Anyone gets phone calls confirming your name...then hangs up?

[nicksan]

Happened to me today. Don't recall ever happening to me.

Basically this guy calls me asking if I am the person he names. I would usually reply "who's calling?" before answering that kind of question but I had just gotten home from work in this friggin' heat wave we are having in the East Coast, and wasn't thinking straight and just answered "Yes, speaking".

Then the guy just hung up.

Don't know why but it's bothering me to no end. What would prompt someone place a call like that without a hidden motive?

Obviously he was attemtping to confirm my name to the phone number.

[KevinAldrich]

A lot of time thieves will look up the names and phone numbers that go with a house they've been looking at, then call to see if anyone's home. If nobody answers, they know there's nobody in that house. So when you answered, it may have been someone trying to match the name, address, and phone number together to determine if anyone was home at the time.

Do you have your name listed on a mailbox or on your house anywhere? That's a no-no, because it can lead to calls like this.

[nicksan]

Scary.
No I don't have my name displayed anywhere on my property.
However, I am most likely listed in the local phone directory.

Kinda paranoid about this because the number I got via caller ID is not in service.

Hope things are OK.

p.s. Put up some ADT stickers on my windows and put the yard sign back up again. I redid my house and never bothered with any of this stuff. I have the old alarm system, kinda gimpy operationally but figured this would be better than nothing.

I guess also, perhaps I should be concerned with ID theft...since my friend who used to live in my house temporarily (changed his address officially to my address during that time) got hit hard with ID theft. (Sony laptop, multiple credit cards, some clothing, etc...)

Better start checking my credit report. :-(

A lot of time thieves will look up the names and phone numbers that go with a house they've been looking at, then call to see if anyone's home. If nobody answers, they know there's nobody in that house. So when you answered, it may have been someone trying to match the name, address, and phone number together to determine if anyone was home at the time.

Do you have your name listed on a mailbox or on your house anywhere? That's a no-no, because it can lead to calls like this.

[KevinAldrich]

Could also just have been somebody messing around (teenagers). But, you never really know. I told my parents they need to get their number unlisted. They insist that someone may look it up needing to contact them though. But seriously, how many people really look up people in the phone book?

[nicksan]

Yeah, I need to delist my number as well.
They didn't sound like Teenagers.

I should have answered "Who's calling?" first...dang it.

I don't know why this is bothering me this much. It's just the way it went down...hopefully a few days will cure me of paranoia!

But, maybe a good time to look into my alarm system...and see if I can improve it/modernize it.

Could also just have been somebody messing around (teenagers). But, you never really know. I told my parents they need to get their number unlisted. They insist that someone may look it up needing to contact them though. But seriously, how many people really look up people in the phone book?

[tsw910]

WOW nick .. this is scary since the last incident .. i would definitely be checking my Credit reports and i would go ahead and call my CC company and ask them to re-issue you another CC with a differnet # of course ..

unless you are be set up to have papers served on you .. cuz thats what i use to do and thats how we did it .. call, ask and hang up ...

[FuryMe]

Are you married?

[Mike McCusker]

I can remember a similiar scenario when I was still on the Job. Guy wanted to veriy that it was the number of wife"s lover......

[nicksan]

I am married. Nothing sinister in my household going on so...

Obviously this was a purposeful call...whatever the underlying reason was.

Given recent events, I would have to guess in the lines of ID theft. I knew it would eventually come to this, my fault for letting my wife talk me into letting her friend use our address for a few months. Again, the friend isn't behind this...100%...we are all victims...it's just that now my address is kinda "marked" for this crap.

I think I better put a flag on my credit reports, etc. I am not worried about my mail since I do everything online these days and am paperless.

It's either that, or someone's trying to rob my house. I've got pretty nosy neighbors and alarm system and stickers/yard sign, so hopefully that will detract the would-be robbers...if that's what's behind the calls.

Hopefully this has taught my wife a lesson...NEVER to "lend out" our address under any circumstances, close friend or not. Because in the end we pay the price for it.

I still have that goddam laptop sitting in my living room in its shipping box. Can't figure out how to get rid of the dang thing. Sony won't talk to me because I am not the person on the invoice. That person is already in Japan. It's really silly how this works.

[nicksan]

I cannot imagine what kind of papers would be served up. Not behind on any bills, never have been.

Pretty scary...hopefully after a few days, I can relax a little.


WOW nick .. this is scary since the last incident .. i would definitely be checking my Credit reports and i would go ahead and call my CC company and ask them to re-issue you another CC with a differnet # of course ..

unless you are be set up to have papers served on you .. cuz thats what i use to do and thats how we did it .. call, ask and hang up ...