More likely, she listed you as a personal reference on some application for something such as a credit card or a credit purchase.
Now that she’s not paying or falling behind, they are calling around trying to find her. They probably know where she lives and have her work and home numbers, and are now calling friends or references as a means to embarrass her into paying.
I would have given them her info.
I would tell the person calling that they have the wrong number and I have no idea who it is they are calling for and tell them to lose my number.
I would tell her that someone called my number looking for her and give her whatever info I have.
Then I would drop it because it is none of my business and considering have many of these so called collection agencies are scams and/or operating illegally I wouldn’t assume she defaulted on anything.
Unless or until a friend is taking from me, their financial situation is none of my business and it’s not my place to speculate or assume anything about it. I’d be plenty pissed if any of my friends did that to me.
It would take a whole thread to tell you of all the stories I’ve heard from friends who have had ‘bill collectors’ call them with all kinds of bullshit. One of my friends got so upset she almost sent one $3000 for an old $30 parking ticket. It wasn’t even her ticket but they scared her so badly by threatening to put a lien on her house she was ready to give them the money.
IIRC, Accurint sells ‘related numbers’ to a SSN or name punched in. It wasn’t explained HOW they were related, merely that they were. Maybe Accurint related your numbers through your mutual friend; I’d bet she didn’t give them yours as hers.
I get regular collection calls. Most of them are for someone who has the same moderately common last name as I do. According to one of the collectors our only other connection is that 15 years ago we lived in the same town. 500 miles away from where I live now.
Yes Accurint does that. And it does not explain how the numbers are related.
That’s what I thought was the likeliest possible explanation for it.
Or Facebook could be the culprit. Not that they gave your number, but if her Facebook profile isn’t fully locked down, someone from a collections agency searching her on Facebook may be able to see people listed as her friends and then just start making a list of people to try hassling.
The Facebook link seems just as likely to me as someone you’re only vaguely acquainted with deciding to give your number out when making an application for credit.
Lexus-Nexis sells contact info of neighbors, relatives, associates, and they use it. I had an account in dispute at one time (they broke several laws) and the bank contacted and sent letters to in-laws and other people I had never met. I never gave their info or used as reference. I’ve seen some of my reports and crazy information, which I have found possible to change.
Thanks for all the sensible replies. I’m going to forget about it unless it happens again in the future. I would think it’s unlikely that she listed me as a reference or contact person for anything, though it is possible. We only know each other through a mutual friend. We’ve never lived or worked together and we don’t talk on the phone. But we are connected on Facebook and we’ve texted a couple of times over the years.
Don’t cut slack where none is deserved. You said yourself you barely know this person. Confronting her would be embarrassing because you don’t know her well enough. Some people regularly do these kinds of things because they are users.
Because of one of my sons, we have a [long-ago] “friend” who uses our address and phone number. We receive her bills and phone calls for payment. We finally called the police when we got a (her) letter from the court demanding a response. (Not 911, the non-emergency #. Actually, we called the court first and they told us to call the police.) The officer wrote out a report that basically let us off the hook from trying to find her lying ass to pass on her mail.
Some people depend on the woosieness of others to get away with shit. Nip it. Nip it in the bud.
The OP’s gotten some phone calls from a single company who backed off when they said they didn’t know the person and that nobody by that name uses the phone number. That sounds to me like it was a fishing expedition from the collection agency, because if they had multiple links between the OP and the friend, I’m sure they wouldn’t have given up so easily.
There’s no hard evidence here as to whether she’s a user or not, but they haven’t gotten any mail addressed to her at their address, bailiffs haven’t turned up at their address.
Given the limited contact with the person and the ease at which the collections company backed off, I’m still thinking that the most likely thing here is that she’s not got very good security on her Facebook page, the collections agency (or whatever company sells them their data) looked her up, flagged a few likely looking people, found them in the phone book or other data aggregators and sent their details on as “Possible connections to this person”.
I live in the upstairs apartment of a duplex that has two apartments. I used to get voicemails from a collection agency left at my number for a woman who lived in the downstairs apartment (who recently passed away).
I generally screen my calls and don’t answer if I don’t recognize the name or number. One time I was expecting an important call and answered without looking. It was the collection agency. I explained to him that she was my downstairs neighbor whom I barely knew, and that my number was in no way connected to her. The calls stopped after that.
Somehow my number must have gotten associated with her by the street address. Could something like that have happened with you and your friend?
Under the circumstances, I would not have even opened the envelope from the court to know that they “demanded” a response.
Ask her for an explanation, and make a judgement as to whether she caused this, or if this is a skip tracer trying to locate her by harassing her friends and family. I know from personal experience that the do this. A friend of mine, who never lived with me, or worked in the same place or anything that would get our names associated in a database defaulted on a medical bill, then left the country. Not only I, but a couple of other mutual friends started receiving calls from the collectors. Lying sacks too they were. They weren’t so much trying to locate her anymore, but trying to trick one of us into accepting responsibility for the debt.
I got a collection call looking for someone who has used me as a reference. I had given them permission to do this (use me as a reference) , so I know were the collection company got my number.
I’m guessing that she figured that since she bought several of your paintings you’d give her a positive recommend. A bit presumptuous on her part perhaps, but not tough to believe.