Phone Harrassment

I'm being harrassed over the phone, and there's nothing I can do about it.
More than seven years ago, I got my own apartment and phone number. Since then, this number has moved with me three times as I've gotten married, bought a house, and had a child. Not once in seven years has this phone number of mine been disconnected, been someone else's, or even been under a different name. But still, the phone calls come, and always for the same person. It is SO aggravating!! And even a little embarassing when company is over.

Somehow, the telephone company thought they would be funny and give me the old phone number of someone they must have taken it away from because she didn't pay her bills. And the phone company isn't the only company to which she owes money.

I've never met this woman, but I have a phone book, so anytime one of those wonderful collection companies actually puts a real person on the line, I pull it out, look her up and give them a more recent number. I think she knows that I hate getting these calls, so everytime that she borrows money or buys something on credit, I think she puts my phone number on the application ON PURPOSE!!

One day, we got six phone calls in the span of four hours, all from the same collection agency. Five times we told them the same thing I've been saying for seven years, "I'm sorry, I don't know that person, this has been MY phone number for the last seven years! Take this number out of her file and please stop calling me." And everytime, they promise they will but then we got that sixth phone call and all heck broke loose. My husband's face turns red, his eyes get big, his blood pressure starts rising and he starts using his "cop voice," (You know, the really authoritative one) and saying the phrase, "No, that's not enough. Here's what you're gonna do, or else I 'm gonna file phone harrassment charges on you and your company!" But when he says this, he knows he can't back that up because that's not how the law was written.

Anyway, these calls have been coming in spurts every couple of months for the past seven years, and I am just plain tired of it. We've even called this woman to tell her to quit using our number as a reference, and she swears she never even knew that number. LIAR!!

It's just so annoying! It's not always the same number, so I can't block the calls, and I ignore them all the time using my Caller ID, but they always call back, and it's ALWAYS at dinner time. Any other suggestions?

I just wish I had been cursed with someone else's old phone number, and not someone who owed the whole town money.