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Author Topic: How to stop unwanted calls to previous user of my cellphone number? Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 01-07-2013 07:04 PM                        The collective F-T wisdom would be appreciated on this one. Just over a year ago I bought a T-Mobile (United States) pay-as-you-go SIM card, and put it in an old cellphone for use when I'm staying with my fiancee in Southern California. The roaming charges I was racking up using my British one over here were seriously unfunny, hence this solution. The problem is that the previous owner of my phone number appears to have vanished off the face of the planet leaving rather a lot of people interested in contacting him, many of which, surprise surprise, are businesses that lend money or extend credit to people. Even though I've had this number for a year now, I still get 3-4 calls or voicemails a day from people trying to contact the elusive Mr. Johnson. And it's not just the same company every time. I'd guess that they're costing me about $5 a week, and even when I explain that there is no Mr. Johnson at this number, most of them don't give up. I've put my number on the do not call register, but that only covers unsolicited marketing calls. I have a strong suspicion that Mr. Johnson is still going around giving people this number, even though he no longer has it, and probably for suspicious reasons. The only solution I can think of is to get another SIM card and thus a new number, but that would be a serious pain as there are now a load of people who have this one, and it would mean laboriously notifying them all. Andf furthermore, there is no guarantee that the new number won't previously have belonged to someone with a colourful past, either. Before I bite the bullet and do that, I just wondered if there was anything obvious I could do that I haven't thought of to make these calls stop. Thanks in advance!  |  IP: Logged Louis Bornwasser Film God Posts: 4441 From: prospect ky usa Registered: Mar 2005 posted 01-07-2013 07:07 PM                        Speak back to them in a foreign language; the wierder the better. Louis  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 01-08-2013 05:28 PM                        Well my English accent hasn't scared them off at any rate! I think I'm just going to have to admit defeat and change the number.  |  IP: Logged Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 01-08-2013 05:45 PM                        You could always pay the guy's bills for him.  |  IP: Logged Jock Blakley Expert Film Handler Posts: 218 From: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Registered: Oct 2011 posted 01-08-2013 06:09 PM                     I answer the phone to such calls in Russian. My Glaswegian grandfather answered the phone to such calls in his normal voice saying normal English words and achieved a better hang-up rate than I did  |  IP: Logged Manny Knowles "What are these things and WHY are they BLUE???" Posts: 4247 From: Bloomington, IN, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 01-12-2013 11:18 PM                     1. Store all of those incoming phone numbers in your address book under the name "DNA" (for "Do Not Answer). 2. If you see an incoming call from "DNA" just don't answer it. 3. Depending on your phone, you might be able to assign a unique ring-tone -- apply a silent ring-tone (10-sec of silence) or else your least-audible ring-tone to Mr. "DNA" and those callers will will never make your phone ring again.  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 01-13-2013 01:27 AM                     I've done that Manny, but there is no way to make the phone not vibrate when those people call.  |  IP: Logged Dave Macaulay Film God Posts: 2321 From: Toronto, Canada Registered: Apr 2001 posted 01-13-2013 08:50 AM                     Get a new SIM card and number. Tell the people who should have your number what it is. T-Mobile will possibly waive any charge for this if you explain what's happening. You will never get the credit agencies to leave you alone, there is no effective process to do so and they don't have to respect any "do not call" list since they have a "previous business relationship" with the number. Whatever businesses were cheated have sold the unpaid amount to these credit agencies at a deep discount. The agencies then keep anything they can collect. Most of them use freelance chasers (paid a percentage of any recovery) who will never give up: it costs them almost nothing to call every day. They will never believe whatever story you tell them about having the wrong number. They (probably correctly) assume most people who claim "that isn't me, wrong number" are lying - sooner or later they hope someone else will answer and say "just a moment, I'll get him". There is nothing else you can do to stop the calls except find the miscreant yourself and give them his address and phone number when they call. I let a "friend" use my cell phone for a day when he was in town for a visit. Credit calls began shortly afterward, both cell and home (somewhere on the internet I must have put both numbers in some form and that kind of data A) never disappears and B) will be collected and sold to anyone who's looking for it). When I found his current address and number and passed that on every time one called, the calls tapered off and are now quite rare.  |  IP: Logged Manny Knowles "What are these things and WHY are they BLUE???" Posts: 4247 From: Bloomington, IN, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 01-13-2013 09:36 AM                     Brad, that's one of the benefits of owning an iPhone. (Stand clear, everyone -- Brad's going to explode now.) Even so, at least it's a way of knowing "it's them" and not racking up talk-time charges.  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 01-13-2013 01:26 PM                     Another major benefit of an iphone is that it won't let you answer 25-50% of the incoming calls. Slide your finger over and over across the screen and it just keeps ringing! Its a built in feature to help save your talk time charges.  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 01-13-2013 08:17 PM                        Dave - many thanks. I feared that the situation was something like this, and will pay a visit to the T-Mobile store in San Bernardino tomorrow and see if they'd be willing to change the number without charge; and especially if they can give me a number that has not been in use before, or at least not for a few years. When I chose the number when activating the SIM online, I chose one that looked easy to memorise, which in retrospect was probably a mistake. Presumably T-Mobile will be able to see if any of the other unused numbers that they have has had a previous owner recently. Though the area code I'm in (909) covers a very big area and has existed for 20 years, so I guess the chances of snaging a 'virgin' number are not good. The phone in question is an ancient (as in, 2007 vintage) Blackberry. It would be possible to put some of the numbers in its address book as DNA, but the callers still leave voicemails (in particular, an outfit called the Texas Guarantee Company, which has been calling pretty much daily for the last couple of weeks) and it still costs time and money to listen to them. Thanks again for the pointers.  |  IP: Logged Manny Knowles "What are these things and WHY are they BLUE???" Posts: 4247 From: Bloomington, IN, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 01-13-2013 10:16 PM                     Nuke the site from above. It's the only way to be sure.  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 01-13-2013 10:49 PM                     They mostly come at night, mostly.  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 01-13-2013 11:18 PM                        I'm surprised that people who develop software for phones don't let you block calls at the phone level yet. Punch in a number or a recent call and add it to the block list. It never rings or vibrates your phone, ever shows up under "missed calls", it completely leaves you alone just like that number never called you again. If this can't be done at the phone (and I don't see why it couldn't) then it could be done with the provider and it should be completely free for an unlimited number of blocked phone numbers. Seriously, why am I the first person in the entire world to ever think of this? You're slacking, phone people!  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 01-14-2013 12:40 AM                     I've searched for that exact app since forever. Seriously, I would easily pay $50 for an app that did that. Even better if it would answer the call for me without ringing or vibrating and play a pre-recorded message that I have made for that caller.  |  IP: Logged

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