Why am I getting these automated calls from DCI for somebody else’s old cell phone bill?


“Why am I getting these automated calls from DCI for somebody else’s old cell phone bill?”

Why am I getting these automated calls from DCI for somebody else's old cell phone bill?I know it is frustrating to get robo or autodialed calls to your cell phone for someone else — especially the person who used to have your cell phone number.  Usually the debt collector blowing up your phone is a company called DCI, but there can be other companies as well.

Here’s the normal way it works

Say you go to AT&T, Verizon, T-mobile, and you get a new phone, and a new phone number.

That phone number isn’t literally brand new, somebody else had it before.

Let’s say that the person before you supposedly did not pay their phone bill.

Now debt collector like DCI will come along, they’ll get that account, and they’ll say, “Oh! We’re going to collect on it.”

Well, DCI knows it’s a cell phone, and they have your “new” cell phone number (who the person before you had), and they start blowing up your phone with computer dialers, robot dialers, auto dialers, and you are frustrated.

“What in the world is this?”

You finally get a human being on the phone.

They say, “Well, we’re looking for Joe Blow.”

See, Joe Blow supposedly had it three years ago.

“I’m not Joe Blow,” you tell them.

They go, “You have to tell us where he is.”

You say to them,”I don’t know where he is.”

They respond, “We’re going to keep calling you.”

If I give debt collectors like DCI any credit, I guess I’ll give them credit for this, when they threaten to break the law against you, they do follow through with that, so I guess they’re honest.

They’re honest crooks because they’re violating the law.

When they do this, what’s the solution?

The solution is talk to a consumer protection attorney.

If you’re in Alabama give us a call 205-879-2447, or you can contact us by filling out a contact form.

Normally the ultimate solution is that you sue these guys in federal court, because there’s a federal law called the TCPA, Telephone Consumer Protection Act

This law says that, if you’re getting calls to your cell phone, and you did not give permission, and certainly you didn’t give permission to some debt collector supposedly collecting a three-year-old bill for somebody else, they have to pay you money after the first call they make to you. Most of the time, they get one free call.

After the first phone call, every time they do an automated or robo dialed call to you, then that is $500 that they may owe you in damages (per call), or up to $1500 per call (if the calls were intentional).

We have cases where people might have 20 calls, 50 calls, 200 calls, so you can see that money really adds up.

These debt collectors including DCI, they hate this law, they just despise it because it punishes them when they violate the law.

They know Joe Blow does not still have this number (it’s your number now), but they figure, “Eh, if we blow up your phone, you will maybe pay us or you’ll track him down for us or something good will happen.”

Well, unfortunately a lot of times people do pay these debt collectors when they don’t owe them money, just to make it stop, but you’re not going to do that, right?

You’re going to sue them, make them pay you, and that will get it through their head that maybe, just maybe, we should not harass people when we have no right to do that.

Let’s sue them, and keep suing them, and keep suing them, and then see what happens.  I bet they will change.  What do you think?

Feel free to contact us

If you would like our help, and live in the state of Alabama, just pick up the phone 205-879-2447, or you fill out this contact form and we will get in touch with you as soon as possible.

Looking forward talking to you!

Have a great day.

John G. Watts

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