Received a voicemail today. Never identified who they were or who they were trying to reach. Just said that a debt was owed and if I didn't contact them they will put on record that I refused to pay.
WHAT ghetto [***] people, I called them back saying I was returning the call. They said my name was removed and that I would continue to receive calls for 5 business days... I asked if the "manager" had his JD... which he should have if he is a legit lawyer... hung up. WTF.
I got a call from these people stating that they are a collector for a loan and that I owed $14,000 but will settle for $600.00. If I don't pay they will send info to the state where I live so that I will be prosecutor. The guy's name is John Davis from barns and graham assc.
Debtor's prison went out over 200 years ago when it was outlawed, so the chances of you getting "prosecuted" over a debt are less than zero. The big red flag should immediately be the question "What person or company would accept an $600 payment to pay off a $14,000 debt?". Read the following:
Criminals masquerading as debt collectors attempt to extort money from people by scaring you into believing that you will be criminally charged (they use the bad check or hot check claim a lot) and go to jail, lose your driver’s license, have wages garnished without actually being sued or going to court, 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 family, friends, neighbors and/or places of employment (past or present or both) to create panic and embarrassment so that their intended victim calls them and they can scare that person into paying their extortion money. They will use the words “Mediator”, “Arbitrator”, or “Law Office” to make you believe that they are something other than a debt collector want-a-be and that they don’t have to follow Federal and State collection laws. They do have to follow those laws, but they won’t. They mention that they have received a Fax document, to create the sense of urgency. They also tell you that if you fail to call them back you are "waiving your right to council", which is pretty much nothing but hogwash. 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 where they will ask for money to “make it go away” (this is actually the same place, they work in teams, one pretending to be the server, and the other usually pretends to be a lawyer). Process servers do not ever call ahead so that you can dodge them. Process servers get paid to serve papers, nothing else.
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
Thank You for the info. The guy called back yesterday and said that I fail to call him back and that I have until 4:00 pm today to call or he will go ahead and send info to the NC and start the prosecution proceedings. I made a mistake on the amount he says I owe, it's $1400.
Tell him to go right ahead, because once he files those papers, his name and address will come up, and then you will be suing him and reporting him for FDCPA violations, and he will be the one paying you and going to jail.