When you get a new number, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s actually ‘new.’ It could easily be someone else’s old number. However, when they change theirs, they might not tell all of their family, friends, and coworkers. This means that you might get some very peculiar calls from strangers. Yours truly has had to deal with this for over 15 years. But my situation is far from unique!

Redditor u/fin008 recently went viral on the r/MaliciousCompliance subreddit after sharing a story from a decade ago about receiving calls from various trade workers telling him about building projects and the like. A bit tired of getting yelled and cursed at when he tried explaining that he’s not the person they were looking for, the OP decided to do a little bit of amateur detective work.

He found the person who used to have his phone number! Alas, things didn’t go quite as planned. But it gave the redditor the perfect opportunity for some malicious compliance (and a dash of petty revenge). Scroll down for the full story.

Bored Panda got in touch with u/fin008, who was kind enough to answer a few of our questions about what happened. You’ll find our full interview with the author of the post below.

Plenty of people have had absolute strangers call them after they switched to a new phone number. However, not all calls are pleasant

Image credits: voronaman111 (not the actual photo)

A guy shared how he had to take countless rude calls from builders, and revealed what happened after he finally tracked down the old owner of the number

Image credits: AZ-BLT (not the actual photo)

Image credits: fin008

We reached out to the author of the post, redditor u/fin008, and he told us about how he reacted to his story going viral on Reddit.

“I didn’t realize that there were so many people who had a similar experience to mine, [it was a] nice way to wake up and realize I’ve made the front-page and fake karma with 15 minutes of fame by making a lot of people laugh,” he said he was glad to brighten up people’s day.

“I think it [the story] resonated with folks because everyone’s been accidentally been called at least once and strangers calling you just to not be nice makes you kinda feel helpless most of the time, so a nice comeback story probably gives hope and inspiration to have a little fun with that next time,” he shared why he thinks the story got so much attention online.

Bored Panda was curious whether u/fin008 had at any moment considered that the situation could have backfired, causing more trouble.

“Yup, I considered if the guy could find me but had only recently moved into town and generally don’t post too much personal stuff online,” he said. “Guess I have to start a new Reddit account now or forever watch my back for Sandman, although this was many years ago.”

Meanwhile, the redditor said that it’d be tough to give advice to people who constantly get calls from strangers, asking for help or advice on whatever they might need. “I’d try and find out where they got the number from, definitely not give bogus advice or risk anyone getting harmed. Likely it’s not their fault.”

The redditor’s post was extremely popular on the r/MaliciousCompliance subreddit. At the time of writing, it had gotten 30.6k upvotes in just 18 hours. Some internet users loved the comedy of the entire situation (and so did we—we laughed way harder than we’d care to admit).

Meanwhile, others shared some similar stories about people calling and looking for the old owners of phone numbers. It’s hilarious to read the tactics that people resorted to when the calls just wouldn’t stop coming. As it turns out, politely telling people that they’ve got the wrong person and that you couldn’t possibly provide them with the services they so desperately desire doesn’t always work.

Case in point, I’ve had to field calls from random people asking me to come over and fix their computers for over a decade and a half. I’ve had calls from civil servants to people in their seventies. And, on a number of occasions, I’ve tried to get the info erased from various websites. These days, the calls are far, far rarer. But when I do get them, I embrace them with a big smile and a bit of humor: I tell them what the situation is and we have a good laugh. But I could easily see myself concocting some overly-elaborate plans for revenge if anyone was ever rude to me. So far, however, everyone’s been extremely polite.

The reason why old numbers get recycled is mundanely simple. There are a limited number of phone numbers you can hand out. Meanwhile, phone companies keep getting more and more subscribers. That means that they end up reusing the numbers of those clients who leave or end up losing their phone numbers.

In the United States alone, around 100k numbers are recycled every year. However, the issue goes beyond just calls from strangers. Someone’s old phone number (now your new one) might still be connected to some of their social media accounts or subscriptions.

In this day and age, changing your phone number means doing a lot of digital hygiene, making sure that you’ve disconnected it from every online account you’ve ever used it for. Ultimately, some things fall through the cracks. So when somebody who has your old number tracks you down and asks you to change the info on a website or elsewhere, the best response is to thank them, not curse at them. Otherwise, you might find yourself shoveling a ton of sand. By hand.

The internet loved the story. Here’s how some readers reacted to it

A few internet users shared similar stories about getting calls from strangers

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