Ever since I decided to get my own cell phone and give the one that we shared to my wife for her exclusive use, I’ve been getting strange calls. Actually, they all end up being strange voicemail messages, since I very rarely use my cell phone. and it spends the vast majority of its time sitting in a drawer with the power turned off.
It didn’t take long for me to start getting calls for the individual that had been assigned that telephone number before it was assigned to me. Some of the calls sounded job-related, as if someone was seeking this guy to do technical support work or something.
I then started getting calls that sounded like typical telemarketing calls, but most of them would mention the guy’s name. It got to the point where I changed the voicemail greeting for my phone so that it announced to whomever was calling for that other guy had not reached the person they were looking for, and to stop calling my number looking for him!
The calls stopped for quite some time, and I figured that might have been the end of it. Today I ran an errand – one of the few occasions I turn on my cell phone and was a little surprised to hear the tell-tale beeps that alerted me to the fact that I had new voicemail or text messages.
This time it was a series of three voicemail messages claiming to be from a “Mr. Martin” at “Integrity Financial Partners” (got to love that name!), which is apparently some kind of collection agency. Each of the messages was automated, and was obviously intended to lure the former owner of my cell phone number to call them back and discuss a debt they were attempting to collect.
I got a real good laugh from the second one, which stated that if I was not [insert name of guy who previously had my number], I should hang up immediately. It then said, this message will pause for three seconds and then proceeded to emit three beeps – no doubt counting down the vital three seconds. You can imagine my breathless anticipation!
It then proceeded to tell me that by continuing to listen to the message, I was acknowledging that I was indeed [insert name of guy who previously had my number]; a statement that resulted in great amusement for me. Naturally, I continued to listen.
As expected, it was just another request for the guy to call and talk about the money that this outfit claims he owes to someone.
A little research on the web resulted in a lot of nasty comments about “Integrity Financial Partners,” including one that says the owner of the company is a registered sex offender in the state of Florida. Others claim that the company has attempted to scam money from them.
I have no idea if any of those accusations are credible, but that’s what I found out there.
I decided to call the number and see if I could get these people to stop calling and leaving messages on my cell phone voicemail. I dialed up 866-851-8055 and after a short wait, was talking to a young guy who seemed a bit clueless. He was surely polite enough and all, but seemed a little uncertain of himself.
In the end, he did tell me he would record the fact that my number is not the correct number for the guy they are seeking, and that I should not hear from them again. Time will tell.
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