The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the nation's consumer protection agency, is warning consumers to be on the alert for scam artists posing as debt collectors. It may be hard to tell the difference between a legitimate debt collector and a fake one. Sometimes a fake collector may even have some of your personal information, like a bank account number. A caller may be a fake debt collector if he:
•is seeking payment on a debt for a loan you do not recognize;
•refuses to give you a mailing address or phone number;
•asks you for personal financial or sensitive information; or
•exerts high pressure to try to scare you into paying, such as threatening to have you arrested or to report you to a law enforcement agency.
If you think that a caller may be a fake debt collector:
•Ask the caller for his name, company, street address, and telephone number. Tell the caller that you refuse to discuss any debt until you get a written "validation notice." The notice must include the amount of the debt, the name of the creditor you owe, and your rights under the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
If a caller refuses to give you all of this information, do not pay! Paying a fake debt collector will not always make them go away. They may make up another debt to try to get more money from you.
.•Stop speaking with the caller. If you have the caller's address, send a letter demanding that the caller stop contacting you, and keep a copy for your files. By law, real debt collectors must stop calling you if you ask them to in writing.
•Do not give the caller personal financial or other sensitive information. Never give out or confirm personal financial or other sensitive information like your bank account, credit card, or Social Security number unless you know whom you're dealing with. Scam artists, like fake debt collectors, can use your information to commit identity theft – charging your existing credit cards, opening new credit card, checking, or savings accounts, writing fraudulent checks, or taking out loans in your name.
•Contact your creditor. If the debt is legitimate – but you think the collector may not be – contact your creditor about the calls. Share the information you have about the suspicious calls and find out who, if anyone, the creditor has authorized to collect the debt.
•Report the call. Contact the FTC and your state Attorney General's office with information about suspicious callers. Many states have their own debt collection laws in addition to the federal FDCPA. Your Attorney General's office can help you determine your rights under your state's law.
This people keep calling fraud division. Threaten jail time have a lot of your info some is totally wrong Scams!!! However it is scary to get a call like this even if you didn't do anything. That is why they do it!!! Careful about giving info out. The world is stressful enough with bills that we do owe. People do 't need added stress. How do these losers sleep at night
Same people keep calling me about the same thing , about fraud and threatening people . As if people are not stressed out enough with keeping up with bills. I don't even believe this is a real Litigation Company this is a Bill Collector and there approach is all wrong. They are calling me about something that happened over 6 yrs ago.
They called me today at 8:00 am told me i was being charged with fraud then hung up. name: Jessica Bradley fraud division.
first for knowledge, if you are charged with fraud you will receive a letter not a phone call or a visit from the police as fraud is a crime. Do not give out any information to them, tell them to send you the paper work for it. then report them ti IC3 the FBI crime reporting log.
I received several calls from Carl Anderson who left a message that he was from the "FRAUD" department and i needed to call him or have my attorney contact him immediately at 210-625-3664, but there were different numbers each time 210-762-6587; 210-651-0400. when I called each of these numbers a different woman answered or the same woman with different names and when I asked what company I was calling they would only say Litigation Services and said she wasn't giving me any information and said these calls are disgusting in manner and then hung up on me. I never said anything other then I wanted the name and address of the company. I did call and told them I had a police officer here with me and would they speak to the officer and they immediately hung up all 6 times and then finally some sheekeeqwa not sure if that's correct spelling said what is it that you need b***h and she gave me the address of Litigation Services, 294 S. Main Avenue, Suite 303, San Antonio, Texas 78204. So,at one point Carl spoke to my Fiance and gave him a so called Docket Number of the "Charges, he was filing as of Tuesday, April 22, 2014" but I have been a paralegal for years and a docket number is never given before paperwork is filed as well as my county courthouse has no such number on file. I played phone tag for several days with "Carl" who had a Texas accent...lol.. I also was contacted by a Tom Richardson who sounded similar to "Carl" and he left me a number of 210-787-2873 but when I called the number back it said the number was not set up to take calls. Finally when I returned Carl's call and spoke to him he explained to me that US National Bank, National EZ Corp has filed charges in my County against me for "Violation of federal bank regulations, check fraud and theft by deception" he explained to me that this company had put money in my checking account and when I asked when the deposit was made, he said between September 2011 and February 2012 and that it defaulted on Feb 24th 2012 and that I never paid it back and when they tried to go back to retrieve the funds from my bank account it was stated the account was closed, the account wasn't closed until June 2012. He told me that the total was $1,290.00, i told him i had no idea what he was talking about. He said that it was like a payday loan and the amount that was deposited was $350, I told him again he was wrong and had the wrong person and he gave me the last 4 digits of the account I had and the bank name but the account was a closed account. I called the credit union and there were NO DEPOSITS on or around those dates. I called Carl back and explained that this was false info and stated that I wanted proof of the deposit as well as the direct number to the company he is "collecting" from, He told me he cant give me the number but that I would have to look it up on my own, I then asked him if he was a Lawyer and he stated "No, he was the person who dots the i's and crosses the t's for the legal paperwork. I then began to tell him I was a paralegal and that he is practicing as an unlicensed attorney and I wanted proof of this deposit and he hung up on me. I then called back and asked him for his Supervisor and he stated I don't have time for your [***] Lana you will get a summons in the mail and that he was filing paperwork on Tuesday, April 22, 2014 and I would receive the summons shortly after. I also asked why i had never been contacted personally such as a registered letter or phone calls as my number has been the same since 2007, he said they are claiming they did and i never responded....what a LIE i never ever received anything or any phone calls....... something is not right. I looked up the number he called from and it said san Antonio, TX and gave me the county so I called the County Sheriff and they said it wasn't their county but Bear County so I called their police dept. not much luck there but I will not stop until I am turning the key on this piece of s***s prison cell.
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