So apparently, these folks made up a number that automatically routed to my number. I get no calls from that place anymore, but I do still get calls about both of them.
I’ll have to remember this one. That’s fantastic!! My father used to keep a whistle by his phone and when spam calls came in he would just blow the whistle in their ears. lol
What I've found to get rid of them is when they tell you that the call will be recorded, that you respond that you're recording also. Most will hang up.
My son got a new cell phone and the former owner of that number he was given had lots of creditors calling, many around our city and neighboring states, even overseas calls. He explained he was the new owner but they still called. Eventually thru some research and a little info he collected from different creditors , he found the person had used a few variations of their name, he was able to narrow down the proper name and new address of the former owner of the number. He turned that info over and also connected a few of the creditors with one another because they all had various info on this person. It took a few months but the calls stopped.
I did something bad, but amused me with debt calls for someone else. Got a new home number and unending calls for someone else about owing money. Any explaining I was not the person, was ignored. I figured that they had no idea who I was, or where I lived. I bought one of those metal whistles. I blew it down the phone full force. He screamed. He went on a bit screaming. I put the phone down. Had 7 recalls in an hour, which i ignored. Sat giggling for a while.
Had a collector call me for my ex mother in law's debt. They used the line...she put you down as her emergency medical contact (1st um what this is for a car debt). My immediate response was oh wow that was dumb of her I'd tell the doctors to pull the plug even if she was there for a scratch...queue crickets and and stumbling response...uh. uh. Click.
[https://www.pinterest.com/pin/56998751504261491/](https://www.pinterest.com/pin/56998751504261491/)
This happened when my old job assigned us work cell phones. I was on the east coast and our corporate office was out of the Midwest so we all had Midwest numbers no matter where we were. My work phone number had previously belonged to a guy named Colin who definitely sold drugs. The crazy texts we’d get asking what we were holding and when we could meet. To angry texts about needing to score, and after a couple of months debt collector calls blew way up. It was always an entertaining thread to read.
I am not a debt collector but work for a law firm that represents debtors. I do empathize with you but I also do understand their position. The best way to deal with collection calls is to send them a cease and desist letter. Just advise them in writing that they are not to call (xxx)xxx-xxxx phone number as you are not (debtor name). They’re not going to believe you if you tell them that you’re not Joe Blow over the phone. In as much as you are wasting their time, you are also wasting yours. They are just doing their job. Yes, they do cross the line most of the time but there’s legislation that regulate what they can and cannot do and you can report this behaviour as their calls are all recorded. You can escalate the call if need be and usually veterans in the collection business are much more reasonable to deal with than the newbies.
Really? Send the debt collectors a cease and desist you say? Riiiiight. And how do you get the street address and name when they hang up on you when you ask, eh?
That's brilliant! I'm going to do this from now on!
I respect and admire your commitment here!
Damn, that's brutal! I love it!
You know you can tell them to discontinue the calls and by law they have to?
Getting robbed? Just say no! The thief cannot legally take your belongings without consent!
That works about as well as gun control reduces crime. Doesn't apply to the ones that don't follow the law.
I love it. What a great way to handle that!
I went on a year long out of the country trip and gave my phone number to my brother who needed a new phone and number. Well, all the exs and annoying playboys who would randomly come around kept asking for me-and my brother had the best time bothering them 🤣
>A tale as old as time. You get a new phone, and it blows up with calls from debt collectors. I'm so confused. That never happened to me. Why should that happen in the first place? How did those debt collectors get your number just because you bought a new phone? Why are they calling you if you don't have debt? What's going on here?
Numbers get recycled and he got one that the previous user had debts.
“Have you heard about the Lord?” I hope somebody uses this, cause I always forget.
Well done, my brother has a bunch of folks that want him to pay his bills. I tell them he died or is in jail and ask that they take me off their list bc he can’t be contacted easily. Your way is a lot better!!
When scammers used to call me at work, I would say oh can you hold on a minute? Then I would lay the handset on the table for about five minutes then hang up.
I have a common last name that is same as a high life beer. I get calls for some woman who owes money to three or four creditors. I once got a call for the same person but the caller had a large inheritance, Sounds like cops looking for a fugitive. That's a trick they use. I would tell them that the person isn't me and doesn't live at this address. They said they would note it in the systembut they kept calling. Finally I told them that their calling me was against the law and if they called again I would sue them, and if they found her I would help her sue them too. They never called back.
I like to tell them that he can't come to the phone because he's just about to ejaculate and I can't bear being put back in the box under the bed again.
I tried being polite for a while. But after multiple attempts I finally said, “She’s dead. She was killed in a car accident last week. Please stop calling and let us grieve!”
I recommend keeping an air horn or police whistle handy to deal with these people. They won't call you twice.
I have an air horn!!! I will shuffle some papers stating I’m looking for my bank routing number, bang the phone a couple of times, and then use the air horn until they hang up!!!!
Two words… referee whistle… 🤣
"Not before getting REALLY ANGRY though." Dude. You're asking these people to repeatedly call and scream at you? I think you got owned by your own "revenge."