By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
MARCH 25, 2025 | There might be something worse than ROBO telephone calls.
The other day I had over 100 calls, asking me, “Did you call my number?”
That’s right. They thought I had called them. I had not.
On the first several calls, starting just after 9 a.m., I simply told them: “I have not called you.”
But as the calls started coming in every few minutes, I changed my answer: “I have not called you. I don’t know what is happening, but I have already had a dozen (later more, then 50, then 75) calls today from people who think I called them. I beg your pardon for you thinking I called you, but it appears to be a telephone company problem.”
All the people thinking I called them, once I explained, they were gracious. “Oh, sorry to hear that. I hope you stop getting them.”
We did not. On and on the phone kept ringing until about 6 p.m. This was quite disruptive. Every time I began working on something, here’s another call. Once when I left the phone for about an hour, when I came back, there were 14 calls waiting, all thinking I called them.
Trying to be reasonable, since they sincerely thought I called them, I returned those calls with the short explanation I had by then perfected. “Oh, sorry,” they usually said. “Hope they stop.”
One guy told me during the afternoon when I explained what was happening: “Call the FBI so that they will know.” I did, and they told me to go to the website to register a complaint. By then, I was so exasperated that I didn’t do that. Maybe I should have.
Another of my unexpected callers was kind enough to explain what he thought was happening, “Some of the robo callers are using your number to call people, and when the person being called is not available, their phone shows who called (your number), so they have missed a call, and are returning it.” That made sense.
Meanwhile, the calls kept coming. I did not unplug the phone, for who knows? The person on the other end might be someone I needed to talk to, friend, relative, bank or reader.
Eventually, I called the phone company. They switched me around a few times, and altogether, I probably spent an hour on the phone with them. A technician finally told me they had fixed the problem. They did not say how.
Time I got off the phone with the technician, here came more calls. Initially, I thought that perhaps the new calls came to those people while I was talking to the phone company, so maybe the situation was fixed. After four or five such calls, I asked those calling at what time they got the call….and they said a few minutes ago, so it was obvious the phone company had not fixed the program, so I unplugged the phone.
Next day, guess what? Next morning, after I plugged in the phone, came four or five more, but they were those from the previous day. Three days later I still got a few people calling, thinking I had called them.
But it was soon apparent: the robo people were not using my number any more. It appears that they just used it one day. And since, no more “did you phone me?” questions.
So yep, there is something worse than robocalls, if the robo-ers are using your number to place their calls!
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