I got collection calls for someone who used to own my phone number years before we got it.
One day I inadvertently learned how to deal with them.
I said, *So and so isn’t home right now. Can I take a message and have them call you back?*
She said it was some finance company and I asked, “Is this a collection agency?” and she answered yes.
Then I told her that I’d been getting these calls for years and kept telling them that the person they were looking for no longer owned the phone number. I told her (knowing that they could do this) to look up the phone number and see who owns it now and they would find that it was not the person they were looking for.
She was pretty pissed for having fallen for that, but that did end the calls. I’m guessing she could have gotten in trouble for it.
I might try that next time. I’m about due.
My mother was named Marjorie; maybe that’s how they got the but it’s not spelled the same, she never lived at this address, she didn’t owe anybody any money, all bills were in my father’s nsme, and she’ dead now. Which is probably what I’ll tell them.