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AITA for Sending Debt Collectors to Someone Who Used My Number? About a year ago, I received a campaign text saying, “Hi Donna! This is the headquarters of (Candidate X). I’m running for (County Name & Office). Can we count on your vote?”
I replied, telling them they had the wrong number, and got an apologetic response with a promise to remove my number. But the texts and calls kept coming. I received political solicitations, real estate inquiries like, “Hi Donna, I’m with XYZ Realtors. Are you looking to sell your property at 123 Main Street?” and even calls from collection agents looking for Donna. No matter how often I told them they had the wrong number, the calls continued.
The texts came from area codes on the opposite side of the country. With just a first name, partial address, and those area codes, I did a reverse address lookup online. I found a site where typing part of an address brought up possible combinations for house numbers and street names. I found an address in a town within those area codes. Sure enough, the information revealed Donna’s full name, address, and cell phone number. So, I sent her this text:
“Hello, Donna. You don’t know me, but you know my number. Please stop giving it out to solicitors, collection companies, and campaigners. Thanks to online research, I have your name, address, and phone number. So I will say it again; STOP GIVING OUT MY NUMBER!”
Unfortunately, the texts kept coming. So, I started forwarding them to her with the message, “Whenever I get a solicitation in your name, I’m going to forward it to you.” I also texted solicitors back with Donna’s correct cell number. Since then, I haven’t received any more solicitation texts.
For the collectors, I used an app on my phone that converts text to speech so I wouldn’t have to talk directly with robocalls. I created a preloaded text reply regarding Donna. Whenever I got a collection call for her, I provided this automated response:
“You have the wrong number. This person, Donna X, has been giving out my phone number to prevent collectors from contacting her. I don’t know her or even live in her state, but I managed to get some information about her thanks to some online research. Her correct phone number is (XXX) XXX-XXXX.”
The collection calls have stopped as well. So, Redditors, was I wrong to contact Donna and put her on alert? Or should I have just quietly passed her number to those trying to reach her?
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AITA for Sending Debt Collectors to Someone Who Used My Number?
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About a year ago, I started receiving a barrage of campaign solicitation texts addressed to “Donna” from a candidate’s headquarters, asking for her vote. Despite informing them that they had the wrong number, the messages and calls persisted. I got everything from political solicitations and real estate inquiries to calls from collection agents. Each time, I patiently explained the mistake, but nothing changed.
The texts came from area codes on the opposite side of the country. With just a first name, a partial address, and those area codes, I did a reverse address lookup online. I found a site where typing part of an address brought up possible combinations for house numbers and street names. I found an address in a town within those area codes. Sure enough, the information revealed Donna’s full name, address, and cell phone number. So, I sent her this text:
“Hello, Donna. You don’t know me, but you know my number. Please stop giving it out to solicitors, collection companies, and campaigners. Thanks to online research, I have your name, address, and phone number. So I will say it again; STOP GIVING OUT MY NUMBER!”
Unfortunately, the texts kept coming. So, I started forwarding them to her with the message, “Whenever I get a solicitation in your name, I’m going to forward it to you.” I also texted solicitors back with Donna’s correct cell number. Since then, I haven’t received any solicitation texts.
For the collectors, I used an app on my phone that converts text to speech so I wouldn’t have to talk directly with robocalls. I created a preloaded text reply regarding Donna. Whenever I got a collection call for her, I provided this automated response:
“You have the wrong number. This person, Donna X, has been giving out my phone number to prevent collectors from contacting her. I don’t know her or even live in her state, but I managed to get some information about her thanks to some online research. Her correct phone number is (XXX) XXX-XXXX.”
The collection calls have since stopped, too. So, Redditors, was I wrong to contact Donna and put her on alert? Or should I have just discreetly passed her number off to those trying to reach her?
Let’s catch up on the top Comments on the Reddit Posts: AITA for Sending Debt Collectors to Someone Who Used My Number?
I’ve got the same situation. I get a couple of calls a year for a lady named Amy. I’ve had this number for nearly 20 years so either they are trying to collect a 20 year old debt or they are too stupid to realize they don’t have the right number.
Black_Handkerchief Writes:
A few minutes of your time and you managed to figure out how to contact her — they couldn’t?
It is because they are both incentivized and only dealing with a single individual to research while getting clues from like a number of different parties having different parts of the puzzle.
Those people on the other end are likely low-wage phone drones dealing with dozens if not hundreds of deadbeats, and serial-calling whatever phone number pops up in their system. Maybe someone answers, maybe they don’t, but then they’ll have done their job and get to move on to the next call. For them, it is a numbers game of reaching as many people as possible and hopefully getting someone to pay (which will reflect in their stats and probably pay), because putting in effort of researching someone who is intentionally hiding isn’t likely to result in those people actually paying up.
They can probably call five to ten people in the time it takes to research information on one individual on average. Even if they have access to special databases with all sorts of cross-referenced and aggregated information, that information is only as good as the person who supplied it.. which makes it hard to tell the fake information apart from the real. Sure, the person answering the call said they aren’t that person, but a) maybe they are lying and just trying to dodge the hounds, and b) removing the number from an aggregated system is really hard and will probably result in it appearing next time someone takes action on the account when it somehow filters back into the results all over again. Even if they believe you and could remove you from the system, do they really want to risk removing the number from their records which might later on prove to have been valid after all, making the debt even harder if not impossible to collect? There’s no incentive there.
It is incredibly stupid, but being the victim of the situation gives someone a shitload of clarity and insight that the people calling them do not have.
James is a jerk and I hate him too, but Jerome seems to have some weird vendetta against me, or he just really wants to best both James and John. They could all leave me out of it!
Wait… James, John, Jerome — now I’m genuinely curious if these automated things just pick J names for guys?
I knew a person years ago who once went to the library and got every magazine subscription card he could. He filled them all out with the name and address of another person and checked “bill me later” before mailing them all. I asked what this person did to become his enemy and he blithy replied, “we’re good friends, actually.”
Honestly, you could probably just head to a local scientology church. My partner went on a school trip to NY over TWENTY years ago and a rando from the CoS caught him alone and managed to talk him into giving up his address at his parents house. He’s still receiving newsletters from them and the occasional hand written invitation to visit their churches. Shits wild.
