Call phone phishing? [Allied Interstate] [Telecom]

This isn't a phish, it's a sleazy but legal debt collection agency. As likely as not a former user of your number was behind on a bill.

If it's a new phone, the easiest thing to do is to call your phone company, tell them your getting junk calls, and you want a new number. They'll probably give you one.

Failing that, here's something that worked for me in a similar situation on a VoIP number I didn't want to change.

Call the 800 number and tell them clearly but firmly that you owe them nothing, and they must not call you again. Give them the number they've been calling, since, after all, they already have it. You don't have to give them any other contact info.

Keep a log of subsequent calls. Since these clowns are in Ohio, send a letter to the consumer protection division of the Ohio AG saying that you've been getting calls, you've told them to stop, and they keep calling anyway. If you get an itemized bill from your phone company, you can even send along a suitably redacted copy. Continued calls are illegal, AGs deal with this stuff all the time. After a round or two, they'll stop, since it is more expensive for them to deal with complaints from the AG than to keep bothering you.

R's, John

About a year ago, I was getting voice mail messages from Allied Interstate asking me to call them back. Eventually, I was home when they called. There seems to be a Dan Johnson elsewhere in Indiana who doesn't pay his cell phone bill. The caller read off his social security number, and it wasn't anything like mine.

-- Daniel W. Johnson snipped-for-privacy@iquest.net

In my case it's a robot that calls my cell phone.