# Someone in Dayton OH is giving out my cell phone number. Why? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 9, 2010, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-in-dayton-oh-is-giving-out-my-cell-phone-number-why/560036 "2010-11-09T14:52:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Barrett\_Bonden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5e9695/32.png) [@Barrett\_Bonden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barrett_Bonden)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2010, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-in-dayton-oh-is-giving-out-my-cell-phone-number-why/560036/21 "2010-11-09T20:39:07Z")
> [@Ellen\_Cherry](#): > > 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. What usually happens is that the person leaves me a message and if it is urgent, I call them back. Only once my failure to pick up proved fatal to the caller, but when I average one death over the thousands of calls I’ve received in my lifetime, it’s pretty statistically meaningless. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2010, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-in-dayton-oh-is-giving-out-my-cell-phone-number-why/560036/22 "2010-11-09T21:01:08Z")
> [@Barrett\_Bonden](#): > > Only once my failure to pick up proved fatal to the caller, That’s a story that needs telling. In my case I either wouldn’t pick up, or I would if the person started leaving me a message. Theoretically. In real life, it’s never happened, at least not in the last decade. People always call me from their own phones. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2010, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-in-dayton-oh-is-giving-out-my-cell-phone-number-why/560036/23 "2010-11-09T21:39:57Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > 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. > > Logical? But, OTOH, if you politely answer the phone and nicely say “Sorry, I’m not interested could you please put me on your Do Not Call list” or even say “I’m sorry, you have the wrong number, there’s no Kayaker here” it’s more likely to stop the calls. If you just ignore it, they’ll just keep calling. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2010, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-in-dayton-oh-is-giving-out-my-cell-phone-number-why/560036/24 "2010-11-09T21:55:05Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > But, OTOH, if you politely answer the phone and nicely say “Sorry, I’m not interested could you please put me on your Do Not Call list” or even say “I’m sorry, you have the wrong number, there’s no Kayaker here” it’s more likely to stop the calls. If you just ignore it, they’ll just keep calling. Sorry, my fault for not giving all the details. It is a cell phone, I haven’t had a landline for a decade maybe. I get _maybe_ two calls a year where I do not know the caller. The last occasion it was someone who got my number from “an acquaintance”. I called the acquaintance and angrily asked that she not give out my number. She is now an ex-acquaintance. ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2010, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-in-dayton-oh-is-giving-out-my-cell-phone-number-why/560036/25 "2010-11-09T22:25:21Z")
I never answer unknown numbers. I also always leave my phone on silent and never check voice mail. I’m deliberately hard to get ahold of by phone. But I work on phones, everyone who knows me knows I hate talking on the phone, and if it’s urgent I have a work and home email address that I check immediately upon receipt of an email, or when I wake up in the morning if I was asleep. That’s just how I roll. ---
**Author:** ![bartleby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bartleby/32/10491_2.png) [@bartleby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bartleby)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2010, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-in-dayton-oh-is-giving-out-my-cell-phone-number-why/560036/26 "2010-11-11T17:15:08Z")
what school was it? i’m just being nosey, might be the one my son is at… ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2010, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-in-dayton-oh-is-giving-out-my-cell-phone-number-why/560036/27 "2010-11-11T18:14:25Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Sorry, my fault for not giving all the details. It is a cell phone, I haven’t had a landline for a decade maybe. I get _maybe_ two calls a year where I do not know the caller. > > The last occasion it was someone who got my number from “an acquaintance”. I called the acquaintance and angrily asked that she not give out my number. She is now an ex-acquaintance. If it’s here and there, it’s not a big deal. At my parent’s house (where my two sisters live) if they don’t know the number, they’ll just sit there and look a the phone and say “Why do we keep getting calls from this number, like three times a day?” If I ask them why they don’t just answer it and find out who it is they’ll just tell say “I don’t know the number, I’m not answering it” Sheesh, it’s not like it’s a stranger ringing the doorbell at 2am, just find out who it is and maybe they’ll stop calling three times a day. ---
**Author:** ![Barrett\_Bonden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5e9695/32.png) [@Barrett\_Bonden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barrett_Bonden)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2010, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-in-dayton-oh-is-giving-out-my-cell-phone-number-why/560036/28 "2010-11-11T19:09:33Z")
> [@bartleby](#): > > what school was it? i’m just being nosey, might be the one my son is at… The town listed is Kettering. Does your son know a kid named Jackson who was late to school recently? No more calls, so very possibly the nice person at the school actually passed along my message! ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2010, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-in-dayton-oh-is-giving-out-my-cell-phone-number-why/560036/29 "2010-11-12T17:07:00Z")
I had a similar situation with my e-mail, someone in Australia was giving out my e-mail instead of their own. But they were most automated non-reply type e-mails. I finally got an e-mail from a real person, and explained the situation to them. They contacted him somehow and he wrote me to apologize. He was getting this work and home e-mail addresses mixed up, and the combination equaled my Gmail address. Anyway the point is, I’d call back one of those numbers and explain that you are not that person but you are getting a lot of their calls. The person needs to be told they’re handing out the wrong phone number. ---
**Author:** ![SCSimmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e495f1/32.png) [@SCSimmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCSimmons)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2010, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-in-dayton-oh-is-giving-out-my-cell-phone-number-why/560036/30 "2010-11-12T18:58:09Z")
> [@rachelellogram](#): > > I never answer unknown numbers. I also always leave my phone on silent and never check voice mail. [What if someone’s calling you about an emergency?](http://www.somethingpositive.net/sp11012010.shtml) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-in-dayton-oh-is-giving-out-my-cell-phone-number-why/560036.md?page=1)