Called my work number.....asked them not to call my work again. Immediately they called my cell. They wanted to advise me that they would serve a summons on me at my place of employment. I volunteered to meet them at the court house. They advised they would speak with my manager about the fraud I have committed. I offered to transfer them to him and they refused. I was not satisfied with the first two conversations, so I called their number. Surprisingly, it was an actual number. I asked for their mailing address, which they refused to provide. At one point, one of the employees to me that they were not a collection company; they were an arbitration company. They were willing to give me a fax number or email address, but never a mailing address. I called 6 or seven times with the same result.
This is a common ploy by criminals 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 repeatedly in an attempt to shame you into paying. They also use the “process server” 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) 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