Definitely. Write a letter and postmark it to them with delivery confirmation demanding they stop harassing you. Written form is very important.

Ubelievable. I have gotten calls for other people but never that bad. I probably wouldn't change my number but instead follow your advice and record and document calls and then call a consumer lawyer.
Somebody has to stand up and teach these people that harrassment is not ok.

I had this problem as well. Our new phone number was previously that of asome deadbeat that owed all k inds of debts. The problem was that one debt collection company would call, I'd tell them that we just got this number and the make a note of it in the file. That's fine at all but these debt collection companies always sell these accounts back and forth. so, the new company gets the file and calls the only telephone number in there, mine. I yell at them and tell them to stop calling but they say it's only the first time they called, and it's true. It took about 3 years but they finally seem to have died down. It used to be once a week or 3 times a month. Now maybe once a year.

Change number. Done.

There are a variety of services that display caller ID on your computer. [Here's one: [sunflowerhead.com]] This will make it easier to document the volume and times of these incoming calls.

Without a lawyer, you could also simply contact your local police. Harrasing phone calls are a crime.

I agree, change the number before it's too much of a hassle to change it. It took me years to get the calls to stop. I wish I changed when it first started.

If it's been only two months since you got that number, methinks a simple call to the phone company for a new one will make the problem go away.

Unless the debtors somehow get that number too. :/

Aren't debt collectors also only allowed one call a day per agency?

You don't have to change your number, they are violating several laws. I would buy a recorder and start recording all future calls from them. (First check to see in your state allows one party notification) Make sure you get the name of the company and contact info on tape.

Go to creditboards.com or debtorboards.com They will have step by step information on how to sue these idiots

@SkokieGuy: I used to keep track of them and I found that the company would sell the account to another debt colleciton agency if they couldn't make any progress. Some companies are more harsh than others. One company would curse at me and wouldn't beleive I wasn't the guy they were looking for. Others were much more apologetic. But it's tought to bring a case against them when they keep selling the account.

I'd file a lawsuit right now. You could get the phone records from the phone company and see every time they've called. That would be much better than a journal...

Unfortunately, if there a large number of debt collectors involved, you may never see the end of it (especially if the culprit is running up new debt and either giving his old phone number - your new one - to people or the new collectors will look up his number and call you in the hopes to getting a hook-up to his current whereabouts). Maybe you SHOULD pass on his current contact information

Have fun with it! Answer every call with "Thank you for calling Pizza Hut, will this be for pickup or delivery?" read something random out of the Bible, or fart into the receiver!

@A.W.E.S.O.M.-O: Yeah, then they switch to the automated message asking you to call back. Those are the worst kind of collection calls because there's no fun to be had.

We had this problem and they would not believe that I didn't know these deadbeats. They stopped for a while then started again. I finally just made up a number and gave it to them, and the problem went away. Probably some violation on my part, but hey it worked and was simple.

Is it just me, or was anyone else bothered more by the fact that her property manager told her she had to ditch Cable for DSL?

I've had to report three different debt collectors for calling multiple times (sometimes multiple times a day, sometimes outside the hours they're allowed to call) for the debts racked up by the people who had our new-ish phone number before we had it.

One of them even said, "Suuuuuure you don't know them. Right." before they hung up on me, only to call again later. One of them was a pre-recorded message auto-dialed by a computer, and they sometimes called me eight times a day.

I got all the information together after keeping a journal for about a week (and telling every human I talked to what I was doing, that I wasn't connected in any way to the debt they were trying to collect, and that I WOULD report them under the Fair Debt Collection Practices act) and one of the debt collectors finally agreed to remove the phone number from the contact information in their records. The other three places that had been illegally harassing me didn't, so I reported them as I'd told them I would. It was easy to fill out the form and simply fill in the details from my log.

Two of them stopped calling shortly after that (don't know if it was the report or if they gave up) and the third one used the same number each time, so I got information from my phone provider on how to put a block on a telephone number from calling mine, and I did so. (It was included in my services, so this may be something the OP wants to look into as well if the calls come from the same number or group of numbers.)

It is an annoying situation, I can tell you. I hope the OP has luck getting them to call off the dogs.

@testsicles: Hmm...hopefully you can still get at least a few good Jerky Boys moments before they ruin the fun.

@testsicles: I lived with something like that for close to a year - one of the previous owners of my cell # had run out on a debt to the cell people.

I never understood their reasoning: The fellow had skipped a debt on this very cell number - why/how would he be able to still have the number??

I finally called and they explained (with asking who I was) that Mark L****** needed to pay his bill. I explained that I wasn't Mark L****** and, as I'd had this number for quite some time it must have been some time. They helpfully told me the amount owing, the date it was last paid and the date they took it over. (!! so much for privacy)

The woman seemed satisfied but the "please call us back" calls started again almost immediately.

