Stop paying them. Just stop. What state do you live in? There is a statute of limitations in which they can no longer collect. Do not admit to the debt. Say I know nothing. Demand they provide you, via USPS MAIL, that they need to supply you with all information regarding this debt, as it has probably been charged off already, and these are our lovely scammers, out to make a buck. They buy, for pennies on the dollar, debts that are collectible, and then try scare tactics.They are allowed, by UnTied States law, to make one call, and one call ONLY. Also note: If YOU MAKE ANY SORT OF PAYMENT - COULD BE AS LITTLE AS ONE PENNY, and the Statute of Limitations starts all over again. Bottom line, your credit report is ruined for 7 years, and then all old debts must be removed from your credit report. So, pay people who were not ethical enough to send you bills and you will be out the dollars and still have RUINED CREDIT for SEVEN years, or you can NOT pay, Deny the debt (90% of the time it is bogus, the numbers are basically fictitious and padded) and they couldn't tell you who the original loan company was (most of this is just mangled information with no basis of fact, they simply bought your name) and you will still have 7 years of bad credit, but you will also have money. In the case of me, I had a charge-off, bought just before the statute ran out, and both Citi - of course, and the collection company were showing on my credit report. The original citibank was removed as they had done a charge-off, meaning they covered their [***] thru tax deductions, which means the Indian scammers think they can go at your free will, and keep it on your record for 7 years. Guess what. They cannot do a double dip debt, and therefore the scammers derogatory has to be dropped next year, within the 7 year time frame as was required by citibank. And if you feel guilty, well, do what I did. Do the math, and if all of your back debt turns out to be their interest charges, and you can see that every vendor received their money on ONLY Interest Charges - like BOA - I was one day late and went from 5.9% interest to 34% interest, meaning I could NEVER catch up. I was getting hit with fees every month for 4-5 hundred dollars above my minimum payment. And, finally, THE BANKS GOT BAILED OUT. Here is the legal solution to bail yourself out. When I did my math, everthing I had ever purchased had been paid in full, and the outrageous charges still coming was simply interest, late fees, non payment fees, you didn't wipe your [***] the correct way fees, etc. etc. The government won't bail us out, so we can do it ourself, with no guilt. I had to do all of this because of an ex - and now, 7 years later, my credit report went up 200 points so I am back to good standing -something I have always been until the psycho/sociopath happened.
It is fun getting their calls, when you put it in perspective. None of them have an American accent, so as I found out, sadly, is that most of this stuff is still being handled in India. The CREDIT REPORTS ARE HANDLED IN INDIA. Found this out when fixing mistakes on my report. The particular company was transunion.............There information was soooooo outdated, so wrong it was just ridiculous. They are the ones who have given me the worst numbers, and yet they are in India, they still list my employer from 2003 as my current employer, the have attached my ex-husband's ex-wife to my name because she stole my identity. Sadly, I am having problems removing her because well, she is sitting in jail for armed robbery of a bank. So, sorry this post is so long, but the collections people coming after most of the population are, in fact, doing fraudulent activity in the hopes of scaring people into paying them money that is not owed to them or anyone else. If they are stupid enough to buy these debts, they deserve to eat them, as they prey on the poor people here.
iNDIAN scammers who have bought old, noncollectable debt for pennies on the dollar, cannot not provide you, via USPS as required by law, the specifics of the debt, which mostly they cannot produce. Check your credit report, as they then "double dip" the debt, meaning that whoever the debt holder was, they did a charge-off which helps them to continue to pay taxes, making their pennies on the dollar purchase totally worthless. keywords to google; your state, statute of limitations on debt. They cannot curse, abuse or threaten, and they can only call ONE TIME. In my particular case, today I recieved a call from Capital One Collections. Never heard of them - never, ever. And since I have not had credit cards or loans or anything remotely similar since Feb 2011, when I paid them off and cut them up, and the statute of limitations in my state of abode at the time is 4 years......can you say S*it out of luck.
Spoke to them earlier today. Lady addressed me by my name and then proceeded to demand a debit card to pay my credit card. When I refused and told her that the number she was calling from has been red flagged from multiple websites she played dumb. Then she had the gall to ask me for my checking account information. I refused that and then told her I will be reporting the number. She started to cut me off and get agitated at my lack of compliance. So I told her I would pay my credit card online as I usually do. She then sighed and finally asked for my mailing address. I refused again and she hung up. Immediately after I called Credit One bank and asked if it was their number and if they had a branch in Seattle. She exclaimed that they do have a branch in Seattle but she is unfamiliar with that number. When I explained how the conversation went the representative from Credit One said that is not how they verify security and she will be passing this along to their security team. Don't know if anything will come of it but at least Credit One acknowledged that something was amiss.