OK, here's an interesting scam

[rolanni]

Asyouknowbob, I rarely use my cell phone, considering it, as I do, an Instrument of Defense, to be deployed in Emergencies such as, but not limited to, the wheel coming off the car two miles out of town in the middle of a snowstorm (which event was, indeed, the proximate cause for my initial acquisition of a cell phone. Two miles in the snow is a looooonng walk.)

So, I have a cell phone. Which I rarely use, the number of which is shared on a limited basis, and usually when we're traveling.

Because of Complicated Circumstances, when I switched from the old, candy bar Nokia to the fancy! new! slider!, I lost the phone number I'd had for several years and got a Whole Brand New (to me) Number.

Now, here's the thing. I keep getting phone calls on this device -- nobody I know. I figure some are just random pocket-dials. But this one number is...persistent. And they leave voicemail. And it's creepy.

Which is why I'm telling you about this.

The number -- 860.75x.xxxx -- is apparently located in Middletown, CT. That's all I know. Well, that, and the voice mail, of course.

Woman's voice: "Hi, guys! This is [gulp/blankspace/noword] from Aetna. Look, now that you've been in the house awhile, we'd like to come by and take some more pictures, since the last time we did that you'd just moved in and there were boxes everywhere. Give us a call and let us know when. Hope you guys are doing fine!"

Man's voice: "Hi, guys. Let us know when we can come by and take some more pictures of the house! It's [gulp/blankspace/noword] from Aetna."

There was a third one from the same number; I didn't play it back and I have added the number to my reject list. (Man, I love me a phone with a reject list.) All three calls, last night, were placed within fifteen minutes.

That's what I've got, and I guess there's really no moral to the story, except, yanno -- be advertent; there are bears in the woods.

Comments

[kimuro.livejournal.com]

In the manga Rin-ne, Vol. 1, there is a case of a girl with a new phone starts getting a phone call at the same time each day, using the same words. Turns out to be someone who had died 7 years earlier, while on his way to the appointment - which he'd never kept. The person he was to meet had gotten so freaked out by the calls from the beyond that he gave up his number and got a new one... which was the number with which the girl ended up.

[muehe.livejournal.com]

Do you have any local call centers -- you might be on someone’s automated system.
Call them back and asked to be removed.
There is also a federal do not call site where you list your number, but cell phone number should not have to do that.
Personal opinion, but I think those do not call list are used by political and not-for-profit organizations as call list. I say that because as soon as I added my number to the list, they started calling me.

[keristor.livejournal.com]

In your case it sounds as though someone who had just changed address may have given out an incorrect number which happens to be yours. Have you tried calling back the number which called you, or do you not have it? (If it's persistent you could also contact the phone company for them to trace it.)

[conuly]

Agreed.

In a similar situation, where the numbers were always "UNAVAILABLE", I just resorted to changing my voice mail to address them specifically - "I am NOT the person you are calling! Get her new number from her personally, thanks." Gosh, they got snippy with me! But the calls stopped.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

No, I didn't call them back, and I don't want to call them back. If they had used a name -- theirs, the name of the people they were calling -- it might have been different. But the creepiness factor is in the very generalness of the thing. "Hi, guys! It's [gulp] from Aetna." I guess I could call Aetna Insurance, if I was feeling particularly ambitious, and tell them that their agents at This Phone Number are harassing me.

As it is, it sounds like someone who wants to get access to my house.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Several things about that call strike me as odd, including the fact that Aetna doesn't sell homeowners insurance any more-- they sold their property and casualty business to the Travelers a number of years ago. Aetna's business is life, health and disability insurance products.

Reminds me a bit of the call I got yesterday "This is John, err, no, this is Mark Smith." Yeah, right, changing your name in mid-script just means I hang up even faster.

[torrilin.livejournal.com]

If you enter the Mysterious Phone Number into Google, you will often find that it pops up with results from poor sods who have answered on their landline. IME, mysterious phone numbers with weird messages almost always show up as scams when you investigate.

It's illegal for them to call a cell phone that way, but in order to file a FCC complaint, you have to answer the call. It's rather annoying.

