Collection Call

I received an odd phone call this morning. My phone rings a few times each day with 800 numbers on the caller ID. Some are sales calls but some are collection calls since, when collection agencies look up the phone number for anyone living at this address, my phone number is the one that pops up. Don’t know why this is but I do tend to get the calls for anyone who has ever lived in this building.

Since this is the case, unless I know the person who is calling or it is a local number, I tend not to answer the phone. Most of the time there isn’t a message and the call just ends when it hits my answering machine. But this morning there was a message:

“This call is for Eva *******. If you are not Eva ******, please hang up the phone. This call is from a debt collector and…”

At this point I picked up the phone because Eva ******* is my mother. (I am not putting her last name since it is the same as mine and that information is not going on my blog). I forgot, when I picked up the phone, that it was recording so I really wasn’t able to talk to the person calling.

So I called my sister. I told her what just happened and asked her if she knew why a collection agency would be calling me looking for Mom. She said that is probably because she was ignoring them and they went to the next person associated with Mom. I then asked if she had any idea what bill wasn’t paid for Mom. She said it was probably something from Blair that Mom had ordered and she, my sister, was a little late in sending back.

For those who don’t know, Blair is a company that sells things for women like sweat suits, jackets, sweaters and that sort of thing. The ads are usually in the coupon section of the Sunday paper. It is the typical stuff older ladies wear and our mom loved their products.

After getting off the phone with my sister, I called the collection agency and explained that someone had just called looking for my mom. I went on to explain that Mom is dead. Yes, I was that blunt about it. “I’m sorry but the person you are looking for, Eva *******, is dead. She has been dead for five years now. I’m thinking she won’t be paying the bill”.

The woman apologized, asked if I was calling from the number that had been called and I said I was calling from that number. She looked up the information and said she would put in the computer that Mom was deceased. I asked what company they were collecting for and she confirmed it was Blair. I then said that Mom would not have purchased the item if she had known she was going to die just as she would not have started making the meat loaf the evening she died if she had known she was going to die. Then it wouldn’t have sat there going bad until she was found two days later. I then went on to explain that I was on the phone with her (Mom) when she died but I didn’t know that since she hung up the phone as she died. Very considerate of her, don’t you think?

This was probably more detail than the woman on the phone cared to hear about but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to let her know that Mom did fully intend on paying the bill for the item she ordered from Blair if she hadn’t died. I don’t know why I found it necessary but I really didn’t want her to think that Mom was some kind of deadbeat who ordered things from the ads in the coupon section of the Sunday paper and didn’t pay for them. Besides which, since I am kind of ok with Mom being in heaven, I don’t mind saying somewhat shocking things about it. It would have made Dad laugh (probably did if he was listening from heaven) but Mom probably was saying “Juliane, be nice now”. Then Dad would point out that I was being funny and then Mom would laugh. That is how things worked usually. (Side note: my brother thought it was funny. When I told him about it, he laughed and said “you didn’t say that” and I said I did and that made him laugh harder. Yes, we share a very quirky sense of humor).

After I thought about it later that day, I began to wonder about how they found my phone number at all. I mean calling my sister is logical. She had a joint checking account with Mom and handled all of Mom’s business when she died. How exactly did they find my number and know that I am Eva’s daughter? What database has that information in it?

It is scary to think that information about me is on some strange computer someplace and I can be found by linking my information with a woman who had died five years ago in Michigan. That doesn’t seem right somehow but I’m not sure what I could do about it or if it even matters. After all, it did make for a little bit of entertainment on a Saturday morning. And it made me think about my mom and how much I miss her.

Still, I am kind of curious about how my information is out there and on what computers. If I ever find out how it all works, I will post something about it. Just as a warning to others that their lives aren’t as private as they think they are and there isn’t really anything that can be done about it.