[Parallax]

It was tempting. 100+ units should have been worth plenty.

When first married our phone number had been for a barber shop that must have recently closed.
I got tired of explaining it all to callers and eventually started accepting appointments.

Chris

Years ago our phone number was one digit off from Pizza Hut and we got fairly frequent calls for them.
One evening a woman called and, without waiting for me to speak beyond "hello", started placing an order. I cut her short and told her she had a wrong number. Less than 5 minutes later she called back and immediately started placing an order. I waited until she finished, thanked her, and told her it would be delivered in about 20 minutes. I have no idea what happened after that.

[csa]

She didn't call you back screaming that her pizza was late?

[Parallax]

Nope. I was actually expecting her to, but I have to think she got the number right on the third call and chewed out some poor schmuck at Pizza Hut.

[csa]

That's even better!

[UncleVanya]

Years ago our phone number was one digit off from Pizza Hut and we got fairly frequent calls for them.
One evening a woman called and, without waiting for me to speak beyond "hello", started placing an order. I cut her short and told her she had a wrong number. Less than 5 minutes later she called back and immediately started placing an order. I waited until she finished, thanked her, and told her it would be delivered in about 20 minutes. I have no idea what happened after that.

My Kung Fu teacher did this repeatedly when people would call back after he told them he wasn't Domino's Pizza. Whenever they called back complaining he would give them the correct number and say that she or he must have just misdialed him by mistake and they should call the Domino's and complain about their pizza.

[tim60]

During the last housing bubble a few years ago several times a week I received mail and phone calls
offering pre-approved loans and mortgages to refinance my property. I lived in a rental apartment.

Chris

I am getting something like that where I am living. I am renting but getting many letters from rental agents and sales agents offering their professional services. They are so lazy they have not even checked whether the occupier is the owner.

[PDL]

Three stories:

I was at work and the guy behind me kept getting calls from a elderly lady trying to contribute to his ministry. She would call 10-30 times a day and he would try to tell her that his phone (shared with two other people) was not the televangalist she thought. I got tired of it and answered the phone one time. I told her that God really wanted her to stop this activity or she would go straight to hell if she did not check the phone number on the television. Never heard from her again.

After a night of partying I got a phone call for "Bill", please realize that the short method of saying my first name sounds very much like Bill especially if you have had 3 hours of sleep and way too many beers. Anyway I listened to this guy explain that he knew Bill had the bolt to fix the disk plow and that Bill had d*mned better bring the bolt with him out to the field that morning or there was going to be semi-solid bodily waste material hitting the rotating air circulator. I said "OK, I have it right here in my hand". He said he was leaving for the field where the disk plow was, so hurry up. I said "No problem". Never did hear what happened, maybe the guy showed up with the bolt anyway.

Final story. While working at the lab, I started getting phone calls from some kid wanting to talk to grandma. After about 40 calls in a half hour, auto redial had just come into play, I answered and said "grandma is dead - go tell your mother" all I heard was a scream for mom and tears. Neither Mom nor the little darling called back.

Now I leave the d*mn phone alone and let it go to voice mail (yup some of us old dudes still use voice mail) - Oh that reminds me of another story - but I promised only three - so there you go.

The Elitist - formerly known as PDL

[Digitalis]

I answered and said "grandma is dead - go tell your mother" all I heard was a scream for mom and tears.

Though I have to say 40 calls in 30 mins is incredibly persistent...they had it coming.

[Tom S.]

Most of the time the IRS does not call you but it isn't never. Yes, they generally send letters. If you get a scam IRS call, contact the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. I've had a couple of those scam calls and they have a really easy form on their website for reporting.

People used to call my dad's mechanic shop looking for a mental health hospital because their number was one off and that place advertised heavily on tv. "No, I can't connect you to room 406." Click.

