The woes of recycled cell phone numbers

[StevenA]

I just got my Verizon wireless service a couple of months a couple of months ago. For the first month everything was fine, but in the past few weeks, I've started getting phone calls mostly at 4:00 am asking for who I assume is the previous owner of my cell phone number. I don't want to shut the phone off at night (although I've had to resort to that a few times) because the main reason I got the phone was so my parents in Massachusetts, who are elderly and in failing health, can get through to me at any time in an emergency. I also don't want to get another number because I've already given it out to a lot of people. Hopefully, this will stop soon because it's driving me crazy. :cry:

[dvdao]

I've had the same problem with AT&T...I get at least a few calls a day for the person who use to own that number. Mostly spanish speaking people who don't understand a word of english(thank goodness I took spanish in high school). But it got to be really bothersome when people we calling in the middle of the night. I called AT&T and told them the situation. I mentioned that I don't know ANYONE who lives in Central or South America and there was no reason for me to get billed for these minutes that I use trying to explain to the other person that I'm not the person they are calling for. AT&T kindly gave me a whopping 10 additional minutes! One of the many reasons I'm switiching to Alltel.