1w ago

There's no such thing as a wrong number any more

Every call I've ever had that was a wrong number, misdailed number, pocket dial or whatever that wasn't supposed to be for me turned out to be a spam call or marketing call for something. Most of the time, it was a way for me to confirm my number to some dumb marketer.

For the past year or two, I answer all mysterious calls I don't recognize and put it immediately on 'mute'. If the person calling doesn't identify themselves ... I let them hang up first and then I just block the number. If they identify themselves with some weird marketing message ... I let them hang up and then block the number.

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I just don't answer any call from a number that I don't recognize. If it's something important, they'll leave a message. If they don't, then I'll forget about it and go on with my day.

Some dude named Tyrone apparently had my phone number at some point before I did. For a couple of years at first I got a sporadic but persistent litany of calls before I managed to finally convince all of his debt collectors, parole officers, and/or babymommas that this was no longer his number.
It sounds stereotypical, but it's true. I thought somebody was pulling my leg the first time.
Anyway, I don't answer my phone for anyone who isn't on my contacts list anymore. If I don't know you, you don't need to be calling me.
- And no one once ever sang how they was gonna “Call on Tyrone…” ??? So sad…

There definitely is. A guy I work with recently moved and the landline at home is one digit different to the local police station. He gets one or two a week. Says he's going to get a new number.
- I work in 911 dispatch, a lot of the 10 digit non emergency lines also redirect to our center, we get a lot of wrong numbers calling into us
  One of those numbers is just one digit off from a pizza place, which is always fun because once in a while someone is a domestic calls in pretending to order pizza because they don't want the person they're with to know they're calling police, so we kind of have to grill those calls with are you having an emergency/do you know you're calling the police/are you safe to talk kind of questions
  Pro tip for anyone who finds themselves in a situation like that, most dispatch centers are aware of those types of calls, but some posts online will tell you that there's a code that pepperoni = they have a gun or something like that. No such code exists, at least not in any way that's universally recognized. Maybe some departments have that standardized but it certainly wasn't part of my training.
- I've posted this story in various guises before, but back in the '90s a friend of mine had a dedicated phone line for his modem (yes, this was before residential broadband of any stripe was readily accessible) which was the inverse of the local Dominos Pizza. Like, ###-###-0101 vs ###-###-1010.
  Tons of calls from a wide cross section confused, stupid, angry, and belligerent would-be pizza seekers arrived at the telephone he had plugged into that line, and many many more must have gone into the black hole of the perpetual busy signal.
- I feel like your co-worker could get up to some Kramer like shenanigans with that situation.
- How old is your friend?!? I'm 58, and I haven't had a landline in over 15 years

Yesterday I got a call from someone who thought I was the tax office. Wrong number.

Just a couple weeks ago, I got a call from a number I didn't recognize that wasn't screened for some reason, accidentally answered it because my hand was sweaty and it registered a tap on the accept button and not the damn cancel button... It was a random real person trying to inform their family member about another family member's death.
The most awkward wrong number I've ever received. Like, who the hell still dials the number everytime they call someone instead of just having it saved in contacts?
- I have a contact list of about a dozen people that I call or call me .. mostly family and two friends. I have more people I know beyond that list but they all know I don't like talking or texting on a phone. I don't like using the phone.
  The only time I get to use the phone is in watching at least one random call a week. Half the time its a telemarketer and the other time, some political or government organization wanting to ask something. Texts are usually random with people asking dumb questions like 'hey' ... 'where are you?' ... 'hey frank how you doing' .. or some random thing to entice me to answer. If I don't recognize, I delete and block.

There's a store in my town that either had a bad receipt printer, or had their number wrong on it (my number differs from theirs by one digit). Either way, I get a call for them every few months. I don't really mind.
I don't get that many spam calls anymore, and the ones I do get, I just have fun with them (practice my very rough French, try out a new accent, or just wait about 10 seconds and burst into song). Unfortunately most of the junk calls these days are bots :(
- I got a spam call today, it's frustrating cause I run a business and don't need all the spam

I occasionally get wrong numbers and text messages. Happened a lot on my old number which had a string of 2's in the middle. Got a lot of calls for numbers with one more or one less 2 than mine. Nowadays it's more likely to be a text. On my new phone number I keep getting texts from a bail bondsman reminding a certain person of their next hearing date. I can't get them to remove my number from their database. Hopefully that person isn't depending on getting a reminder.

Leave your number on the bathroom stall. People will call wanting to talk to you.

Literally today my wife tried calling me while I was at the store, just by clicking the phone button in the text message thread, but the call went to someone completely different, a woman in a noisy environment. The call showed in her log as the correct number so I assume it’s a glitch from the phone company.

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