The calls are for a name that is not yours — a stranger, a previous holder of your phone number, a relative, an ex. You owe nothing, you never received the medical care, and yet your phone keeps ringing. You are not powerless here: federal law tightly limits what a collector may do when contacting anyone other than the debtor, and once a collector knows it has the wrong person, continuing to call is itself a violation.
General information, not legal advice. This page covers calls about someone else’s debt. If the collector insists the debt is yours but you say it is not, that is a dispute — start with the validation letter instead.
When a collector contacts anyone other than the debtor, the FDCPA (§805(b) and the location-information rules at §1692b) allows exactly one narrow purpose — finding location information for the debtor — under strict conditions:
That is the whole allowance. A collector who tells you the calls concern a medical debt has already broken it: disclosing that a debt exists — let alone that it is medical — to a third party is prohibited. (The full rights framework is on the FDCPA rights page.)
I am writing about calls to [your number] concerning [name they ask for]. I am not that person, and I do not owe this or any debt you are collecting. You contacted me for location information; I have none. Remove this number and do not contact me again about anyone’s account. Further calls to this number after this notice will be documented and reported.
This is a different instrument from the cease communication letter — that letter is written by the debtor under §805(c); yours rests on the third-party contact rules and on the fact that you are a stranger to the account. 3. Log every call after your notice. Date, time, the number, the company name, exact words. Under the rules above, each continued call is a fresh violation, and a clean log is what turns annoyance into a case. 4. Report it. File with the CFPB and your state attorney general, attaching the log. Continued wrong-person calls are also a form of the conduct covered on the harassment page. 5. Robocalls to your cell are a separate issue. Autodialed or prerecorded calls to a mobile number raise Telephone Consumer Protection Act questions on top of the FDCPA. Do not try to DIY that analysis — a short consultation with a consumer attorney (many take these cases on contingency, since the FDCPA shifts fees) will tell you quickly whether your log is worth money.
What if I’m getting collection calls for someone else’s debt? Tell the collector once, clearly, that you are not that person and they should not call again. If the calls continue, send a short wrong-party letter demanding removal of your number, log every further call, and report the collector to the CFPB and your state attorney general.
Why is a debt collector calling me? I don’t owe this Usually one of three reasons: your number once belonged to the debtor, skip-tracing software attached your number to their file, or you share a name or an address with the person they want. None of these makes you responsible for the debt — or for helping them find the debtor.
How do I get a debt collector to stop calling or contacting me? For someone else’s debt: say “wrong person, do not call again” on a call, follow with the wrong-party letter on this page, and document any calls after that — each one strengthens a complaint. For a debt the collector says is yours, the tools are the cease communication letter and, if you dispute it, the validation process.
Can a debt collector tell me about someone else’s debt? No. When contacting a third party, a collector may only seek location information, must say that is what it is doing, and may not state that the person owes a debt. Telling you the amount, the provider, or that the debt is medical reveals information the law requires them to keep between themselves and the debtor.
Do I have to take a message or give them information? No. It is not your responsibility to pass messages to the debtor, provide their address or workplace, or confirm anything about them. You may give nothing at all — and the safest course is exactly that, plus the one clear statement that the calls should stop.
Sources: 15 U.S.C. §1692b and §1692c(b) (third-party and location-information limits); CFPB Ask CFPB stop-contact guidance; consumer-law firm guidance on wrong-party calls (StopCollections, Minnesota consumer law). Currency verified 2026-10-23.