Called said they were a Law firm for a local hospital but had the old name of the hospital. And had my name and social security number. Said I had been served a certified letter to appear in court which I never got and wanted to set up payment arrangements.
received a phone call from this number today stating he is a law firm out of Ca. had my social security number and said i owed over 2954.12 in unpaid medical bills of a hospital that went bankrupt in 2008. Could not give me any proof of owing these bills. put me on hold and said if I would pay it now they would except 1400.00 otherwise a judgement would be put against me and they would take any money in my bank account. I was truly scared because he had my ss# he used the name Mark of loss mediation
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. Please note that process servers do not ever call ahead. That way you can’t dodge them.
If you 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):
http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/How-Do-You-Rep ... aud-Activity%3F
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