Phone experiences

[(Anonymous)]

Hi this is William (wehATexit150.com)

A few years ago I got a new phone service with Verizon. I hadn't had a land line for a while but DSL had come to Pittsfield, ME so I got a land line to get broadband internet.

I don't know what exactly was going on but I was getting calls from credit card companies at a rate of 10 a day. I they were all for the person whom I assume had the number previously. At first I ignored the calls. Then I started calling the credit card company back and letting them know that the person did not live there.

After about 6 months I was still getting about 10 calls a week from the credit card companies. (Note: The companies were generally different ones.) When I moved to Newport and had numbers both places for a while I got a new number which doesn't get calls from the credit card companies any more.

Also there is quite a lot of churn in prepaid call phone numbers you are getting calls for whomever had had the number previous. I have had that happen with with some of the Tracphones that I have had.

Have a good day.

[katmoonshaker.livejournal.com]

I love the calls I get on my landline asking for the woman who had the number before we did... five years after we got the number. Some of them are relatives and some of them have been businesses, doctors, and welfare folx. Further despondent sayeth not.

I'd call Aetna's main office in that area and ask if [gulp] actually work for the company. If so, I'd inform them that they have a wrong number and that yours must be removed from any and all lists which they might maintain. BTW I must say that I enjoy telling folx that. muahahahahahahahahaha!

[(Anonymous)]

We had a similar situation when my mother got her new cell phone. It turns out that the phone company had given her a number that was already in use. Her phone would receive text messages, but every time we tried to call her, her phone wouldn't ring and we ended up talking to some guy named Frank instead. I don't know if that's what's going on here, but those calls definitely seem hinky :S

Think Horses Not Zebras

[redpimpernel.livejournal.com]

Really sounds like a wrong number to me. Easiest fix, answer the phone next time they call and say, sorry wrong number.

If it is/was a scam (and exactly how would that work, you are suddenly gonna believe that you do know these people and they should be able to take photos of your home?) you just hang up after saying the magic phrase: remove me from your calling list.

We are 1 digit off from a local car repair place. We get a dozen or more car repair related calls or messages a year. Some times people just write a number down wrong. There are more companies called Aetna, besides the insurance people. And many people who simply do not enunciate their names.

Re: Think Horses Not Zebras

[keristor.livejournal.com]

Another common error is transposition. I had that a couple of weeks ago, a friend claimed to have been calling me and some woman answered -- it turned out that he had 92 instead of 29 in my area code, so goodness knows who had actually answered. If I pick up I tend to assume that they have a wrong number and ask them first who they thought they were calling and then what number they thought they were calling.

Actually, this sounds like fraud/criminal activity

[(Anonymous)]

I wonder if there is a way to report this to the police --- maybe
the FBI since it crosses state lines. I've reported email scams to the FBI before but they have a special mandate to track this stuff.
Is the Middletown, CT police on the internet with an information
email address? That might be the best way to handle it.

Oh - I actually believe in the do not call list. Both my home and
cell # are on it. I'm debating putting the bookstore line on it
too. Though I get different scams on that line. Heh...someone just
tried to sell me tech support by just ASSUMING I'd want to read
their advertising packet. I was delighted to inform them that,
since I have a Mac system, *I* am my own tech support. Thank you
and goodbye, click.

Good luck - it *IS* creepy,
Lauretta@ConstellationBooks
PS Belated Happy Birthday Mozart!

[nimitzbrood.livejournal.com]

Yep. Creepy as all hell.

Those types of calls as well as the telemarketers, political robodialers, and the automated dial-answer-hangup calls are one of the reasons we got rid of our landline.

A cute side story. When my friend changed cellphone providers many many years ago _he_ started getting reminder calls for his OBGYN. To this day he still gets a reminder call.

He's more than once threaten to show up for the appointment. ;-)

[keristor.livejournal.com]

One of my friends on my LJ flist recently found out that he had had a sex change and didn't know -- his medical insurance had been listing him as female for the previous six months or so. His complaint was that they didn't tell him earlier so he didn't get a chance to enjoy it before they changed him back *g*...

