Cellphone mystery: wrong number, but they have my name. What's going on?

I don’t know how it happens, but a similar thing happened to me recently. I ended up jumping through hoops to get the number blocked from calling and texting me. Unfortunately in my situation it was a young girl (very young), and she just did not believe that I was not the same person she was looking for, simply because we had the same name. When we actually spoke on the phone, rather than texting, she thought that I had put my mother on the phone and still didn’t believe that I wasn’t the person she was trying to harass. Very frustrating.
Did all of the different numbers refer to you by name?

@TheOnlyNeffie, yes, that’s what was so weird.

I have had other wrong-number texts and calls in the past, most notably when my number was reassigned from a guy who didn’t pay his bills and I got months of dunning calls, and then later when somehow my number wound up on a celebrity register for some popular TV actress that I’d never heard of. And there’s just the occasional completely random wrong number telling me my car is ready or the doctor has to reschedule my colonoscopy. Those don’t bother me.

It’s the ones like today’s, which said “Hey [jeruba]....hows it going with the boys. i have stuff to do after school….can i come by around 430 to get them. hope its ok” This is definitely not meant for me. But how come someone who knows this other “Jeruba” that well (and doesn’t even have to sign a name) is using my number? Or how can just a random wrong number happen to be for another “Jeruba”?

That is so strange! Is there any chance you could call your provider and find out the first name of the person who had the number before you? I’m sure it’s been too long now, but that is just bizarre.

Oh, I know the first name of the person who had it before me. It was Tyrone (“Ty”). 24-Hour Fitness called him night and day for months before they gave up trying to collect. Finally one day I got a call from a guy who just asked for Ty, and I said, “Are you a friend of Ty?” He said “Yes.” So I said, “If you ever catch up with him, tell him to pay his bills.” He just laughed and hung up. Not too long after that, the calls for Tyrone stopped.

There is a slight possibility that each of the people who called dialed the same slightly wrong number and were looking for the other “Jeruba” and it’s just a coincedence that the person they were looking for had the same name as you. Because people now have to dial out the whole number with the one and the whole area code, plus the number (at least in our area) we get a lot of wrong numbers.

The other possibility is that they have looked the name “Jeruba” up online and got your number instead of the one for their “Jeruba”. It would be funny if you ever got a hold of this other person with the unusual name just for chats and giggles. If you ever do, let us know how it goes.

@Kardamom, do you actually know of a way to look up a person by first name only and get the person’s cellphone number? I can’t find my own number online. How would someone do that?

This is as interesting as that book you got from the mystery sender. At least in this case, you have something to go on… text them back and ask! I’d be dying to know.

@Jeruba Some of these might help. If I had to guess… I’d say its just a strange coincidence that someone with the same name has a very similar number but two digits are inverted.

If you have your cell phone number posted anywhere, like on a website where you’ve used that number as your contact number, sometimes comapnies will sell your info without your knowledge. I have found phone numbers that might be cell phone numbers on there and e-mail addresses. When you type in a name, even just a first name, the site will give you multiple listings with people with that name. I’m guessing that someone might have looked up “Jeruba” and got several listings and one of the numbers was yours and the callers didn’t know any better. You might want to check the online white pages and see if your name pops up. There are also other online phone book/reverse address websites, so you might want to check those too.

It’s funny that you mentioned some of the other random calls you got, because I kept getting messages for some person, who didn’t have my name, and it was for his doctor’s appointments.

I have never posted my cellphone number anywhere. I don’t give it out. If you look up my land line, my name and my husband’s pop up right away—no privacy there. And our land line comes up when you search on our names. But only my family have my cell, plus a few close friends and occasionally a doctor I need to hear back from.

To use those search tools, you have to put in a last name and you have to specify a location, a state or zip.

The number that texted me was in Chicago, with not even one digit in common with my California area code, and presumably that person would be in the same area code as the kids <he> was planning to pick up. So a simple misdial won’t explain it.

And this has happened three times in two years, seemingly from three different callers, all of whom include my name in their message.

I did text back the woman who signed the message “Mom” and asked her how she happened to misdial her daughter’s phone and get me—and with her daughter having the same name. She just said something like, “Oh, I haven’t got used to this thing yet and I make mistakes,” which explained nothing. She didn’t even seem to get how weird that was.

@augustlan, I never did figure out the book either. But it kind of spooked me, and so it’s still in the envelope somewhere in my room.