NATCHEZ — Joyce Wesley knew something was funny Tuesday morning when the man who called her with an offer to lower the interest rate on her credit cards wouldn’t give her his name.

The man identified himself and the company he was with, but because he had a foreign accent Wesley said she wasn’t able to understand him.

“I asked him for his name and the name of the company again because I needed to be sure to whom I was speaking, and when I did he hung up,” Wesley said.

So she went to work, dialing the 13-digit number on her caller ID, which began with 442, a Natchez prefix.

After dialing the first seven digits — a standard local phone number — she was connected with a local man who, strangely enough, had received a similar call Monday.

After that, Wesley began dialing the numbers, adding one digit per call until she had dialed the entire string, but she was not able to reconnect with the company.

“I’m retired from a phone company,” she said. “I knew something was fishy for sure then.”

Better Business Bureau of Mississippi President Bill Moak said consumers should be leery of calls like the one Wesley received.

“You should consider it a red flag immediately if there is any hesitation on the part of the company to identify themselves,” Moak said.

And though many legitimate companies use similar techniques, consumers need to be skeptical of anyone who calls them with claims of being able to erase debt or get lower interest rates.

“Never give any personal information on the phone in response to a solicitation,” Moak said.

If you are having problems with paying bills, instead of just accepting an offer over the phone, you should get credit counseling from a not-for-profit credit-counseling agency, Moak said.

As for Wesley, she has only one regret about the call she received.

“I wish I had played along just long enough to find out who they were and let people know to watch out for them,” she said.