They started a few months ago - calls about everything from defaulted student loans, unpaid utility bills, defaulted credit cards, store credit accounts, the work, all asking for me - or at least someone with my same first and last name.
Each time, I explain that they’ve got the wrong guy, and they ask “Are the last four digits of your social security number XXXX?” (No), or “Have you ever lived at (address I’ve never lived at)?”, and then they give up.
Why am I getting these calls - is it just that I have the same name as the guy, and they see the phone registered to that name, so they assume it’s him? I have no problem with that, other than the irritation. But my real worry is that this garbage is going to somehow turn up on my credit report.
Is that a legitimate fear or worry, since they seem to keep associating the guy with my current address and phone number?
They’re desperate to find that guy. They scour phone books (or their online equivalent) looking for matching names in hopes of find him.
Our phone is in my wife’s name. In the phonebook, it’s listed as P. Bluesky.
Last year, we got calls for a woman with the same first initial and last name as a woman who apparently owed Mastercard a large sum of money. I would explain that they had the wrong number. Sometimes 4-5 days in a row. Then they would stop. For about six months and the process would start over again.
Some well chosen sexual suggestions were made to the caller and they stopped. I haven’t heard from them in almost a year now.
I don’t know whether or not I’d worry, per se, but I’d probably keep a close eye on my credit report for the next year or two. Several years ago, my mother’s credit report got completely screwed when a woman with Same First, Different Middle, Same Last Name, and living at a different box number on the same rural delivery route had a financial implosion. It took quite some time (three years, IIRC) to completely separate Financially Irresponsible Woman’s credit difficulties from Mom’s credit report. I think if I were you, I’d order my credit reports pretty often, just to be on the safe side. (And I think federal law now allows everyone one free credit report per year. Some states allow more than one, but I don’t know whether IL is one of those. Either way, it’s worth it to double-check, just for your peace of mind.)
Though I somehow managed to grow up in the same town as, go to the same college as, and then (miraculously) live in the same apartment building as a guy with my exact name - First Middle Last. I routinely find out about things that were accidentally switched from him to me, and vice versa.
Yeah, worry. Credit report screw-ups have been made with less. As First Lady said, keep a very close eye on your credit reports. I’m not sure how you can protect yourself from incompetence - maybe call someone in the credit field and find out how to make sure your name is not sullied by your name mate.
In my original “home town,” my Father is a dispatcher for the local PD, and Mom is involved in a variety of things around town. Both are fine upstanding members of the community.
There is another in town, with the same name as my Mother (First and last) and often is the target of phone calls made to the local PD. Calls which end up in the local Police Log. Needless to say, it’s created a few “uncomfortable pauses” in conversations around town.
I would keep a close eye on my credit if I were you. People who name their sons the same as their fathers (the II or III, etc.) can pick up bad credit from their family member. Doesn’t matter if the SS numbers were different. My longtime friend managed a bank and saw it all the time. Order a copy from the 3 credit bureaus and start scowering for things that don’t belong to you. It’s a long process to remove things, but it will be worth it to you in the end.
freecreditreport.com
You can check your credit at least once a year, as someone else already stated. That’s really your only concern. Bill collectors are not going to intentionally continue to call you over a bill that belongs to someone else. It’s counterproductive and not cost efficient for them. As long as your credit isn’t being marred by his bills (and it shouldn’t, because credit reporting agencies are supposed to report by ss#) then you are just fine.
If you do find something that isn’t yours, dispute it with the credit bureau posthaste. Anyone reporting a negative item on your credit has thirty days to prove the validity of the debt or it must be removed. If it stays on, check with that collection agencies. Tell them you need proof of a signature, depending on what type of debt it is. Mostly though, they’ll just refer you back to the credit bureau as they turn over debts on a tape that the credit bureaus just run into their system. The credit bureaus make a lot of mistakes, too.
I get calls like that on a regular basis. Once the local police called to tell me my wife’s stolen car was found. I am Gay, not married, and thus no wife with stolen car. The police officer kept saying, “but your name is the same” and I kept saying, “but you have the wrong person.”
I have had drunks call at 4 in the morning looking for their old roommate, I have been invited to class reunions at high schools in towns I have never heard of, and on my last re-fi, I had to prove I was not the guy skipping out on back alimony and child payments.
Even worse was Capital One…they had some jerk calling me daily and the messages got meaner and meaner. Finally we started talking and he was sure I was lying. He got really rude, insisted I give him my entire SS number, not just the last four digits and things got really nasty on the phone. I went on-line, called Capital One, asked to speak to a manger and told her the story. She apologized and said my phone number would be removed within 10 business days. That jerk called me back every single day for about 9 days and then it finally stopped. The topper was when Capital One sent me a personal offer for one of their credit cards “as an apology for the misunderstanding”. Oh yeah…now that I know their customer service, I am going to leap at that chance…