Of all the pieces of information the IRS has, your phone number is not one of them. I suppose if you were involved in a case with them and were scheduling appointments, they could have it, but otherwise, there is no way they will call you, it's all done by mail. So if you've not had any previous contact with them, you will not hear from them via phone.

Like your dad's shop, my friend's phone number was two digits transposed from the local state police post number. Yeah, they got some interesting calls too.

[nikigunn]

Of all the pieces of information the IRS has, your phone number is not one of them. I suppose if you were involved in a case with them and were scheduling appointments, they could have it, but otherwise, there is no way they will call you, it's all done by mail. So if you've not had any previous contact with them, you will not hear from them via phone.

The IRS does collect phone numbers, even if you don't have an open case. There's a field on the 1040 series of forms that ask for it. If you fill that in, they have your phone number. Here's a link from IRS.gov's site (the Internal Revenue Manual, specifically) talking about how to input and delete telephone numbers from their computer: manual I'm always amazed by how much stuff is on their website.

As I said before, yeah, they don't usually call, but it isn't impossible. You're correct that most of their contact is by mail. They don't shake people down like these scammers do.

I'm sure calls to the cops would be more interesting than getting calls for people in a hospital.

A girl I knew from school never could order pizza by phone. They usually hung up on her because her last name was Crust.

[redrockcoulee]

My mother got one of those computer scam phone calls. It took them about ten minutes to get her to follow them deep into the computer where apparently they wanted her to go but by this time she was not able to answer anymore of their questions because she has never owned or used a computer.

I get the THIS IS YOUR CAPTAIN message on my work phone and my supervisour is a captain. Occassionally I think I should talk to the real person on the line and ask for some advise on work matters (made up of course).

[Tom S.]

The IRS does collect phone numbers, even if you don't have an open case. There's a field on the 1040 series of forms that ask for it. If you fill that in, they have your phone number. Here's a link from IRS.gov's site (the Internal Revenue Manual, specifically) talking about how to input and delete telephone numbers from their computer: manual I'm always amazed by how much stuff is on their website.

As I said before, yeah, they don't usually call, but it isn't impossible. You're correct that most of their contact is by mail. They don't shake people down like these scammers do.

I'm sure calls to the cops would be more interesting than getting calls for people in a hospital.

A girl I knew from school never could order pizza by phone. They usually hung up on her because her last name was Crust.

I worked with or knew people with the following names:

James Bond
Jessie James
John Smith (2)
Peter Traks
Dick Tracy
Dick Long
Jay Doe
Mary Jane Head

Talk about problems with phone conversations....

[cmar]

Ah to much, I joke not, we used have a

Wayne Kerr
Richard Head
Terisita (Tess) Tickle
Long Dhong

What were their parents thinking? (in fairness in Tess's case it was by marriage)

[pathdoc]

I've had those calls both in Australia and in Canada. I threaten them with police involvement. On the last occasion, after the third call in a week, I made it quite clear that I had experience of their activities in multiple nations. That was some time ago, and they have not yet rung back.

They're back, and this time even more devious. The first time the call didn't come through for some reason, but the call display number still showed. When I called it, it turned out to be the number for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. So they can now fool your call display or impersonate people. I sent an email to the spam/fraud service of the FRB-NY letting them know what was going on.

Still obvious the same crowd, though. There seem to be call centre-type noises in the background.

[brewmaster15]

I got rid of my land line several years ago, we have cell phones now ,couldn't see a reason for a land line here. That cut down on junk calls incredibly. Then registered at the "Do Not Call" center and helped even more. Best thing since apple pie though is my "Mr. Number" App for my droid smart phone. It flags potential spammers based on user complaints and records, you can view the comments and best of all... block the numbers with a click. The block can be a hang up or go to voice mail. Its been an absolute wonder app and its free

This past summer we were at a fair and signed up for a free gutter guard estimate with several companies, got home and changed our minds and cancelled with them. They are persistent as all heck. They call from numbers all over the place... Never Never Never sign up for a "free estimate " for gutters at a town fair!

al