I could have ended it IF I’d been willing to wait in a call cue for 20 or more minutes and provide the collection agency with tons of my personal info to prove I wasn’t the party they were seeking. I did’t believe I had an obligation to call a company I didn’t want a relationship with.

Instead I Blogged http://www.irresponsiblecalling.blogspot.com and interacted with the provincial government and my local MPP.

Nothing teaches you how poor a regulartory environment we have in Canada than dealing with regulators.

What got me most however was that the solution to this problem is both cheap and easy - compare the number to the name registered with the phone f their is no match don’t use autometed calling.

Through the blog I learned that my expereince wasn’t uncommon. People getting new numbers are the most common victims, though even people who’ve had the same number for 20+ years (like me) are not immune to transposition errors or malfeasance.

Like your experience these issues are well within the capbilities of any call center to fix - if they, and the regulator, care.