Someone using my phone number - WWYD?

[StripyHorse]

I have had my mobile number for years. It is fairly easy to remember and I have no intention of changing it. But...

Someone gives out my phone number. Initially it was to estate agents (I was getting calls from estate agents due to my interest in flats about 4 hours away from me). I did ask those I spoke to to ask the person to check their number.

At random intervals, I have messages from courier companies alerting me to an upcoming delivery. When I have clicked on the link it is always the same delivery address details.

I don't know whether they have a similar number and it's a genuine error, or if they don't want to receive texts so change the end of their number - the last few digits of my number are an obvious pattern. Either way, it's gone on about 5 years and gets it my nerves.

I have tried contacting the retailers and explaining the situation but because of GDPR they cannot amend the phone number on this person's account - even though I am calling from the number used and I don't want any information- I just want MY number to be taken from their account.

WWYD? I am tempted to mess with the delivery options so this person doesn't get their parcels until they bother to correct their details.
I could wait until the next text and get their address from the link to write them a letter - but this would probably freak them out.
I could of course continue to ignore it, but at times, e.g. in the run up to Christmas, it gets very annoying having a stream of deliveries.

This! I realised my phone number was wrong by one digit (a typo) and was getting autofilled - no idea how long it's been going on!

I don't understand whatvyouve written. A lower number? Are you saying you deliberately give a false number?
What do you mean by before rather than after? Before what?
It's really not clear what you're trying to say.

So if I give wrong information to a company and they in good faith use that information are you sure there's a breach? Surely that would make it impossible to ever share anything in case the customer had made an error

This used to happen to me, I'd get a text from a beauty salon reminding me of an appointment I had(n't) made.

One day they rang me to ask why I didn't attend. I explained and the texts stopped.

@VisionsOfSplendour It could be that an employee misheard the information given by the customer and therefore entered details incorrectly. If the company has all calls monitored and it's clear the customer gave the incorrect information then I would guess the company are in the clear.

However if it is an employee error, then it would be a GDPR breach. If OP calls up and mentions GDPR they are likely to take it seriously and remove the phone contact information at least while they investigate, as at this point they will not know who has made the error.

My friend has this, it’s the former owner of the number who gives it to debt management companies etc. So bailiffs call her, Sky calls and texts when her account defaults etc.
She has tried Facebook etc to get in touch with the person, she knows her name, maiden name, husbands name and location - but still the calls and texts come. And some are quite nasty.

My friend has had the number at least 12 years because that’s how long I’ve known her and she’s always had the same number.

I should get her to post on here as it’s a large community!

That's a good point. Although, are they actually in breech if they are sending information to the number they were given?

Thanks everyone.

I will be nice and send a letter in the first instance and hope that works- I will wait and see.

@StripyHorse I would assume not but when you make contact with them until they investigate they will not know if they or the customer is at fault. So I would imagine they will err on the side of precaution and remove the number at least while they investigate.

I had this with my email address. Someone in America was using my email address in some app where you could book different household services like a cleaner. Drove me mad!

I would say it'll be down to the auto fill in their browser.
For me, about 5% of the time a web site will auto fill my wife's number instead of mine, and I think it's probably saved under a certain kind of phone number that matches up with the fields on some sites.
I suspect they mistyped once and it's gone in to the memory.

I have this too and it is so annoying! I know so much about this man (including medical information re his low testosterone levels!) through him incorrectly using my number. Worst was when he tried to get a house clear out quote presumably from a comparison type website and I was fielding calls for days. I had thought about contacting the police on non-emergency number to see if they can do anything?

Changing the subject slightly - years ago, in the days before mobile phones, our landline number was accidentally printed on promotional stuff for a local mini cab firm. Of course we got lots of calls for them. The best was a rather inebriated man who called at about 1am. I politely explained the error, and that he hadn't called a taxi firm. Whereupon he asked me if I had a car, and if so could I give him a lift......

Just write to the relevant address.

I had this too with my Gmail address.

V annoying.

