This is a common ploy by criminals masquerading as debt collectors who are attempting to extort money from people by scaring you into believing that you will be criminally charged, go to jail, lose your driver’s license, have wages garnished, be sued, and a variety of other variations on this, all for an alleged or nonexistent debt. One of the tricks they use is to call your work place, friends, or relatives repeatedly in an attempt to shame you into paying. They also use the “process server” ruse who calls and claims he is going to serve you, but then says you could avoid it by calling another number
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, get template letters to send 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://consumerfraudreporting.org/stateattorneygenerallist.php
Guy calls asking for my boss. From a UNKNOWN NAME (PRIVATE NUMBER). Claims that they could not serve my boss at his address (the business) last week. When he is here everyday, as am I between 8-5. Not one person showed up to serve him. The guy on the phone then stated that the Law Firm was coming for him. LPS law firm, but again, he failed to give me his name or company he was with. Then proceeded to give a bogus case number and that he had to call 213-29-6526.
Sadly some customers call from blocked/private numbers so I can't just ignore these calls.
I got a call from this number saying that they tried to serve me too but they gave me my last known address and my social security number. When they call over the phone and want you to fax back to them how do you know who you are paying?