Path: utzoo!utgpu!utstat!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!killer!vector!nobody
From: levitt@zorro.FIDONET.ORG (Ken Levitt)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Victims of wrong numbers
Message-ID: <telecom-v09i0039m10@vector.UUCP>
Date: 30 Jan 89 06:01:28 GMT
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X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 39, message 10

In our town there were two exchanges, 655 and 653.  After having one of
our numbers for 9 years, we suddenly started getting numerous wrong numbers.
It turned out that a new catalogue showroom store had just opened and had
the 653 number corresponding to our 655 number.  When I complained to the
store manager, he suggested we change our phone number.  I told him that
we had been using our number for 9 years and he had been using his for two
weeks but this failed to convince him to change his number.  I also pointed
out that he would be loosing a lot of business if many of his calls were
routed to an unfriendly phone number.  Nothing changed his mind.

Many of the calls were similar to ones reported in previous Telecom Digests
and I did find myself takeing phone orders for merchandise.  Usually I
just told people that we don't take phone calls and hung up.  Finally, I
changed the message on our answering machine to a very generic one and
left the machine on all of the time.  One of the funniest messages that I
ever got was from one of the store's employees saying that he would not
be into work that day.  After two years of this the store went out of
business.

All was quiet for a year or so and then we started getting a lot of calls
for Tommy.  The calls came at strange hours, the people sounded kind of
spacey, and even though there seemed to be a wide variety of people calling
when I answered the phone, no one ever left a message on the machine.  I
came up with a theory that Tommy must be a drug dealer.  For a while when
people called for Tommy, I told them that he wasn't in and asked them if
they wanted to leave a message.  No one would ever leave a message.  Then
the calls died down and I forgot about Tommy until this week when we found a
message on the machine saying "Tommy, this is your mom, please call me.".
You would think that Tommy's mom would be able to tell that the voice
on the tape was not Tommy's.

Ken Levitt
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