Sorry I couldn’t be more specific in the title, but there is only so much space.
I started getting collection calls on my cell phone. I don’t answer calls from unknown numbers, and they called several times a day ever day for several days before leaving a message asking for (my friend’s name) about a business matter. (Code for collection call.)
The next time they called I answered and they asked to speak with (my friend’s name). Because I didn’t want to get involved with them trying to collect a debt from her, I said I didn’t know anyone by that name. They asked if the number they called belonged to me and I said that it did. I told them that the person they were looking for was not at this number and not to call back. To their credit, they have not.
It’s obvious to me that the person I have called my friend for a fair number of years gave my phone number as hers when filling out her application for credit somewhere, then failed to meet her financial obligation. It’s not possible that she or the company made a mistake as our numbers are not similar in any way other than they contain the same amount of digits.
I’m not passing judgment about her not paying her debts. I’ve had my own issues. What I take offense to is that she gave them my phone number. If you were in this situation, would you let it go and remain friends, let it go and quietly drop contact, confront her and try to remain friends, confront her and defriend with extreme predjudice, or some other variation that I’m not thinking of right now.
Do you have any other kind of connection with her? Were you ever roommates, college roommates, neighbors? You’d be surprised how names can get associated in online databases that don’t get updated properly.
Is it possible that she didn’t have a phone at the time she submitted the application? If she did not, maybe she had every intention of fulfilling the credit agreement, and just assumed that she’s be better off putting in your number than none at all.
I’d just get a hold of her and say “Hey, they need to talk to you about a business matter. Just curious why you used my number?”
I don’t it’s probably a shady reason; why give the number of somebody who knows how to contact you if you’re trying to get away with something?
We’ve never had any of those kinds of associations. She’s not a close friend and we only know each other through another mutual friend. She has bought a couple of my paintings and we are friends on facebook, but we don’t socialize. It won’t be a great loss to remove her from my life.
Sicks Ate, she’s had a phone for as long as I’ve known her. I can’t think of a good reason to give the number for someone who knows you instead of just a fake number. That’s partially why I’m baffled.
Talk to her about it if you see her. She might have thought she was making up a number but remembered yours, and she might have seen yours on her phone list.
It is not the worst thing that can happen. The son of the people who owned our house before us gave our address as his long after they moved.
Then the SWAT team arrived.
She probably didn’t give them your number. Skip tracersuse old phone records and call the numbers most frequently listed. The hope is that they will find a parent or other family member, spouse or significant other who might settle the debt or at least give a forwarding address and phone number.
Same thing if you lived with her and both of your numbers were listed as contacts on a utility bill. Tracers keep calling until someone gives them the information they want or until someone says stop harassing me/wrong number/do not call list.
I wouldn’t worry about it. A bill collector was harassing my mom looking for me (for some bullshit that was not legitimate) and I never put down her number and haven’t lived with her since I was 19.
It depends on your relationship in ways that the OP doesn’t detail. However…
Your number might have been listed as a reference or emergency contact or who knows what other legitimate reason on some paperwork. Collection agencies will call any number they can and send mail to any address they can in the hopes of snaring their prey. If you were your friend’s “emergency contact” on something, that would be a sensible number for collectors to try if they have been unable to reach the indebted.
You handled the matter on the phone with perfect correctness. As for your friendship, I voted to confront and try to remain friends. Although confront is perhaps a bit more aggressive than I would think of getting. More like have a heart to heart about where our friendship is going. Each curled up on her end of the couch and hugging a pillow, if necessary.
Yep. Talk it out. “Confront” is too aggressive a word, but, yeah, mention it, ask why, mention that it caused a certain level of irritation, and perhaps request it not happen again. No need to lose a friend. Friends do dumb things all the time; if it’s as minor as receiving a few unwanted phone calls, consider yourself lucky.
Yes. And you have no obligation to cooperate with these people at all. Often they are not even collecting legitimate debts. I’ve recieved calls like that from collectors looking for someone I knew, and also from collectors looking for the person who used to have my phone number. I tell them they have the wrong number, and nothing else.
ETA: You could mention it to person if you see them or talk to them, or just forget about it. If you really think they are giving out your phone number voluntarily, then you should probably tell them to stop.
I chose “Other option I should consider” because my first thought when reading your story was “Why would your first assumption be that this person gave them your phone number?” My first assumption would have been that something similar to what other posters have described happened – a debt collection agency decided to try to find your friend through whatever means necessary, somehow got your phone number, and gave it a shot. Although I have been fortunate to never be contacted by a debt collector, I have read many stories about how they will call people with only tenuous connections to the debtor to try to get their money. I would proceed on the assumption that this friend did not provide your number, and take whatever action you feel would be appropriate under those circumstances.
I hadn’t considered that a skip tracer could have connected us because there really isn’t any way to connect us that I can think of. I have let it go to this point and probably will continue to do so because I don’t want to embarass her by bringing it up, and I don’t wish to be accusatory.
If you or she ever talked on the phone with any frequency, a skip tracer could have pulled your number from one of her old bills. Ditto if you ever shared an address. Skip tracers are often paid a percentage of the debts they collect, and are ruthless about tracking down debtors.