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I keep getting calls for someone else

(18 Posts)
pat834 Wed 26-Apr-17 15:50:36

I have had my mobile number for well over a decade but for the last year or so I have been getting frequent calls for someone else. Not personal calls but many of the PPI/selling ones which are driving me mad. Every time I get one I tell them to take me off their database because I have never heard of this person and then I block the number but it goes on and on. Now I have started getting selling texts for him/her too. Again I am blocking the numbers but nothing seems to make it go away. Any suggestions would be very gratefully received

AlieOxon Wed 26-Apr-17 15:54:22

Change your number? I can't think of anything else.....

Elegran Wed 26-Apr-17 15:58:44

Get onto whoever your phone provider is and ask whether they have made a mixup?

pat834 Wed 26-Apr-17 16:13:39

I don't want to change my number as I have had it the best part of 20 years and it would be hugely inconvenient to change it now.

I have spoken to my phone provider - they say that either someone has given the number in error or deliberately (perhaps instead of their own) and it's now got on to many databases which is why this is happening. It's so annoying

Riverwalk Wed 26-Apr-17 16:26:56

I never answer calls on my mobile or landline that I don't recognise - if it's important or genuine they will leave a message.

I'd caution against changing number - who knows what you'll calls you get on a new number. When I went abroad for six months about 8 years ago I made the mistake of giving up my landline number as expected to be away for a year.

On my return I got a new number from BT - the minute the line went live at 12.00 I got junk calls!

pat834 Wed 26-Apr-17 16:30:02

Yes I do suspect that could happen so changing it with all the inconvenience would not be worth it.

The trouble is that these mainly come up as landline or mobile numbers and sometimes the calls are genuinely for me and sometimes not so hard to tell (I don't have all the numbers in my contacts because things like banks, doctors etc call from numbers I wouldn't have or no called id numbers) and if you are waiting for that sort of call then you answer.

Wheniwasyourage Wed 26-Apr-17 18:46:51

I kept getting calls and texts for Stephen for a while. All I found out about him was that he lived in the North of England. I assumed that he had given out his number with a digit wrong so that it was actually mine, and there was no way that I could think of to get in touch with him to stop it. In the end, it just stopped, and I hope the same happens for you, pat834. Like you, I've had my phone for over 10 years.

For a while I was getting drunken calls, usually in the middle of the night, from some woman who accused be of treating her badly. Fortunately I turn my phone off at night! In the end I phoned her back and told her she had the wrong number, and she stopped, thank goodness.

rascal Wed 26-Apr-17 18:57:53

I downloaded add blocker app. It seemed to work for me on my android phone.

rascal Wed 26-Apr-17 19:04:52

Call blocker that should have been. Just checked it. Hope it helps.

joannapiano Wed 26-Apr-17 20:22:14

On our landline, once a week, we get an elderly lady shouting "Is that you, Heather!". At first I just said, sorry you have the wrong number. Now, after months of this, I say "No, it's me again, have a nice day" She always replies,"I must have dialled the wrong number" and hangs up.

Charleygirl Wed 26-Apr-17 20:37:16

I have a problem with my landline as I am one digit different from the local pizza shop and so many people do not believe me when I say I do not take orders, especially when inebriated after the pubs close. I am tempted to say I am from the local police station but one of these days it will be the police ordering.

PRINTMISS Thu 27-Apr-17 08:15:19

There is someone or something out there that regularly rings us at lunch time, and then hangs up if we answer the phone, which we don't, we have the answerphone if it something important.

Greyduster Thu 27-Apr-17 09:07:09

We get a lot of those calls, Printmiss; two or three a day. We let them go to answerphone, but they always hang up before the end of the message. The numbers are always from places where we know no-one.

FarNorth Thu 27-Apr-17 09:13:37

We used to get calls, often from drunks in the early hours, for a taxi firm as it had a similar number to ours.
Eventually, we would just say "It'll be right there" and hang up without taking any details.
We were happy with that anyway grin

harrigran Thu 27-Apr-17 09:23:00

A takeaway had the same number as us but the last two digits reversed, we would get a lot of calls from mobiles late at night. I got to know the voice of one woman who would not be told she had keyed in the wrong number, one night I took her order and then cheekily asked her if she wanted chips with it grin
I never did get a call from that number again.

Wheniwasyourage Fri 28-Apr-17 17:57:12

In the days when the phone numbers were 4 figures, we were one digit different from one of the butchers and we got a lot of calls for them. Fortunately they closed at 5pm! Our number was also very like the manse number, and I had quite a long conversation once at complete cross purposes with somebody who wanted to speak to the minister and asked for him by Christian name only. As the minister's name was the same as DS's (then away from home as a student) it took a while to sort that one out. grin

Jalima1108 Fri 28-Apr-17 18:36:28

When we first moved here we got a lot of calls for the G*** Entertainment Agency as it had ceased to exist so BT gave us that number. However, it was still listed in the phone books etc.

Purpledaffodil Fri 28-Apr-17 20:58:01

We used to have the same number, and similar area code as a local prison. We had such a lot and strange variety of wrong numbers that eventually we had the number changed.