Cell phone weirdness not spam

February 16, 2017 5:04 PM

So for the last week or so I've been getting one or two calls a day to my cell phone that are not for me. They are all service providers calling to check in or confirm something - health care appointments, a Y membership etc. Each one has been asking for a different person. They all seem to be legit calls not phishing but none of them are calling for me and most are not local but within about 100 miles. What's going on and how do I stop it?

I have had this number for more than a decade. The last call happened a few minutes ago leaving me an automated message to confirm a healthcare appointment 40 miles away. I called back and the person I spoke with said I was not the first person who had called with this issue today. Thus far it's a minor annoyance but it's mighty weird.

posted by leslies to Technology (4 answers total)

Next time you get a call like this, ask them where they're pulling their info from, and to confirm that they have indeed dialled the correct number.
posted by turbid dahlia at 7:22 PM on February 16, 2017

For wrong number calls, the one and only question I ALWAYS ask them is what number they dialed (and I don't tell them my number, I ask them to tell me what they dialed). Normally it's a simple bad digit, but sometimes it's a completely different number, indicating a phone network misrouting. Maybe your phone provider has something screwed up in their system. You'll probably need to wait that out.
posted by intermod at 9:13 PM on February 16, 2017

Response by poster: Because it's relevant here - the people calling that I have check with were all calling the correct number and had it from things like patient databases. It just wasn't my number. They were as confused as I was.
posted by leslies at 5:40 AM on February 17, 2017

Method for stopping it? Stop answering calls that aren't listed in your contacts. Genuine callers intended for you but not listed in your contacts will leave a message.
posted by dlwr300 at 7:49 AM on February 17, 2017 [3 favorites]