No call list

[rfalken.livejournal.com]

Did ya know there is a "no call" list for cell phones like there is for residential numbers. You get blocked for 7 years from the time you sign up. Something to look into.

rfalken

[brock-tn.livejournal.com]

It could be worse. If you swap the last two numbers on my landline number, you have the telephone number of a major-brand tire store downtown. One evening I got four calls in a five-minute period from the same woman trying to call the tire store. Having nearly exhausted my patience I finally told her "Ma'am, I don't know what you're doing to misdial my number, but I sure wish you'd stop doing it."

To which she replied "I can't be misdialing: I have the number on speed-dial."

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

To which she replied "I can't be misdialing: I have the number on speed-dial."

*headdesk*

Our landline number is one digit off from the local Kmart, and we used to get a lot of calls for customer service. My favorite was the lady who called us, like, four times in a row, increasingly frustrated, and finally snapped at me, "Listen, I don't know who you are, but I'm calling Kmart -- so stop picking up the phone!"

[(Anonymous)]

My landline number ends in 1040. When I was first issued it, I was actually afraid I'd get a lot of wrong number calls for a local tax preparation firm. Didn't happen. Instead, I occasionally get wrong number calls for a local theater group - same last four numbers, but the exchange is one number off.

I'd rather get calls for the theater - they're much easier to deal with at this time of the year!
Mary

[muehe.livejournal.com]

I happen to know someone that got a lot of phone calls because his new line was an old number for a business, that went out of business.
He complained to the phone company and they changed his number at no charge.
Not sure that 3 call a day merit "a lot" by phone companies standards.
But, I thought I would throw it out as a potential option.

[6-penny.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine got a series of calls on a new phone number that appeared to be from a very irritated loan shark.
Years ago I got several from what my caller ID said was a law enforcement number in Texas .... very miffed they were when I told them that I had had my number for years and had never heard of the person they were urgently requesting.
Those odd calls are one reason why my cell phone is always off. I have it in case the care breaks and I need AAA.

[magda-vogelsang.livejournal.com]

I have a similar philosopy to you on cell phones. I have it for my convenince, not that of other people, and virtually nobody has the number and it's usually turned off.

My problem calls are on my land line, the number for which apparently used to belong to someone named Suzanne who has had debt collectors looking for her for the entire 6 years now that I've had the number.

Every 6 months or so the debt gets sold to someone new, and I get a new rash of phone calls looking for this woman I've never met.

In the process I've run into:

Some young guy shortly after I moved and was assigned the number, who insisted that I must know who she is and where she's gone, because I moved into her house. Er...no....phone numbers and addresses are not permanently attached to each other, unless you live in a dorm or a hotel.

Long daily messages on my answering machine, ending with "If you are not this person, please disregard this call". Every day for weeks. I finally called them, since that was the only way to get them to stop filling up the memory on my answering machine.

One particularly annoying company was leaving LOTS of messages on my answering machine. I called them back to explain that I wasn't who they were looking for and had no idea who she was, as I'd been the only one at this number for over 4 years. They apologised and said they wouldn't call again. Then I got another call from them a week later, and when I explained again that I was not Sue and had no idea who or where she was, he claimed "I talked to her at this number last week".

Cellular crud

[(Anonymous)]

Sharon,
You need to activate your own voice mail. You are getting another person's VM because...well because 'phone companies are ratty. The "other person's" VM is still on their abandoned phone number. How to activate your VM? Look in the manual or call your provider.
Good luck and hurry with Ghost Ship

[sickmomma.livejournal.com]

I got a series of voice mail messages from a man trying to contact his son. It was *not* my father-in-law. He started out somewhat polite, but as he kept leaving more and more messages, he got more and more irate. Near the end, he was threatening to report me to the police (for what, exactly, I'm not sure), swearing at me, and insisting that he did, in fact, have the correct number, and he knew that because he had received a message from his son that came from my phone number.

I guess his son eventually came home, because the calls eventually stopped.

I hope yours do too. And fwiw, I'd be creeped out by people wanting to come take photos of my house, too.

[filkferengi]

Not all b'ars out there are chocolate. :(