Received an extremely bad message today stating that I had written a bad check and that they wanted to keep this out of the courts. Said that they were going to file some sort of law suit against me in Pima County AZ. I live in Montana The individual that called me left a name of Ryan Jersey. Using phone number 214-919-4134. Phone is a land line out of Plano TX.
This may be the you-owe-debt scam. Obviously if you have no debt, you know this is a scam but if you do owe debt, this is how you can tell a legit collection call from a scam. The first thing that should happen is a legit collector/lawyer contacts you by phone or mail and this *INITIAL CONTACT* is considered a special event by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/credit/cre27.pdf . Section 809 of the FDCPA *REQUIRES* the collector to tell you at initial contact (first phone call, first letter, etc.), or send you paperwork within 5 days of initial contact, 5 items. If you don't get them orally or in writing at initial contact (you do not have to ask for them, collectors are legally obligated to provide them), treat the collector like you would a SCAMMER. The 5 items are:
1. $amount of debt,
2. name of the current creditor (which may differ from the original creditor who might have sold your debt),
3. a statement that that debt will be assumed to be valid unless you dispute in writing within 30 days, (get a mailing address from your collector)
4. a statement that that if you do dispute in writing within 30 days, the collector must mail you written verification of the debt,
5. a statement that if you ask the collector in writing within 30 days, the collector must send you the name and address of the original creditor if it's different from the current creditor.
The collector can threaten court action at initial contact but the FDCPA requires that the collector actually take you to court if the collector threatens it. Threatening court and not going through with it is illegal.
Note that 3,4,5 must be done *IN WRITING* so you will need to ask an address from your collector. If s/he refuses to give you one for any reason, treat the collector like a SCAMMER.
The debt collection process explained in plain English http://www.consumeraffairs.com/debt/fdcpa.html
Be aware that scammers are using bought/hacked/phished loan application data to extort payments for fictitious debts from victims and victims' families and friends.
The FBI warns about payday loan extortion scams here http://www.fbi.gov/news/pressrel/press-releases/paydayloanscam_120710
The BBB has issued several alerts on this scam, just google "bbb.org alert phony debt collector"
Report to the Internet Crime Complaint Center http://www.ic3.gov/complaint/default.aspx , the Federal Communications Commission http://esupport.fcc.gov/complaints.htm , the Federal Trade Commission https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/ and your state AG http://www.naag.org/current-attorneys-general.php as appropriate.