I am NOT Gina Trautwig

I don't know who Gina Trautwig is, but a collection agency is looking for her, and they keep calling my cell phone. At first I ignored the messages, but when the collection agency started leaving three messages a day, I decided it was time to act.

Thursday night my cellphone rang, and recognizing the number of the collection agency, I answered. I went through the prompts and pressed 3 for "wrong number." Finally a man came on and asked for Gina. When I told him that they had the wrong number and that I wanted the calls to stop, he hung up on me. I hoped that would be the end of it.

But no. Yesterday afternoon they called again. I went through the prompts and got a woman, who asked for Gina. This was our conversation.

Me: I talked to someone yesterday and told them you had the wrong number.
Debt Collector: No you didn't.
Me: Excuse me, yes I did. I talked to a young man who hung up on me when I told him he had the wrong number.
DC: No you didn't.
Me: Yes I did. Please stop calling me.
DC: All you needed to say was that we had the wrong number.
Me: I did that already. Stop calling me.
DC: Click.

I was sputtering by the end of the conversation. How could she have been so rude? It wasn't my fault that Gina Trautwig had defaulted on her debts and then given out the wrong number. But then it occurred to me that folks who work in the debt collection industry probably aren't too concerned with their customer service ratings. They get lied to, cursed at, and hung up on many, many times a day.

They haven't called back yet today, so maybe they've officially taken my number off their list. If they haven't though, I may be forced to get nasty. I'm spoiling for a fight with someone.