A few weeks before Christmas 2013, I started receiving dozens of calls a day from payday/holiday loan companies. Some offered loans while others claimed I had been approved for loans. Some were from unknown companies while others were big name banks. Almost all asked for Ronald Smith or Reynold Smith, the accents of the callers were so strong that I cannot be sure.

Most of the time, I told the caller that they had the wrong number, and they usually hung up. But today’s call was different. CallerID says the call came from 773-596-1404. But many of the calls have fake caller IDs so take that with a grain of salt. Transcript:

John Smith: Hello, Reynold Smith, my name is John Smith from Cashnet. [given the strong Indian accent, I doubt his name is really John Smith]

Me: You have the wrong number.

JS: What do you mean?

Me: I mean you have the wrong number.

JS: That is not possible. What does that mean?

Me: I am not Reynold Smith. Please take me off your list.

JS: I cannot do that.

Me: You need to, you have the wrong number.

JS: So I have the wrong number, so what. Do you need a cash advance loan blah, blah, blah

I hung up.

To CashNetUSA.com. The probability that I would ever use you or ever recommend you went from nearly zero to exactly nil.