Okay - a bill collection agency keeps calling MY house for my ex-dil's mother. I do not know how they got my number, and I do not know what number to give them. What can I do, aside from what I'm already doing, which is telling them it's not her house, give them my name and tell them, go ahead and look it up! she does not live here!

you can state plainly and clearly

"MRs so and so DOESNT live here. you have the wrong number. I am asking you to NOT call here anymore. I cannot help you, and if you continue to call this number, I am going to call the police and report the harrassment." ask them to repeat to you that they have the wrong phone number.

if they call back, tell them you found a phone number for them. Give them the local number of the local police department. not 911, but the standard regular number for your local PD. That should make it plain that you are not playing.

I hate these people.

I had that happen once, calls early in the morning, late in the evening, about a debt belonging to a relative that no longer lived with me. I called somebody...attorney general? consumer advocate?...can't remember, but they stopped harrassing me when I went to authorities.

*69 should give you the number they are calling from. dial it after call disconnect.

I wouldn't give them any information

more tips-
http://www.ehow.com/how_2002286_debt...ors-calls.html
http://www22.verizon.com/Residential...Star+Codes.htm
http://www.vaughns-1-pagers.com/tele...odes-guide.htm

I am occasionally getting phone calls and mail for my evil twin (person with a similar name to mine that I've never met)

I googled her, and found out where she works here in town. I started telling the people calling me where she works.

The reason they're calling me for her crap? She somehow got on my insurance about 6 months before my MS decided to make itself known to me. Ironic thing about it...I found out when trying to get her off my information that she also has MS. (amazing how easily people violate HIPAA) How weird, a person with the same name as me, lives in the same city has the same diagnosis. Creepy!

Oooh, I'll lend you my partner... he LOVES calls like this.
He holds the record in our house for keeping a crap caller on the line for 45 minutes.
Examples of his antict; He puts them on hold, asks for a full explanation then asks for it all in writing, asks all the details, puts the phone on the side for a while, picks it up (and they're still there!) and keeps talking, and on and on.

He would say 'um, hang on, let me just get him/her for you, please hold'.
and dissappear for a while.
Other thing is to just put the receiver on the side,keeping their line busy, they can't hang up till you do to free the line.

Personally, I'm fond of caller IDing them, creating a net-based email for them and signing their phone number up for lots of free information and special offers.

Cindy, you are evil, Thank you.

Here's what I think I'd do. I'd just lay the phone down and walk away. Don't hang up.....just lay the receiver down and let them talk to nobody. If they refuse to hang up then punching one of the numbers on the phone and holding it down usually makes an obnoxiously loud noise on the other end of the phone!

Personally...I like answering the phone...Dr. Terror's State Institution, please hold while I transfer your call...punch a couple of number's then lay down the phone. Yeah, I know, its easier to block the call, just ain't as much fun.

Telemarketer's... I let them tell me all they can do for me...then I say:
Thank you soooo much...I have been looking for a really good finance company...I want to finance a house, two trucks, and boat. Well I am so glad you can help me cause the banks have turned me down along with five other companies. Oh...because, I filed bankruptcy three times and I have four felonies...hello, hello...heeelllloooo. Yeah, they don't call back.
I deal with my local bank, don't need a long distance company banker.

However, it might not be quite so humorous the way our economy is right now...more people might just be in that bankruptcy court.