How to deal with somebody else's bill collectors....

[SKnight]

My old roommate as it turned out wasnt actually dead but found buying a house 10yrs later was a real mother trucker since his credit was great but he showed up as deceased on all 3 credit reports

Sucked for your roomie but seems like a great course of action for the OP!

 

[Malicious]

its easy... "thank you for calling pizza hut, may i take your order?"

 

[Turbo-Torch]

I love it. I bought my house 12 years ago and apparently a friend or relative of the previous owners used it as his mailing address.
"Vern" has to be the biggest loser on the planet. Soon after moving in I was getting letter after letter from bill collectors. I was nice and wrote return to sender on them. Then summons were being delivered by the sheriff...sometimes twice a week. Cops were lazy as they'd just rubber band them to the door knob while I was at work.
I was nice and would call whatever lawyer's office they came from.

After five years I just started reading everything and tossing it in the garbage. My favorite was his driver's license being revoked for nearly $90,000 in back child support.

After 11 years the collection agency calls start coming in for ol' Vern. Sometimes real early in the morning... They obviously cross referenced the house address with my telephone number. When you try to explain things to them, they don't believe you.
That's when you need to start playing along. Act remorseful and work out a payment plan that you can afford...they are willing to negotiate! When the bill arrives, put some colorful play money in the envelope and send it back!
I'm down to maybe one call a month now.

 

[RussellJ]

I just act like I'm crazy. I ask them off the wall questions like....are we having spaghetti tonight? Or just yell out random stuff like...Bubba, don't lick yourself there we have company! They usually hang up and never call again.

Sometimes it hard to keep from laughing but it's fun to hear some of the reactions.

Are you sure it is an act??

 

[hillbilly]

just give them ur ex-girlfriends number and tell them this is their new number....

Don't ever give them the phone number of who they are looking for. That links you as someone who is in contact with the person they are looking for. They have to stop calling once you tell them it's the wrong number but they trade information with other collection agencies and others will call you.
Ask them for their contact information and a fax and phone number plus a supervisors name. Then burn their fax up with fake letters from your states Attorney Generals Office.
My wife uses a loud alarm when they begin speaking.

 

[Max Speed]

My wife tells them to hang on a min. she then lays the phone down and lets them wait and listen to normal home noise until they get tired and they hang up. Just waste their time....

 

[SoCal Blur]

So two years ago, after being greatly annoyed by all the phone calls from "organizations I had previously done business with," I switched to an unlisted phone number.

Unfortunately, my new (unlisted) phone was once owned by Frank Kelly and his lovely wife Desma, who, it seems, skipped out owing a lot of people money.

I cannot tell you how many bill collectors call my house. In fact, I'd say one out of 5 calls is for Frank or Desma. I'm usually polite to these bill collectors - heck, they're just people doing they're jobs, instead of deadbeats like Mr. and Mrs. Kelly. I tell the bill collectors that this is an unlisted phone number that we have had for two years. I have no knowledge of Frank Kelly or Desma and I would appreciate it if they could update their records and please remove our phone number from their call list. The bill collectors usually say yes, they understand, and agree to remove the number from their list. BUT IT NEVER DOES ANY GOOD.

I'd block the incoming number, but these calls come from all over the country. I already ignore all calls that say phone number not available. I'm starting to think I should start effing with them, but that would probably bring more trouble than good.

Any ideas about how to get this madness to stop?

P.S. Frank and Desma, go eff yourselves!

RANT OVER

Wow, this exact thing is happening to me. I just received a digital phone line with a new number a couple of weeks ago and the phone started ringing all most immediately...at least 4 different times in the evening. No telling how many times it rings throughout the day when I'm at work. I didn't answer it for a couple of days but it got so annoying that I finally started answering the phone. It was bill collectors for Mr. Ortiz. I explained that this was a new number for me and that I was not Mr. Ortiz. They said that they would make note of it. Well, I only had to do that 3 times and now the phone hasn't rung for about a week. I hope it worked!

 

[Big Bo]

An air horn would get someones attention.

 

[AJAY]

I'm afraid to mess with these bill collectors because if I'm being evasive in any way, they might get the idea that I'm actually the person their trying to reach. Also afraid to change numbers, because it may not be any better, besides the inconvenience and expense to me.

These bill collectors are just doing their job, and it must be a really unpleasant job. What's bad for me is that when they fail to collect, it just passes to the next bill collection agency. I'm mostly mad at the deadbeat Kellys and also mad at the $&%^& bill collection industry that seems to be running on autopilot with crap like this!

 

[BlondeOnaBusa]

Are you sure it is an act??

That's my story and I'm sticking to it!