Reply #10: I'm going through the same thing right now! [View All]

[MorningGlow]

We moved into our house a year and a half ago. The previous residents were renters of questionable character (that's an understatement--I met them--I know whereof I speak), and one of them bailed on a student loan or two (at least as far as I can tell, as I don't open her mail--I just send it back). Now, those people didn't have the same phone number we have, but in their desperation, the collection agencies have done reverse lookups of the address and call here. What kind of sense does that make? None at all, but there it is.

So for a friggin' year and a half we have had people mail, call, and come to our door looking for this chick. On at least one occasion, when DH and I were both at work, our neighbor saw one guy walking around our house peering in our windows! No matter HOW OFTEN I say we bought this house a year and a half ago, our phone number was NOT their phone number, nobody by that name lives here anymore, and no I don't know where she went, they continue to mail, call, and visit.

The worst is the auto-dial calls--"Important information for Jane Doe. If you are not Jane Doe, do not respond." WTF? You can't speak, because then the auto-dialler will think you ARE Jane Doe, but if you just hang up, it calls you over and over and over and over.... However, I got so frustrated one day that I called the auto-dial number that showed up on my caller ID, and I actually got a live person. Granted, the guy was in India and we could barely understand one another, but he got the gist of what I was saying and the auto-calls stopped.

I had a lovely conversation last weekend with a member of our local police department (who was looking for the house's previous owner with a grand jury subpoena in his hands--oy vey, what a crew) and he said that if you do talk to a live person on the phone, immediately demand to talk to a supervisor, and don't stop going up the chain of command until you get some satisfaction.

And he also said that if anyone sets foot on our property, we have every right to call 911 immediately. Which I will be happy to do if anyone dares try that again (especially because now I'm not working and I can catch 'em in the act).

I'll be interested to see if anyone else posts advice on your thread, LIA, because I'm up for anything at this point!
:hi: