I have an elderly friend in rural Arkansas who tells me that about a week ago he started getting a lot of phone calls. He has been able to learn that the number they are calling is 1-888-565-8361 and that it has something to do with prescription drugs.
I assume that somewhere in the vast web of the telephone network the toll-free numbers get translated into real phone number and that's how the calls get forwarded to a real phone. And I assume that somehow his own phone number has been incorrectly been put into one of those translations. But I don't know how to track down where the translation is taking place and how to get it fixed.
Turns out the man's wife some years ago had an 888 number -- she had forgotten all about it -- and the number she had was off in one digit from the number people are calling. So it's a simple misdialing. Altho I would have thought that her old 888 number would no longer work.
jhhaynes at earthlink dot net
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I would be careful saying that it is a 'simple misdialing' if there are _many_ people calling it. That might be the case, or it may be that the 'prescription drug company' (?) somehow has misprinted literature out with the wrong number printed on it. Ask your elderly friend to inquire of the callers the name of the company they are trying to reach, then see if you can reach that company and (a) get some of their literature to look at or (b) just ask one of their representatives 'what number should I call if I wish to use your service?'Also ask your friend to check his phone bill closely and see if there is a monthly charge for a toll free number or if his next phone bill has charges on it for collect calls, etc. If the toll free number is provided by some other carrier, then unless he specifically tells _that carrier_ he does not want the toll free service it will never be removed from an association with his 'real' number. Even if he moves away or changes his number and someone else gets his old number, those toll free calls will continue to ring into the (old) number, even if some other innocent party gets the number assigned to them, or no one gets assigned to the number and calls ring to intercept. PAT]