A lady name Audrey called with a supposed company called MRP or MSP staying I have some blah blah blah.. This is a scam and I believe I have talked to this lady before. Told her to go ahead and sue me and send it in the mail. I never received anything. So, here she is calling again with the same [***]. Grrrrrrrrrr.
Just got a call from this number. Recording from a woman named Audrey Bell from MRP Services saying I had a pending matter and they needed to hear from me or my attorney. If I didn't call her they would record that I had "waived my right" to defend myself or something like that. They did not refer to me by name. They did not leave an account number. Just general vague message. When I looked up the number I can't find anything making them legit. When i searched their name in Virginia where the call apparently originated from, I came up with nothing. This is a scam.
Just received another call from 8045570538 stating to be someone by the name Audrey Bell from MRP services. The voice recorder never asked for a name, left no other detail as the reference for this call. This is a scam, plus I do not know anyone from the area code listed. They are not found to listed anywhere.
Seems to be a new criminal enterprise pretending to be debt collectors and using extortion tactics to scare people into paying them money.
Criminals are masquerading as debt collectors in an attempt to extort money from people by scaring them into believing that:
a. You are going to be sued and it will cost you lots of money when they allegedly “win” their case.
b. That they are about to file criminal charges or that you will be criminally charged (they use the bad check or hot check claim a lot) and go to jail, even though debt is civil not criminal, there are no criminal charges, and debtor’s prison was outlawed over 200 years ago.
c. That they will take away your driver’s license.
d. That will garnish your wages without actually being suing you, going to court, or even winning a case and obtaining a judgement followed by a judge’s consent to the garnishment. They also claim that your wages will be garnished in amounts far above all legal limits.
One of the tricks they use is to call your family, friends, neighbors and/or places of employment (past or present or both) to create panic and embarrassment so that their intended victim calls them and they can scare that person into paying their extortion money. They often call people that have never even been associated with you because they get erroneous information off of the internet.
They will use the words “Mediator”, “Arbitrator”, “Law Office” or claim that they are a “Lawyer or Paralegal” to make you believe that they are something other than a debt collector want-a-be and that they don’t have to follow Federal and State collection laws, even though they do have to follow those laws. They also tell you that if you fail to call them back you are "waiving your right to council" or that “the case will proceed without you” which is pretty much nothing but hogwash. They tell you that they need a “statement” from you regarding the complaint and if you don’t call back they “wish you good luck as things unfold”. They use the phrase “consider yourself notified/served” or “govern yourself accordingly” a lot, something they should do themselves.
They claim they are officers of the court, or that an officer will accompany them, or even that they are sending officers to arrest you. All hogwash. They tell you to lock up your dogs and guns for “everyone’s” protection. More hogwash.
They mention that they have received a Fax document, to create the sense of urgency and tell you that they are a “process server”. This is simply ruse to get you to call another number (with a made up case number) where they will ask for money to “make it go away” (this is actually the same place, they work in teams, one pretending to be the server, and the other usually pretends to be a lawyer). They threaten to serve you at home or at work. They tell you that if they serve you at work they need a supervisor, security, or HR person there as a witness, hoping that will cause you to panic over the alleged embarrassment of being served at work. They also tell you that you will need two forms of ID. None of which is true. Process servers do not ever call ahead so that you can dodge them. Process servers get paid to serve papers, nothing else. They certainly are not going to pass up a paycheck by telling you that you can avoid being served, they are not going to give you an extra day or even a few hours to get a “stop order”. Court documents are time sensitive and have to be served within a certain amount of time. Remember that you can always call the local courthouse to see if there is actually a lawsuit that has been filed against you.
If your feel you SSN has been compromised, in addition to putting a fraud alert at the 3 credit bureaus, you may want to notify the IRS. Here is the link, fill out the proper form (probably 14039). Also file a report at the FTC Identity Theft web site as well as learn what else you need to do:
http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/How-Do-You-Rep ... aud-Activity%3F
https://www.ftc.gov/faq/consumer-protection/report-identity-theft
It is incumbent upon them under the law to prove that the debt exists and that you owe it, and that they have the legal right to collect it. You are not obligated under the law to prove that you don’t owe or that it is paid.
Federal law (FDCPA) requires them to send you a letter (US MAIL ONLY) postmarked within 5 days of their first contact that contains their name, physical address, the creditor’s name, and the amount of the alleged debt. It also must contains “mini-Miranda” telling you that it is an attempt to collect a debt and that all information will be used for those purposes. The one other important thing that this letter must also have in it is that you have a right to dispute the debt within 30 days of receipt of the letter and if you do so, all collection activity must be stopped until the debt is verified.
Read up on your rights here and also make a complaint at this government site: http://www.consumerfinance.gov/
Also file a complaint with your State Attorney General's office.
List of State AG’s offices: http://800notes.com/faq/attorney-general
I got a call from the same number and if you do a Google search, MPR Services is a home renovation company in Austin, TX. The company does not have the same number as the one that called, but that just reassured that this is a scam and scare.
Like so many of us in this day and an age my home number is never given nor do I even remember it, so when I went to check my voice mail of over 30 messages the number 804 557 0538 kept coming up. I called it and ghetto answered, I asked who she was calling for and what company she proceeded to act just like she was, and when I told her that I was going to report her and her number she proceeded to say girl bye. I, in turn, called her stupid [***] back and proceeded to tell her what I thought about her. Some people really need jobs bad. https://www.ftc.gov/faq/consumer-protection/report-identity-theft
https://www.irs.gov/individuals/how-do-you-re ... -fraud-activity
http://800notes.com/faq/attorney-general