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I have been getting calls from inmates across the country, why?
Every other day I receive calls from inmates across the country. I’ve
gotten calls from Texas, Nevada, Illinois, everywhere but I don’t know
why. The most I’ve ever gotten anyone to say is that I’m “written down.”
What the hell does that even mean. I usually just decline the calls but
I’ve been letting them go through and they usually aren’t talkative and
won’t tell me why I get calls and proceed to just hang up. What could
this be? Edit: Let me also let you know I looked up the phone numbers
and they come up to actual prisons, jails, and camps for incarcerated
peoples.
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|u/CeC-P - 1 day
|
|A lawyer or social services or non-profit probably typoed your number
|onto their website. Google your number in double quotes to specify
|exactness and see if you can find it.
|u/gonnafaceit2022 - 1 day
|
|That's a good probability. At my last job, United Healthcare had us
|listed as a Medicare transportation company on their website, and I
|got calls from elderly people all over the state wanting to set up
|rides to their doctor's appointments. I worked for an AIDS service
|organization that covers 18 counties. Our limited transportation
|services were for our clients, people living with HIV. But about half
|of the calls I was getting were for Medicare transportation, so
|eventually I started most calls by asking if the person has HIV. All
|of them were aghast at that question, but most of them still wanted
|me to solve their problem, figure out how they could get Medicare
|transportation in a city that's 300 miles away. 😵💫 I spent an
|entire day on the phone with United healthcare trying to get it
|fixed, but it didn't happen until I tagged them on Facebook. I got a
|message from someone within minutes, and somehow the problem got
|fixed! 🙃
|u/ButterscotchAware402 - 1 day
|
|I used to be a manager at a Medicaid transportation company, and it
|was the worst job I've ever had. I can't imagine having to deal
|with those patients when you're not even the right organization to
|be speaking with. On behalf of Medicaid and UHC, I'm sorry for
|their mistake!
|u/gonnafaceit2022 - 1 day
|
|Lol thanks. Asking about HIV right away helped a lot, because
|often they'd be so flustered by the question, they would hang up
|quickly. That sure didn't happen with a lot of them though, and
|it's so weird to me how many people think the people working at
|one organization have a direct line to all the other
|organizations. Sometimes people who actually did have HIV but
|didn't live in our area would call, and all I could do was refer
|them to the clinic or ASO for their area. Some people would get
|so pissed! And it seemed like the older they were, the more
|indignant they seemed. Like, I worked at a home oxygen company
|years ago, and there was a patient who came to the office often
|enough that we were friendly. He randomly called the office one
|day and asked me to look up the number for LensCrafters. 🤨
|u/ButterscotchAware402 - 1 day
|
|I've spent the last 15 years in healthcare administration
|roles, and the number of people that think every practice
|inside a medical complex are affiliated with one another will
|never stop baffling me. I used to tell them it's like the mall,
|every store is it's own company. Now, (if their polite enough)
|I do my best to help them figure it out. People are silly.
|u/dexterpine - 1 day
|
|When I worked at Sears, people tried to return items they'd
|bought at J C Penney or Nordstrom. They didn't understand the
|mall wasn't one giant business. I can imagine a senile
|elderly person at the eye doctor telling them to make an
|appointment with the dermatologist. "But you work in the same
|building. Surely you all know each other."
|u/ButterscotchAware402 - 1 day
|
|Exactly.
|u/shunabuna - 1 day
|
|The call support didn't want to fix it because then they would have
|to deal with the new calls
|u/CyberClawX - 1 day
|
|Had my cell number typoed on a newspaper some decades ago, in the
|Ladies ads. I got a bazillion calls, honestly, after my 10th or 20th,
|I had to block unknown numbers. Every single number either hung up
|when they heard my voice, or, refuse to tell me where they found my
|number. Most numbers were with their number blocked as well. I was
|lucky one of them wasn't though, and I sent back a SMS text, "You
|either tell me where you found my number so I can proceed to remove
|it, or, I'll contact the services to know the address this number
|belongs to, and send a letter addressing the lady of the house." Got
|back a reply real quick. This was a company phone, it wasn't even him
|that phoned me, but the phone was next to a newspaper, so maybe they
|saw my number in that newspaper (yeah right lol). This was also a
|very small local newspaper on a island. Unfortunately this only
|stopped the next day print, but I got calls for months with just that
|single print. It's insane the amount of calls those numbers get, I
|wonder how many translate to an actual business transaction, and how
|many are idiots goofing around.
