Friday, August 14, 2009
Page 11
AT THE SIDEBAR (Column)
Caller Won’t Take ‘Wrong Number’ for an Answer
By J’AMY PACHECO
Dear Mr. Attorney General,
Help!
About 10 months ago, my husband and I bought our ‘tween daughter a cell phone. We bought it because she goes to school in a remote area, and we wanted to know she could reach us if needed while we worked at our jobs on the other side of a mountain pass.
For the most part, the cell phone has given us great peace of mind. It’s also given her hours of fun as she develops her texting skills while keeping in constant touch with her middle school pals.
But her cell phone has a dark side. Apparently, the number that was assigned to her used to belong to somebody who allegedly owes money. And now, my minor child is being harassed by a debt collection agency that won’t take “wrong number” for an answer.
My daughter’s phone number is registered with the Do Not Call Registry. In spite of that, she occasionally received unsolicited calls or texts from telemarketers. But it was easy enough to ignore. That changed suddenly. Each morning, she would report having discovered calls received from an 866 number that never left a message. I happened to hear her phone ring one morning, and I answered.
When I discovered it was a debt collection agency looking for a stranger, I advised them that the phone number now belonged to a minor. They assured me they would stop calling.
But in the last few days, my daughter has been barraged by calls from this company. It made me angry enough to pick up my landline and call them back.
After a long pause, the man who picked up said only, “Hello?” I asked what company I was calling. He told me, in heavily accented English, that he represented a debt collection agency.
I explained to him that his debt collection agency was repeatedly calling a minor, and that it had to stop. He asked for the alleged debtor, and I told him I’d never heard of that person. He apologized profusely, promised me my child’s number would be stricken from their list, and we hung up.
Hours later, they again called my daughter.
When I related the story to my husband, he picked up the phone to call. He waited on hold while a recording repeatedly announced that it was a debt collection agency and that calls might be monitored or recorded.
Unfortunately, that’s as far as he got, because after about five minutes of holding, he was disconnected.
I appreciate the fact that our Golden State has a Do-Not-Call registry. I’m happy that I can go online and file a complaint every time some stranger calls me, or my child, to try to sell us something. I wish I could do the same for text solicitations.
But something else is needed here. I started researching this particular company and discovered that harassing innocent people is what it does best.
According to MSN Money, this company has been sued by the attorney general in Minnesota. It badgered a woman for four months before finally admitting, under pressure from the attorney general, that she didn’t even owe the money. But five months later, the company started calling her again.
I could get my child’s phone number changed. But I don’t have much hope that it will help her stop getting calls and texts from strangers who apparently view the world of cell phones as a new wild, wild west.
When my brother bought a new house, he received so many calls that should have been stopped by the Do Not Call Registry that he stopped answering his phone. Eventually, he changed his phone number completely.
There’s no guarantee that changing my daughter’s phone number will stop any of these calls – especially since the worst offender has already been notified that they’re barking up the wrong cell phone tower.
I told the offending company that if they called my child again, I was going to write a letter to the attorney general. They did, and so did I.
So, Mr. Attorney General, if that office of yours has any teeth, I’m hoping you’ll sink them into the legs of this company. I’ll be happy to give you their name and toll-free phone number, and I hope you call them.
Over, and over, and over.
Copyright 2009, Metropolitan News Company