I regularly get whatsapp messages and occasionally phone calls for someone else on my work mobile. I managed to track down why eventually and it is because of a typo on a promo poster for a young amateur boxer. The poster had 6 boxers on it available for fights and my work number was under one of them. Perhaps he has made the same typo a few times.

He is quite an active lad by all accounts and I have had texts from ladies he met at the weekend, I've been added to group chats for lads weekends or vip invites to boxing matches and had a few funny messages about returning prams and phone calls insisting i tell them who I am. 🤣

I get lots of emails on my 'spare' email address for someone in America. For ages I tried replying and asking them to tell their client the address was wrong, to no avail, so now I just cancel any bookings and tell anyone else that I no longer require their services....l

Same here. It went on for years..

I got full details of their financial affairs once. Everything. Literally everything. Their social security number, full name and address, salary, outgoings, date of birth and the mortgage offer....

I forwarded that one to his actual email address and told him he was very lucky I'm not criminally minded as I could have had a field day with all that information.

Funnily enough it hasn't happened since

I have some guy who gives out my work phone number. I’ve gad the same work number for over 15 years.

What I’ve gathered is he’s a bit of of a deadbeat and he has an unusual last name. I’ve looked him up online and his wife is on their local school board.

Mostly when the calls start up again I explain it’s a business line and I get taken off the call list. It’s annoying but not something that keeps me up at night.

Unfortunately I think you will have to start messing with their deliveries. You’ll have to inconvenience them to get them to stop. Is there an email address associated with these deliveries or just a street address?

Our local kebab place used to take advance mobile orders, click and collect type thing. They sold up and the new owners didn’t bother changing the number on any of the flyers or ads etc, so the old owners kept getting calls.

eventually the new owners put up a rather exasperated Facebook post apologising because it appears the old owners, fed up with getting calls, started to happily take the orders knowing full well customers would turn up at the shop and be rather annoyed that their order wasn’t prepared and in some cases not even available.
im guessing it spurred the new owners into finally fixing their flyers though 😂

@LovePoppy Amazingly, I find that most companies worldwide have a real working email address on their website under "Privacy". I send the following to them as a reply to their message (substituting their dedicated privacy email address for the "no-reply" one that their message came from)

"Wrong abcde , I'm afraid. I have abc.de @ fgh.ijk and its alternative form abcde @ fgh.ijk - your contact does not. Hopefully you have some other means to contact him to get his correct address. Meanwhile please remove my email address abc.de @ fgh.ijk from all of your systems.

Hardly a week goes by without my fgh address (in one or other form) being registered by mistake with some company or organisation for one of my namesakes around the world.
^^

Kind regards

abc de
lmnop , England"

Mostly they co-operate.

I get this with my email address - someone in the US must have a very similar one. I get their contact lenses order confirmation and an invoice from their vet for their cat's test results.

I replied to the vet advising they had the wrong email and passed on my good wishes for the cat's speedy recovery and I haven't had any more from them - I still get their contact lenses ones though!

At one point, I was getting lots of texts from MBNA asking me to confirm receipt of the credit card ending in XXXX that they recently sent to me. I'd never had a card with them, although they did send me lots of mailshots. Whoever had the card never did confirm it, because I continued to get spammed with texts, and I had trouble getting rid of that, because it kept asking me for the credit card number, and since I'd never had the card in the first place I couldn't give it. I ended up finding a complaints email and emailing that in the end. They never replied, but the texts and mailshots stopped.

Another time, someone had my number mixed up with her ex's, and kept texting me about wanting to get back together, I had her drunk friends ringing me one time. She wouldn't have it when I texted back saying she had a wrong number, and kept accusing me of being the ex pretending she had a wrong number - she eventually figured it out, although after a few of her strange texts I could see why the ex might have been tempted.

I used to get numerous calls from a bank debt recovery on my old work direct line. They were quite rude about a debt owing and wouldn’t believe it was a business number. We stuck a fax machine on it in the end, just to shut them up.