|u/javasandrine - 1 day
|
|This happened to me. I had some people scream at me when I told them
|it was the wrong number. Eventually I got the site to correct the
|number
|u/Florahillmist - 1 day
|
|In my day job I have people all the time who refuse to believe they
|have the wrong number. It eventually becomes evident to them after
|several minutes when I have no idea what service they are talking
|about. It’s like an IQ test, smart people fuck off within seconds,
|idiots stay a while. Maybe more stubborn though, that seems a
|bigger issue these days
|u/cosmicworm - 1 day
|
|I also have my number listed somewhere but can’t seem to find it, do
|you mean “”phonenumber””?
|u/jarofonions - 1 day
|
|No, just "phone number"
|u/yadsiz - 10 hours
|
|I looked it up in all ways today, with and without dashes, () and
|what not, with “”, nothing came up
|u/tankerraid - 1 day
|
|The new girlfriend of one of my exes once put my phone number on a list
|of women looking to date men in prison. I got a LOT of phone calls. It
|sucked.
|u/ThippusHorribilus - 1 day
|
|What a crappy thing to do. When I was reading the original post, I
|was wondering if somebody that OP knew had done something similar
|with OP’s number.
|u/petit_cochon - 1 day
|
|WHY IS THAT A LIST THAT EXISTS.
|u/ShapeShiftingCats - 23 hours
|
|A) saviour complex B) feeling of power (as in this "bad boy" with
|an impact and influence wants *me*)
|u/CheshireCharade - 13 hours
|
|The prison I worked in was desperate enough for officers to start
|hiring 18 year olds. Literally every single officer knew it was a
|fucking horrible idea, but administration didn’t want to listen.
|The number of 18 year old girls compromised because of that power
|trip and ‘the big scary tattooed man told me I’m pretty’ was
|absolutely insane.
|u/salted_sclera - 1 day
|
|Sorry if this seems obvious, but have you searched up your number? Both
|###-###-#### / ########## formats ?
|u/emily0894 - 1 day
|
|And search in quotation marks in both formats. Use this all the time
|to figure out who called me.
|u/vegasgal - 1 day
|
|I’m guessing that by putting the number into quotation marks
|narrows the search results? Honestly I have no idea but is this
|correct?
|u/Low_Score - 1 day
|
|Putting a search query in quotations will search exactly what you
|wrote. It's useful for names and phrases. Ex Google might treat
|a search for John Smith as John and Smith and give you results
|for either word. However a search for "John Smith" will only
|yield results containing "John Smith" so no John, no Smith, no
|Smith John. Just John Smith. There's a ton of resources on
|boolean operators and Google dorking if you're interested in how
|search engines work.
|u/miltonwadd - 1 day
|
|A lot of boolean operators seem to no longer work, but
|thankfully, this one still gives good results.
|u/vegasgal - 1 day
|
|Than you for explaining!
|u/vegasgal - 1 day
|
|Well I am quite interested. May I please send you a chat
|request? I’m happy to exchange my knowledge of canine
|veterinary medicine and or contract and criminal law with you
|u/yadsiz - 10 hours
|
|I did, and with “”s, nothing comes up
|u/CommodoreAxis - 1 day
|
|It’s either a scam, or if they are real your number is super similar to
|like a law firm or something else that an inmate would be calling.
|Those phone calls cost a lot of money and phone time is super limited,
|so they aren’t just gonna waste it for the lulz.
