Peculiar Telephone Call

[poppett]

I answered pop`s phone this morning to a very pleasant lady who said she was from a courier service trying to deliver a parcel to one of his neighbours. Could I tell her the resident`s name......I wouldn`t anyway but couldn`t as the lady has just moved in.....

However the call took a funny turn then and the woman asked if the new neighbour had a man who stayed with her or was she a single parent. I told her to mind her own business........and terminated the call.........however it did make me wonder if this is the new way the benefits agency check up on folk........

Big brother and all that, it`s a bit scarey, and folk might think they are doing their neighbour a genuine favour and the parcel company is genuine. I did keep a close eye and no parcel was delivered to the street today.

Perhaps best be on guard orgers.

[MadPict]

There is a con on the go at the moment regarding "courier companies" and premium rate phone lines. If I can find the link I'll post it - might be just a coincidence though...

[karia]

Hi Poppett, imagine the damage a malicious neighbour could do!
Even just in terms of putting you in a position of trying to prove
a negative! Nasty!

Last year I had much the same sort of thing..supposedly wrong
number to check on the status of my mum and dad. Mum is 80
and terminally ill, dad is 79 and a full time devoted carer, saving the state
a fortune as mum,s condition is very labour intensive!
They are both in sheltered accomodation.

Not like no-ones gonna notice if my mum goes out to spend the
attendance money trailing her oxygen concentrator behind her..while my dad runs after her despite his three heart attacks and current 4 years of 24hr shifts !

Thing is, if you had a teminally ill 80 yr old to assign care to.would you choose to send in a 79 year old with 3 heart attacks under his belt to basically carry her about and attend 24/7? Of course not!
but then to check up in case they're scamming the system, such an insult.
s,cuse me, feel strongly!

[George Brims]

I am having a grand time with a company that has mistakenly got my phone number thinking it belongs to this person called Richard, who is obviously owing them money. The first time it was a message on the answering machine, then I happened to be home one day and talked to this woman who obviously did not believe I was not Richard. I tried to tell her we have had the same number for 17 years and no member of the family is called Richard, but to no avail. Now there are messages for him almost every day, and I've spoken personally to two more professional skeptics as to whether my name is Richard. It has been going on for weeks. Next time I will ask them how much he owes. It would be worth a few dollars just to shut them up.

[Fran]

I had a call exactly the same, asking about the man down the road and did he have a girlfriend and dis she stay with him and did i know his last name. The caller spoke good english.I wonder if it is a debt company trying to trace people and phoning people who live in the same street.

[rockchick]

Just a thought, but is it possible that these phone calls might have something to do with identity theft?

I'm thinking of a scenario along the lines of someone's got a credit card number and/or a first name, but needs more info?

[poppett]

Seems very "iffy" whatever the reason. Surely if it had been a genuine parcel to deliver they would do what all the rest of the couriers do and on finding no one home leave a card saying which neighbour it has been left with.

My worry was how they knew my pop`s phone number and that he lived across the road. Ok he`s in the phone book, but have you ever tried looking for a name in the phone book from a number? It takes days.

Whatever the scam, hopefully our postings will have made folk aware and the whole county will be cautious.

[ecb]

I am having a grand time with a company that has mistakenly got my phone number thinking it belongs to this person called Richard, who is obviously owing them money. The first time it was a message on the answering machine, then I happened to be home one day and talked to this woman who obviously did not believe I was not Richard. I tried to tell her we have had the same number for 17 years and no member of the family is called Richard, but to no avail. Now there are messages for him almost every day, and I've spoken personally to two more professional skeptics as to whether my name is Richard. It has been going on for weeks. Next time I will ask them how much he owes. It would be worth a few dollars just to shut them up.

It might be worth reporting this to the phone company to see if they can put a stop to such nuisance calls.