In the past few weeks, I’ve received a lot of cell phone calls and text messages from the Dayton area code (937). I don’t live in Dayton. I’ve never lived in Dayton. My cell phone number, while not local to me, is from nowhere near Dayton.
I don’t pick up if I don’t recognize the phone number, so via voicemail I’ve been reminded of a doctor’s appointment, urged to show up for a political rally, asked multiple times to complete a phone interview, told to update my address, and informed that Jackson is not at school today.
At first I thought it was funny, but I’m getting a little worried. I’m now receiving multiple Dayton calls per day from different numbers. How could someone so consistently mistake their own phone number? Or is something more nefarious going on?
Next time I get a call I will answer and try to get a name, but that won’t help much, as I don’t know how to call the person.
I have all of them. I’m not concerned with each individual call, although I will pick up the next Dayton call I receive and explain the situation. I’m more worried that someone is continuing to distribute my phone number.
My guess is that someone has transposed two digits of their number and that has gotten “stuck” in their head so that they aren’t even aware they’re doing it. It’s a real hassle on you, but if you can pick up one of the calls maybe you can get a name and address and then look up the person giving out your number, get their real number and either call them to wake them up to what they’re doing, or have their correct number to give to callers.
Since the calls were all standard life stuff (doctor, school, etc), I’m thinking the likelihood that this is some scam or a way for someone to dodge phone calls is very low. It sounds more like a person getting a new phone number recently and accidentally noting the number incorrectly. It also makes sense with the call to provide an updated address (recent move).
I had received a number of calls for real estate sales. I’m not involved with real estate in any way. It turns out that a website had transposed a couple of numbers (0010 to 0100) of the real estate agent. He was quite upset that it took me some time to figure out why I was getting these calls. He missed about a half dozen calls for commercial properties.
I had to ask the caller where they got my number and I had to trace it backwards from there.
I’ve never understood the logic in that, but that’s not what this thread is about. If you’re going to get this to stop, I’d suggest that when you see that area code come up on your caller ID, answer it and explain that it’s the wrong number. Chances are, if you don’t, the calls aren’t going to stop any time soon.
I got several phone calls in one night from people looking to help someone find a wallet or something. It was some sort of “Nigerian Prince” scam, I think–they had gotten my number off of an email.
I have a pay-as-you-go phone that is almost never on, but I put it on two weeks ago while I was on vacation. I got dozens of calls from collections agencies for a woman I don’t know, never heard of. Since it is hardly ever on, I haven’t bothered myself with it, but I did investigate to see how hard it would be to change the number.
I just called the elementary school to let them know that I didn’t know where Jackson is.
I asked the woman with whom I spoke to let the parent know that her listed cell phone number was incorrect. (Apparently they have a number for the person’s husband and had successfully contacted him after they called me.) I mentioned that I had received multiple calls from various people in the same area code. She said she would.
I’m just glad Jackson is all right. I was starting to get worried about him.
A similar thing happened to me last year. At least once a week I would get a call from a hospital or other medical facility asking to speak to a particular guy. I can only guess he gave them the wrong number either by accident or on purpose, to avoid being tracked down. Thankfully they’ve mostly stopped after I explained exhaustively that I had nothing to do with that schmuck.
For a while I had a personal 800 (toll free) number. Right after getting it I began getting calls for the guy who previously had the number. Apparently he did not pay his bill, his service was cut off, and the phone company immediately reused the number.
I tried to tell the guy that I was receiving his seemingly critical messages (work related, very important). He replied with a very nasty message saying he wanted the number back, and I was an asshole for not cooperating in his attempt to reinstate “his” number. He wanted me to call the phone company and tell them I wanted to give the number back.
But I had already spent some money on stationary, etc with “my” new number.
So. . .the next few calls I get that were meant for “Steve” got treated very rudely. “Calling for Steve, are ya? Well he said you should {REDACTED}” Steve quickly informed his contacts of his new number.
You could always go that route. “Jacksons not in school because his mother and I rented him out to a pedophile for the day”. I think that would get your situation moved to the front burner.
If at all possible, you may want to also consider temporarily updating your voicemail greeting to somehow indicate that you are not the person they’re trying to reach. That way, when you see a call from a Dayton number, you can just let it go to voicemail so those calling know they’ve reached the wrong person before taking the time to leave a message, and you only have to explain the situations once to receive fewer calls.
I go through times of getting a lot of wrong numbers for/to the same person – lets call her Mrs Kelly. Until I started getting enough of them to have a complete name it was hard to do anything as her name is as common as Kelly. It turns out that
Her number starts 323 and ours 322
She has terrible penmanship
She’s in her late 70s
If I answer and the call is for her I give the correct number. If I get a message on my machine I’ll often call and relay it to her. If its something like a doctor or the like, I will call them and have them correct their records.
Don’t know what you want to do or why or anything ------ but that’s my 2 cents.
I had considered telling them Jackson joined the Peace Corps.
If they keep coming I’ll try this, although not having a name for the other party complicates it a little. “You have reached Barrett Bonden at Bonden’s Phone Number. If you are calling from an Ohio area code and are NOT calling for Barrett Bonden, you have probably called the wrong number. Have a great day!”
If I can figure out who Jackson’s Mom is, and/or what her actual phone number is, I’ll probably do that. Seems like less trouble for all concerned. Of course, Jackson’s School may have already passed the message along and resolved the issue. That would be nice too.
The reason I don’t answer unknown calls is because I don’t wanna. I have caller ID blocked on my phone and never give the number to anyone who is not someone I want to hear from. My friends know not to give my number out ever.
What happens if someone you know calls you from another phone? They’re at someone’s house, and use their phone, for example. Or in someone else’s office and call you from there.
Yes, that happens. My gf just got back from a trip to London. Her phone wouldn’t work, so she borrowed her friends. She expected me to not answer, so she left a voicemail with instructions to meet her on facebook.
Occasionally, medical entities–various ones, both in- and out-of-state–fax me confidential medical information, under the mistaken impression that I have a right to it.
So then I have to call them and tell them to lose the number. I suggest that if I ever receive another such fax from them, I will call the patient(s). That usually does it.
However, this resulted in a fax that was on my bulletin board for years. it said, “Jane, if you don’t get this fax, call me at ------.” And if Jane didn’t get it, she would know she didn’t get it…how, exactly?
