Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: How to stop unwanted calls to previous user of my cellphone number?

This is topic How to stop unwanted calls to previous user of my cellphone number? in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

To visit this topic, use this URL:
https://ft-forum.com/ft/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=8;t=006786

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 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!

Posted by Louis Bornwasser (Member # 3063) on 01-07-2013, 07:07 PM:

Speak back to them in a foreign language; the wierder the better. Louis

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 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.

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 01-08-2013, 05:45 PM:

You could always pay the guy's bills for him. [Smile]

Posted by Jock Blakley (Member # 6552) on 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 [Big Grin]

Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 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.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 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.

Posted by Dave Macaulay (Member # 813) on 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.

Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 01-13-2013, 09:36 AM:

Brad, that's one of the benefits of owning an iPhone. [Razz]

(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.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 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.

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 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.

Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 01-13-2013, 10:16 PM:

Nuke the site from above. It's the only way to be sure.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 01-13-2013, 10:49 PM:

They mostly come at night, mostly.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 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!

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 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.

Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 01-14-2013, 01:23 AM:

ringtone

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 01-14-2013, 09:27 AM:

quote: Joe Redifer
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.

I have a conspiracy theory about that, which is that the phone companies do not want such software to enter mainstream use because of the likely loss of revenue if large numbers of junk calls are not answered. By the same token, on British landlines you can subscribe to a service called anonymous call reject. It does what it says on the tin - if a call is received without any caller display data, it's blocked at the exchange and the caller gets a recorded message saying 'This line does not accept anonymous calls - please try again without withholding your number.'

The phone companies are required to offer ACR by law, but you won't find it advertised in any of their literature or websites, it costs a lot (£5 a month from my telco) - many times more than it costs the telco to provide - and if you call them asking for ACR to be put on your line, you'll be given an intensive, carefully rehearsed script trying to talk you out of it. My guess is that for every subscriber that takes ACR they lose a boatload of cash in unsolicited marketing calls that go unanswered, and so they do the bare minimum they have to by law and use every trick in the book to keep the number of takers down. By the same token, I wouldn't be surprised if the Apple and Android app stores refuse to distribute software that is effective at filtering out unwanted calls at the phone level.

Posted by Mitchell Dvoskin (Member # 751) on 01-14-2013, 09:57 AM:

Most land line phone companies in the USA offer anonymous call blocking. Telemarketers/Collection agencies get around this by sending "fake" caller id.

I know Verizon Wireless has per number call blocking, where you can block numbers via your account on their web site. You may want to consider switching carriers.

I had the exact same problem as Leo with a company issued cell phone. A collection agency was after the prior owner. Eventually I contacted the attorney general's office in the state where the collection agency was based and filed a complaint. It cost me nothing, did everything online, and that made the problem go away.

Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 01-14-2013, 12:26 PM:

I get a lot of phone calls from "unknown number" that are actually legitimate. A lot of large companies have their actual numbers blocked when phoning out, probably through some kind of central corporate switch.

If I didn't answer "unknown number', I would miss a lot of legitimate calls.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 01-14-2013, 08:27 PM:

Yeah, Caller ID is kind of useless these days for a business. About 3/4 of the calls are from "Wireless Caller" and most of the rest are "Unknown," "Private" or "Unavailable."

Not that we really care who calls, but in a small town it's nice to know who it is ahead of time, that way you can often sort of get a head start on the call before you even answer the phone.

Posted by Bruce Hansen (Member # 281) on 01-16-2013, 07:11 PM:

I don't know if this works with cell phones, but with land lines (in America) you tell them this: "according to federal law, you are not to call me again". If they call you again, they get fined.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 01-16-2013, 10:51 PM:

Has anyone ever actually gotten fined based on that? And if so, have they paid?

Posted by Sean Weitzel (Member # 244) on 01-23-2013, 07:00 PM:

I was chatting with a co worker about this very subject today. Apparently the IOS6 os for iPhone has a nifty "do not disturb" feature. You can turn it on and then set whitelists to allow certain numbers through. It may not be as fully featured as Brad is envisioning but it's a start.

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 02-01-2013, 04:28 AM:

I've got VoIP service with Ooma -- yah, that's the name. After you buy their rather pricey modem at around $160, their service for all international calls is free except for your local taxes and 911 fees that you city & state may tack on. So for a monthy $5 bucks, I unlimited national calling and a host of features that Verizon landline service used to cost me nearly $40 a month without voice mail. The sound quality is as good as a copper wire line and they are rated #1 of all the VoIP services.

Ooma has even more feature with their Premium service for $10 a month INCLUDING Brad's dream feature -- Privacy blocking. You can block up to 40 numbers and those numbers will never get thru, or you can have them go directly to voice mail, your choice, but thing is, you never get a ring.

They are here: Ooma VoIP -- Rated # VOice Quality & service. FREE plus taxes & 1 time cost of modem

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 02-01-2013, 07:54 AM:

In the end I didn't get time to go in to the T-Mobile store and investigate changing numbers before heading back to England in mid-January. If, when I'm next in SoCal at around Easter time, I discover about 20 voicemails from Mr. Johnson's creditors, I'll take action then. But given that I have now had that number since January 2012, I'd hope that they'd be dying down by now. There again, if Mr. Johnson is still out there and giving people that number (in order to avoid being traced), it would explain why they aren't. Thanks for everyone's thoughts.

Posted by Chris Slycord (Member # 4239) on 02-01-2013, 05:53 PM:

quote: Bruce Hansen
I don't know if this works with cell phones, but with land lines (in America) you tell them this: "according to federal law, you are not to call me again". If they call you again, they get fined.

The only problem with this is that it's perfectly legal to use a device or software to give fake Caller ID data. So it could be hard to find the real number of the asshole that keeps on calling you.