I called the service provider and before I'd completed my story, the CSR said "We'll issue you a new number how about XXX-XXXX it's just been allocated to us and no one's had it before."

Problem solved - for me, anyway. Some poor schlub gonna get a new cell phone with a bad history any minute.

I had a similar thing happen to me when I first got my present cell # about 3 years ago, but after repeatedly telling collectors I'm not "Jared Loos"-- whoever that mofo is he needs to die, btw-- the calls have finally dwindled down.

I've had this happen before and what worked well for me was just making up a forwarding address and phone number. Sounds kinda shitty, but it's a quick fix.

We just moved into a similar situation. We would receive 4-6 calls a day from Capital One Finance for someone that used to have our phone number. We generally don't pick up the phone if we don't recognize the Caller ID and/or they don't leave a message.

We finally got tired of listening to the ringer, so we started answering the phone. They were actually accommodating, but let us know that we would have to tell them that we were not the deadbeat in three separate phone calls over the next few days. Although we had to let them know 5 times, they finally stopped.

Despite getting a handful of calls from other creditors (and random women), the calls finally stopped after about 2 months. I'm afraid it was easier to put up with 2 months of phone calls instead of changing my phone number and updating our contact info with everyone.

Sorry: "(with asking who I was)" should be "(without asking who I was)"

Did you ask them not to call again?

If so, then they should not call again. If you just say they don't live there, they will keep on calling because many times deadbeats will say that in the hopes of getting people to stop calling... and they keep calling in the hopes of catching them off-guard and such.

Ask them not to call again - and if so, report them for the violation.

[Then again a long time ago I had some "mad" father call me about my kid stealing their kids bike - I tried to tell them that it was not my kid since I was at that point unmarried & without child. They kept going on and on about knowing where I live and if I don't bring the bike back they were going to come over there to kick my ass and take the bike back. I finally got tired of him and said "Fine, come over and try to take the bike back you .... some curse word" - and then hung up with him. idiot.]

If that's the only thing you use that line for, just unplug the phone.

Ha - better yet. Ask one of them for their phone number that you can give the deadbeats.

Then when the other place calls, give them the number from the first place... and so on. Maybe you can get them to start calling each other instead of you.

Might not work for too long... but at least it would be a little bit of fun.

Why am I not this lucky...every time they call you is worth up to $1000 in damages to you after you notify them of their mistake. Small claims court works very well for this sort of thing.

I like the idea of giving them a bogus new phone number and address, but, I think you should do a smidge of research and give them a fun address and number...their own if possible.

D-

I'm having the same thing happen, except that there is NEVER a real person on the line. It's a recording. And it's not for the old NUMBER, it's for the previous occupants of my home.

They never say WHO they are when they call, and caller ID is no help.

I have found the best way to deal with unwanted collection call is to send them a cease communication letter. In this letter tell them that your are requesting that they cease calling your number as required by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. This letter must be sent certified mail return receipt requested. The receipt is extremely important is you intend to sue them. Collection agencies have a tendency to lose letters.

"This call will be recorded. If you do not agree, please hang up now."

That'll stop it. :)

Send them my #, I LOVE harassing telemarketers and such. (just yesterday, someone begging for a Police Charity got to listen to 4 minutes of NPR until they hung up). He got off easy.

The "lady" who had my cell number before me must have slept with half the guys on Ft Bliss, because I got calls all day long with very suggestive messages. They were great entertainment around the office, then I'd call the guys back and inform them that I had recently gotten the number and my husband was not interested in sharing :)

When we moved in, we were told by the property management that we had to cancel our RoadRunner service and sign up for an account with the local phone company, Cincinnati Bell, for our phone and internet.

Am I the only one who noticed this line? I thought this was illegal too. I thought property managers were not allowed to force you to do business with one telecom/ISP to avoid the possibility of phone/internet providers bribing apartment complexes or property management companies.

I have a cell phone number that was previously used by a deadbeat AND has the added bonus of being very easy to mis-dial (it's all the same digit except for the first and last numbers)...

I got bill collector calls for someone else for a year, until I just lost it on one of them in the middle of Target one day. They never called back. I also got a lot of funny looks from housewives and children.

I had something similar when I got my cell phone. I finally told the caller that the person is dead and he left me his phone number in his will.

So many possibilities for some great phone pranks with this one.

I agree, have some fun with it!

Pretend to be an army recruiter (if that's legal, I don't know) and do NOT take no for an answer.

Pretend to be a charity of some sort and thank them for their automatic donation (the donation will show up on their phone bill) they agreed to by calling you.

Pretend to only speak Swahili.

Pretend to be a Nigerian Price that needs some help to move some money around.

