One of my best friend's names is Buford (and he's a junior). And since he's lives in LA (near New Orleans), I doubt you would be getting calls for him. I can't speak for the other Bufords in the world.

EVERYDAY, I get calls at around 8:30 am and its always those automated "please stay on the line for a representative to speak to you" calls.

Seriously, if these companies don't even put in the effort to be a live person on the phone, I don't put in the effort to answer.

But I should, because I need to get these people to STOP calling everyday.

I used to get something similar... the recording would say if you are not -insert name- do not listen any further.

One time I actually did, and it was just an automated message saying to call a certain 1-800 number and I called them back, told them that person they were looking for was not at my number and I haven't heard from them again.

I've never worked for an actual collection agency, but I have worked in an insurance collections department in the past. I know the calls are annoying, I do. But the collector is simply doing their job, trying to recoup from someone who owes a debt. Most people who are avoiding collectors will lie and say that the collector has the wrong number. So if the collector doesn't accept it at first, just give them some more information.

And as in any situation, the nicer you are to them the more likely it is that they will leave you be. I will fully admit that when someone was rude or abrasive with me it made me much less likely to cooperate with their request, especially since I had a style that I tried to be as pleasant as possible because I felt I was able to collect more of the debts when I was decent to people.

Not everyone who works collections is evil. :)

Its taken a year, but I've gotten rid of almost all of the calls for the former owner of my cell phone number. I started call back and staying on the line even though they say hang up if this message is not for you. Most of the operators I had where very nice and removed me from the list, asking only how long I had the number so they could update their records. There was only one company that I had a problem with, and I ended up reporting them because the operators keep insisting I needed to provide them with my full name and SSN.

For the past four years these insane credit collectors have been trying to reach certain particular person(s) and every time i either speak to or call these companies back to explain, "hey they dont have this number, this has been my number for yrs please take this number off your list" they say they will and apolgize and never do!

I am listed in the phone book as L Thompson. so i get calls for; larry, lenore, lawrence, oh my number #1 debtor lakesha Thompson....they go to the local directory and see L Thompson and assume they are reaching the person listed above.....i cant get them to stop. it is dam annoying at 8:15 am on a sat.

My first cell phone number was exactly the same as the Harris County Tax Office - only with a different area code (Houston has 3 different area codes). I'd have tons of messages from little old ladies wanting to get tax relief - I felt obliged to call them and tell them to call the number with 713 instead of 281. Verizon was happy to change my number after about a week.

My daughter has gotten so many calls for "Tom" that her message states "This is Gypsyboots - not Tom. If you are calling for Tom, he will not call you back, because this is Gypsyboots, not Tom."

I used to do that too!! lol

When I first got my "new" cell phone number (almost 6 yrs ago), a WHOLE LOT OF PEOPLE kept calling for someone named 'Christine'. I'm guessing my # used to be Christine's and after awhile the calls eventually stopped after putting a message on there like that for a couple of weeks. I still got a few sporadically, but not as often as I did the first year of me having that number.

I got a call for Christine about 3 months ago.. lol Yea... I got that number in 2002!

Someone with my same 1st and last name has been taking out title loans/payday advancements. They got ahold of our number and started being rude to me! They told me if it was my name, then I should know why they are calling. And that was all I needed to know.

After threatening harassment and letting them know I had their number on cid...
1)I asked who they were collecting for.
2) I told them to verify the last 4 of the social, birth year, address... Of course, it was not me they were looking for!
3) I demanded to know if this was simply a skip trace (meaning they call anyone whose name resembles anything close to what they are looking for...) or if they had my info through their client's account information (making sure this wasn't identity fraud)
The company tried to snowblow me several times. But, then I told them I was getting the police involved since this was possible identity fraud and since they refused to cooperate.
That was all it took. They told me they would pull the number from the system.

We took no chances. We pulled our home line. We weren't actually using it. So, it's a lot cheaper just having a cell bill. AND, it solves so many probs.