|u/blueberrybaby00 - 1 day
|
|Is your number fairly new? Or from one of those textapps where you buy
|a number? I could be wrong, but It’s most likely your number was used
|in the past by a female who had been chatting to inmates. The inmates
|often pass those number around and the inmates call randomly hoping to
|reach a random woman and get a convo started. I know that seems far
|fetched but my husband is currently incarcerated and I’ve heard of it
|happening a lot. As soon as they hear you’re male, they hang up. No
|point for them. Written down means passed around or written on the
|wall. Post to the Prison sub and they’ll clarify but that’s my best
|guess.
|u/PMMEURDIMPLESOFVENUS - 1 day
|
|This is actually by far the most likely answer, OP. Either someone
|was using your number previously to talk to inmates, or a digit got
|mixed up. It is surprising that you're getting them from all over.
|I'd be curious, have they all been male? Also, have you checked or
|noticed if they all happen to be Federal inmates? Or are you getting
|them from various State prison systems?
|u/yadsiz - 10 hours
|
|I’ve had my number for almost 4 years now but I could see this being
|likely
|u/Shelisheli1 - 1 day
|
|Weird.. so am I. I’ve heard that inmates sell/trade phone numbers.
|That may have happened in my case. Am old friend was locked up and
|calling me years ago
|u/magicalmushroooomz - 9 hours
|
|I wonder why they would do that.
|u/philosoph0r - 1 day
|
|sounds like someone with an axe to grind or a joke put your info on one
|of those “prisoners look for love” sites
|u/cassodragon - 1 day
|
|r/prison might be able to help
|u/olliegw - 1 day
|
|I'd google your number to make sure it's not been posted anywhere and
|touted as something being useful for prisoners
|u/walkawaysux - 1 day
|
|If the operator says do you accept the charge say no a prison call is
|very expensive!
|u/ListenOk2972 - 1 day
|
|Sounds like you got written down
|u/yadsiz - 10 hours
|
|I believe so
|u/DyingUnicorns - 1 day
|
|Most states it costs them to call. It is most likely your number was
|misprinted as a number for a lawyer or advocate of some kind. They
|don’t want to waste their money to explain and probably aren’t sure if
|they misdialed or what anyway. And their phone systems can be beyond
|fucked up. I’ve gotten a call from my partner before but when it
|connected it wasn’t the prison but the state irs line and like I was
|the one who called. Like how does that even happen and why do I have to
|pay so much per minute for the worst fucking service.
|u/prpslydistracted - 1 day
|
|I got a text last week from something something with "liberty" and
|"inmate" in it. I looked up the phone # and it was an IL area code (I'm
|in TX and don't know a soul in IL). I gather it is supposed to be a
|safe/verified network for inmates to connect to the public. Ha. It
|appears to be a security breach of some kind. It was a text not a call.
|u/4Ever2Thee - 21 hours
|
|Do you have any enemies/pranksters in your life who might find it funny
|to unwittingly sign you up for something like this? I had a coworker
|who thought it was funny to sign me up for all sorts of weird shit.
|Never anything like this, but it ranged from stuff like a gay-vegan
|dating site to televangelist mailing and call lists. One televangelist
|mailed me packets of holy water and mustard seeds for years until I
|moved. They definitely would’ve signed me up for this if they knew
|about it.
|u/Gerdione - 1 day
|
|Probably a scam. Hit up r/scams . You'll mostly likely be receiving a
|call about a bounty and paying up. It's very easy to spoof numbers.
|u/realmofconfusion - 21 hours
|
|Company I used to work for had a free number for customers to ring and
|report lost or stolen bank cards. Out of the blue we started getting
|calls for a double glazing company for a town about 10 miles away. I
|eventually figured out they had printed our number in their advertising
|material (two digits had been transposed). Made for some entertaining
|calls when an angry customer would ring up complaining about shoddy
|workmanship only to be told that we were a bank (building society
|actually). I actually had one caller refuse to believe me and just
|thought I was making excuses for not having come round to fit her new
|windows!
|u/Key_Click6659 - 1 day
|
|Can you call the stations and ask? Maybe your name is in place of a
|lawyers number? LOL
|u/Dave80 - 1 day
|
|Sounds to me like you are written down.
|u/tranquilrage73 - 1 day
|
|What does that even mean?
|u/airfryerfuntime - 1 day
|
|It means that you've been 'written' 'down'.