Here's one reason you should just change the number right away - we discovered that the deadbeat whose RCN landline number we had was STILL USING THAT NUMBER as his own two years after we had been issued it.

I had managed to get AT&T and so forth to stop calling for him, but then the deadbeat wrote a bad check to a bar owner and the owner called me. Once we realized that the deadbeat was going to continue to defraud people while giving out our phone number as his own, we just cancelled the landline altogether.

I have to agree with changing the number. I had a cell phone number that was getting collection calls for "Roger". About the time I'd get those people to stop calling, they'd sell the debt to some other hapless debt collector and the process would start over anew. Every February or March, the calls would start and it would be November before I'd get the collection agency to really believe I'm not Roger.

The only upside to this is that I can't imagine the pressure people must feel that have legitimate debt calls.

If you really want to get back at these collectors, make sure that when you mail them a request for validation of the debt that you send it certified mail, return receipt requested. Once the debt collector receives this letter they can't contact you unless they've provided validation of the debt.

After this chain of events has been established, any calls that they make harrassing you to pay on the debt will be grounds for recourse. But until you have requested the validation, they can pretty much call you all the time (within the accepted hours).

The best request for validation letter I have seen is from CreditInfoCenter.com -

[www.creditinfocenter.com]

The beauty of this letter is that it references both the FDCPA and the FCRA (Fair Credit Reporting Act) while also demanding a cease and desist from the phone calls.

Again, certified mail is your friend.

and sent them a letter nicely asking them to update their information with the people and companies they have associated with because I am so tired of these calls

Yeah, I'm sure they jumped at the opportunity to start having these collectors harass them. Sheesh. Some efforts are just not worthwhile.

I recommend you change your phone number. It'd be a lot faster and more effective than trying to beg debtors to take harassing phone calls for the debt they're trying to avoid.

At least until the collectors start coming to your door, but they usually get the picture faster.

This same thing has been happening to me for over a year now. Some jerk who had my cell phone number before me owes a lot of money! Of COURSE he doesn't have the # anymore. I keep telling them I am a woman not a man my name is not Tony. They say they take it out of the system and then they still keep calling. At least some of the comments above gave me some fun ideas for dealing with them now hahaha......

When people call me, I start asking them vulgar things. Sometimes I go along with what they're saying, and then begin to talk about how I just shoved a chocolate bar up my ass. Usually, they don't know what to do.

Sometimes I act like I have limited mental faculties and agree with everything they say, and then ask them a couple minutes in if they have lots of little windows.

Sometimes I act like I know them, and believe that they just left the house without saying bye bye to Sally.

You name it. Every call is an opportunity to be coarse and creative. Every hang-up or angry expression is a lost opportunity for humor in front of your very best audience - YOU!

You are so lucky. At one point I put myself on do not call lists and no-mail lists. My fun quotient has dropped. I've resorted to watching re-runs of Arrested Development on HULU.

@EyeHeartPie: My apartment made me sign a form stating I would only get cable and internet via Charter as a condition of renting there. (In other words, no satellite service, because Charter was the only place that provided cable anyhow). And then just last month they turned off Charter for the entire complex without any input from residents and forced everyone to go with something called Suite Solutions. I'm moving anyhow in two weeks, but I've often wondered how legal all of that was.

I wish the OP the best of luck on getting her situation resolved. As others have mentioned, if you've only had the number for two months, it should be easy to get another number....but for principle, I'd rather sic it to the debt collectors via a lawsuit. :)

@A.W.E.S.O.M.-O: And then lysol the phone. !!1111!!!!1111 A noise maker or whistle may be a better solution.

@MissPeacock: Ah. Forgot that this is a law in Texas (where I live), but not necessarily a law everywhere else. However, there might be an FCC rule against apartment complexes restricting residents' access to phone/internet/TV providers. Even if it is in your contract, it may not be enforceable. Lemme do some checking and see what I turn up. You may have been completely screwed.

My new phone number has been the target of constant calls and messages from a force more powerful that debt collectors or phone solicitors: a sad and lonely grandma.

SLG leaves two messages a day on my voicemail. I think she had some agreement with whatever relative (Sally?) used to have my number where she wouldn't call, only send voicemail. I tried calling her back to say she had the wrong number, but she didn't seem to understand.

I blocked her number yesterday. I wonder if that will have an impact on the next family reunion?

I've been in the same situation. Buy some ear plugs and a fog horn. I've yet to have a harassing collection agent call back, and yes, i gave them 3 warnings...

Ugh. I am going through this. I get all sorts of messages for Michelle D. Jenkins, she owes people money, does not return her rentals to Blockbuster on time, and gets collect calls from prison. Some guy doing time is wondering why his baby would not accept the charges.