Dead Ringer, Literally

A friend of mine has a very common name, both first and last (think ‘John Smith’), and recently got a new phone number. Since our telecom providers tend to reuse numbers that haven’t been paid for, this, of course, means he gets a few unsolicited calls that are meant for someone else.

The freakiest one was this:

Friend: *Picking up a call.* “John Smith, hello?”

Caller: *Shrieks like a banshee.*

Friend: “Hello? Who is this?”

Caller: “Dad?! But… but… you’re DEAD!”

Friend: “Lady, I’m not your father. I just got this number a week ago. I’m sorry if I caused any distress, but—”

Caller: “—I dialled this by accident, and before I could hang up, you picked up! Is this some demented, cruel joke?”

Friend: “No? Like I said, this is my new number and I—”

Caller: “—Then why did you answer like my father?”

Friend: “I answered with my name.”

Caller: “That’s my father’s name!”

Friend: “Well, he’s not the only John Smith, I guess?”

It turned out this was exactly what happened.

To make matters worse, my friend not only has the exact same name as the deceased, but his voice and accent are apparently very close to that of the person who passed on. So, people were either just happy that they finally “reached” an old friend again (only to learn, after this call, that he had passed), or they thought someone was playing a cruel joke on them.

My friend asked the phone company for a different number. Fortunately, they agreed it was neither good for him nor their goodwill if that continued.