[Resolved]  Vodafone — Reusing of phone number

Hi,
I have been using a Vodafone number for last 2.5 yrs. From the beginning I have been getting unwanted calls on this number. It seems that the number has been reused by Vodafone and previously it was allotted to some advocate (some Tapan Tanay Haldar). Strange part is, that person seems to be giving away this particular number as his present contact number! So, I get many unwanted calls (including few 'threat calls'!) and SMS. Don't know what that person's business is (or was), but it is irritating to get SMS from multiple banks (HSBC, SBI and ICICI) with reminders for credit card and loan account payments of amount up to 8 lakhs. I have contacted those banks several times asking why I am getting those SMS when I don't have any pending amount due. They did not disclose any details of those accounts, saying that it is against their 'privacy policy', but said that those were not on my name. I am getting those reminders because somebody is referring this mobile number as their personal number.

My question is, what are the options I have to stop this kind of harassments because Vodafone has given me a number that was being used by somebody else, and somebody is still using this number for getting credit card or new loan accounts? Banks told that they could not do anything on this and suggested me to ignore these SMS. But, when we see many news of somebody getting into trouble because some bank issued credit card or loan account to a person, but using some other's personal details, this is really worrying me. These banks also do not seem to validate phone numbers before approving credit card of loan account! Can you please suggest a solution for this?

Thanks!