|u/Chemical_Chicken01 - 1 day
|
|Still not getting it.
|u/airfryerfuntime - 1 day
|
|It literally mean 'written' *'down'*.
|u/Chemical_Chicken01 - 57 minutes
|
|That doesn’t explain anything
|u/Chemical_Chicken01 - 56 minutes
|
|That doesn’t explain anything. I’m not from the US so there
|may be a translation issue here.
|u/Yardsale420 - 1 day
|
|Typically prisoners have to pay for their phone calls and it isn’t
|cheap. They are probably too broke to waste time explaining why they
|called a wrong number.
|u/13thmurder - 1 day
|
|Do you know if by chance you've been written down? That can cause this.
|If maybe your number is very similar to someone else's and a typo was
|made.
|u/didyouwoof - 1 day
|
|OP specifically said they were told they’d been written down, but
|that they have no idea what that means. What does it mean?
|u/Greatgrandma2023 - 1 day
|
|It's a scam by the prison phone company. They are trying to get you to
|pay thinking you know the person who's calling. If you do the prisoner
|gets a commission.
|u/CommodoreAxis - 1 day
|
|Prison phone calls are a >$2 billion dollar industry. They aren’t
|gonna bother running low-level scams like this to make a few extra
|bucks. They already take in millions of dollars a year off legit
|calls. They also don’t charge the recipient of the calls in
|prisons. It comes out of the inmate’s commissary account that has to
|be loaded by family members. Charging recipients for calls is
|generally a jail thing, but even that has mostly switched over to
|pre-loaded accounts.
|u/Greatgrandma2023 - 1 day
|
|All I know is that when I get a call from someone in custody the
|name is mumbled and when I call the return number they want me to
|buy minutes on a credit card to return the call. I don't accept
|calls from people not in my contacts anymore.
|u/PMMEURDIMPLESOFVENUS - 1 day
|
|When this happens it's not a "phone company scam", it's an inmate
|collect calling a (most likely) random number and hoping someone
|will answer. It doesn't cost them anything to give it a shot.
|u/TechnicalSample4678 - 1 day
|
|Damn chill lol
|u/KrystalWulf - 1 day
|
|Okay but is he right? Because at least 2 people claimed OP was
|"written down" but I have no idea what it means, while this person
|is giving an explanation of what it could mean
|u/Anianna - 1 day
|
|Multiple inmates from multiple institutions in multiple states
|colluding seems unlikely.
|u/KrystalWulf - 1 day
|
|Okay, so whatever being written down is, isn't what this guy
|was claiming?
|u/Anianna - 1 day
|
|Probably not. It's more likely a number for a resource was
|written incorrectly on a list provided to inmates and OP is
|the unfortunate owner of the misprinted number.
|u/notreallylucy - 1 day
|
|If OP was targeted to be killed, why would people be calling him?
|u/airfryerfuntime - 1 day
|
|Different prisoners in completely different states? Using the prison
|phone? Lol no, that's not a thing.
|u/Roseora - 1 day
|
|Or, their number was literally written down. Someone made a typo or
|has bad handwriting or something. Occams razor.
|u/Baby_Blue_Eyes_13 - 1 day
|
|Don't know why you're getting down voted. At least you explained
|"written down". But unless OP snitched on someone in a major crime
|family, it seems unlikely he'd be getting calls from prisons all
|across the country. If it was 2-3 guys all from the same place, then
|yeah maybe.
|u/TanManWithaPlan - 1 day
|
|My thoughts based on experience is that OP has someone upset on the
|inside. That person has either transfered or had friends transfer.
|He paid them thru the internal system a dollars or some cigs to
|harass OP. What people here on reddit dont realize is .... An
|inmates phone call isnt free and it isnt cheap. Their time is also
|precious, so using that little resource to just prank call or annoy
|someone for no reason doesnt make sense either. And if it was
|written down literally than it doesnt coincide with OPs story of
|multiple places calling him. Unless now we are reaching and
|indicating its in a database somewhere that no one has
|corrected..but then wouldnt they say its "in the system" ...
|