Wrong Number
Date: Wed, 07/20/2011 - 06:07
[COLOR=black][FONT=Arial]I'm a 3rd party that is receiving calls but don't know how to contact the people back without listening to the message to get the call back number. So I know you all don't like what ifs ... So, here is an It's actually happening. I'm am receiving voicemail messages from 2 different companies for 2 different people (and I don't know who any of these people are) and am told something to the effect "This message is for [person's name], If you are not [person's name] please hang up. It is unlawful for you to continue to listen to this message if you are not [person's name], by continuing to listen to this message you are acknowledging that you are [person's name]..." Now I try to be a law abiding citizen so the first couple of times that I got this message I hung up the phone. But here's the thing, I've been living at this address for the past 15 years and have had this phone number for that same length of time, I don't know these people and they have not lived at here as far as I know. I'm sure it is possible that they did live here or had this phone number prior to 15 years ago but the fact doesn't change that they don't now. I don't want to continue to be contacted about this stuff because it makes me uncomfortable to have their personal calls coming to me and my family. For this reason I continued to listen to the message because the only way to find out who the person is and more importantly how to contact them to tell them they have the wrong number is to listen to the message. So as I am seeing it, I have to either break the law by listening to a message that is not intended for me or continue to receive these messages (because the person sending them doesn't know that the person they are sending it to isn't getting it and the person who is supposed to be getting doesn't know that it is being sent) for who knows how long. It seems to me that there should be a law requiring these collectors to inform 3rd party person of how to contact them without listening to the message. I know this is a long post but I don't know how to get the information out any clearer.[/FONT][/COLOR]
Law
The statement is to protect the CA. You will not get into any trouble by listening to the message to get the telephone # and reference #.
I do this all of the time in order to get calls stopped at work. In the end, you and the CA will appreciate not wasting time, money and effort by listening!
