Big Wheel Posted April 23, 2005 Report Share Posted April 23, 2005 (edited) So I'm out and about this morning, get to the office (working on a Saturday ) , and see there's a missed call on my cell from an unfamiliar local number. I call the number back and ask if anyone called me, and the woman on the other end asks me for my name. I give my first name, but I'm almost positive I did not give my last name. Then this woman says "oh, [my last name]." Do you know Laurie Cunningham?" I don't. Then I hang up. The weird thing is that I then do a reverse lookup and google that person's name. A couple stories come up from a decade ago about a woman by that name from the area who was beaten by her husband, then had him killed by someone else, went to jail, and got out on parole. I've only had this phone for three months. AFAIK there is no directory with this number in it. How the hell did somebody get my number and name? Could this be a scam? Edited April 23, 2005 by Big Wheel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sheldonm Posted April 23, 2005 Report Share Posted April 23, 2005 (edited) ....not sure about a scam but kinda freaky! Edited April 23, 2005 by sheldonm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazz Kat Posted April 23, 2005 Report Share Posted April 23, 2005 Maybe an old friend playing a trick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Nessa Posted April 23, 2005 Report Share Posted April 23, 2005 Did you do it? Details please. B-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazz Kat Posted April 24, 2005 Report Share Posted April 24, 2005 sorry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazzmoose Posted April 24, 2005 Report Share Posted April 24, 2005 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
connoisseur series500 Posted April 24, 2005 Report Share Posted April 24, 2005 Yes, Rod Serling could have made a great Twilight Zone episdoe out of this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Wheel Posted April 24, 2005 Author Report Share Posted April 24, 2005 I'm just worried that this is some kind of identity theft thing. If it is, I'm not sure why they bothered to call my phone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexander Posted April 25, 2005 Report Share Posted April 25, 2005 Kinda reminds me of Paul Auster's novel City of Glass in which a mystery writer named Daniel Quinn repeatedly gets wrong-number calls for Paul Auster. Finally, Quinn decides to impersonate Auster and embarks on a bizarre mystery which eventually claims his sanity and possibly his life. Auster based this on a real incident in his life when he repeatedly got phone calls for the Pinkerton Detective Agency. Auster always wondered what would've happened if he had said that he was with the Pinkerton Agency, but of course he never did. Some years after City of Glass was published, Auster reported getting a wrong-number call for one Daniel Quinn...at first Auster thought it was a prank, but it turned out to be real... "It was a wrong number that started it all. The phone ringing three times in the dead of night, and the voice asking for someone he was not..." - City of Glass Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrome Posted April 25, 2005 Report Share Posted April 25, 2005 Kinda reminds me of Paul Auster's novel City of Glass Fantastic book ... the whole "New York trilogy" thing was great, but he's really lost me with his last books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazzmoose Posted April 25, 2005 Report Share Posted April 25, 2005 Kinda reminds me of Paul Auster's novel City of Glass in which a mystery writer named Daniel Quinn repeatedly gets wrong-number calls for Paul Auster. Finally, Quinn decides to impersonate Auster and embarks on a bizarre mystery which eventually claims his sanity and possibly his life. Auster based this on a real incident in his life when he repeatedly got phone calls for the Pinkerton Detective Agency. Auster always wondered what would've happened if he had said that he was with the Pinkerton Agency, but of course he never did. Some years after City of Glass was published, Auster reported getting a wrong-number call for one Daniel Quinn...at first Auster thought it was a prank, but it turned out to be real... "It was a wrong number that started it all. The phone ringing three times in the dead of night, and the voice asking for someone he was not..." - City of Glass I'm unfamiliar with that work, but I MUST read it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chandra Posted April 26, 2005 Report Share Posted April 26, 2005 (edited) Setting aside the google story for a second, there may be a rational explanation for the rest. She is trying to find out where that long lost friend Laura Cunningham is and someone told her that Mr Big Wheel used to work with LC and might know where she is. She simply called directory assistance to get the number for Big Wheel and got yours by mistake.... Plausible? (Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association talked about coming up with a cell phone directory for 411 calls last year. I don't know if that is in service. You may not really know if your cell phone got on to that directory or not. May be you should call 411 and ask for your own name and see if they give out your cell phone number ) Edited April 26, 2005 by chandra Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Wheel Posted April 26, 2005 Author Report Share Posted April 26, 2005 That's not a bad theory. My first and last name are both very common so it's not impossible that's what happened. The only other thing I can think of is that I misheard her when I thought she said my last name. Then it could have just been a regular wrong number. Also, it looks like there are three women in the Boston phone book by her name, so it's possible that the crazy story has nothing to do with this woman. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Son-of-a-Weizen Posted April 26, 2005 Report Share Posted April 26, 2005 Next time she calls, throw her off a step by asking if she'd ever Eat Bertha's Mussels? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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