LOL, I got a call for my exBF on Friday. Now, I have been split up from him for 10 years & he has been married to his current wife for several years. He still lives in the house he bought when we were together & still has the same phone number & he still works for the Sheriff's dept, where he was working for the last 18-19 years. I currently live in an entirely different part of the state and he has never lived here... there is absolutely NO reason for him to have any connection to this phone number.

BTW, I have also gotten calls for his first wife, his first wife's mother and his current wife. I've also gotten calls for my sister who lives in another part of the state. (Don't they pay their bills?)

Anyways, I do some skip tracing when I can't locate someone that needs to be served. I use several databases and names are often cross referenced. We lived together at one time, we had a joint credit card, etc. so when my credit is pulled, his name is there as a co-debtor. Some databases show us as possibly related. and consequently, when they search for him, my name comes up and a simple 411 search brings up my home number. At some point, your name has been cross referenced and they may think you are related or will know where she is. It's also possible she listed you on something and that is what they are calling you for.

It is annoying and I wish I knew how to remove the connection. I finally got his name off my credit report (we were never married... but we did have a joint card at one time that he filed bankruptcy on so I ended up paying it off~ I didn't file bankruptcy but the report kept saying that card was discharged in bankruptcy so it made it look like I had filed. It was really messy ~ DON'T EVER CO-SIGN DEBT OR HAVE JOINT ACCOUNTS UNLESS YOU'RE MARRIED... Maybe not even then!)

Might be something like a phone store where you get a cash rebate for referring another customer, or internet provider..I get calls like that, and I want to wring who ever refers me s neck!!! Also, a girlfriend wanted me to enter an internet sweepstakes, and while answering the questions, these came up..Do you live in this town, (never did)do you live in this town(never did)and I realized, these two towns were where my deceased uncle and fathers lived while my name was on their joint checking accounts..They had to get this info from the banks..Too creepy, I didnt enter, WAY too much info than I would divulge for a sweepstakes..Be careful...

I wouldn't call them back.

This could be an attempt to get information-
it could be one of her old boyfriends' jail pals, calling to demand that you pay an account of hers that you or your hubs supposedly signed for.

& if you say you didn't sign any such thing, the caller will want a bunch of information to submit your request to be deleted from the account...

Have you found out what this is all about yet?

I wouldn't have called them at all. Chances are, your number was logged, and now they know it is a "good" number for whatever they are up to.

Sadly bad news travels fast .... so unless he repeatedly calls ignore it ... I tend to agree with ima and the others its skip tracing or she was dumb enough to put you down as references on a job ... but whatever it is not your problem ....

I did google the number and it is a store. I called back and asked for the guy who left the message and he was part of the collections department. I asked why they called and specifically asked for me and he told me about the same skip tracing thing IMA mentioned and said that is how he got my info. So I gave him the #'s for every one of bm's bf's relatives in the state that they moved to and gave them every one of bm's relatives #'s that we had!! Let them all hear about her inability to pay for anything!!

Not only do we get phone calls from this place, but from several others that always ask for my dh. And we get collection letters in the mail for her to because when we bought this home my dh did a family change of address forwarding all mail with his last name from their old place to this house. With that came junk mail for her :(

But this is all ridiculous! I mean she pays no cs, can't manage to stay anywhere to even live out a full year long lease, and most times lives with relatives. She is in her 30's.....she should have her act together by now!!!

Good for you. Let the collectors bother someone else and be hot on her trail!

Interesting thread...I always wondered why we get calls for Dh's son, and for one of my aunts. Now I know.

Hi Ladies -- back from vacation --

So anyone want to guess why we get repeated collect calls from the county jail?
I took the first one, thinking it was SS (seemed unfortunately plausable...), but have since stopped. But we've received more than a few requests.

No guess Sweeby, NEVER answer a collect call from a jail, this is common, can get a random person collect and get you to send money, people are sympathetic, smooth talkers, or to the elderly, and get you to think its a relative....Nothing but time on their hands to do this crap...(former law enforcement, saw this every day) If you do in fact have a person in your family in trouble, wont come across on caller ID as Prison....