The "collection" department from a small, legitimate Alabama based firm has left 4 calls for me in over the past three business days. The company and caller's names are conveniently mumbled, but the "call the collection department about your order" is perfectly clear. They leave a different, toll free number for you to call them back on. This number almost matches the small firm I mentioned earlier... except - conveniently for the scammer - there is a one digit difference, so if you do a search for the legit company, you may think you were calling them. You can guess that no, I had not ordered anything from this company.
I spoke to the Alabama company's manager who told me the do NOT have a collection department. I explained what was going on, and she apologized for any problems this may have caused me. Gotta love that Southern charm!!
With this information in hand, I called the scammers toll free number left in the voicemail. The automated answering voice gave me a few options, and I pressed "2" for collections as the scam's message instructed me to. Here I spoke with Megan and explained my concern over a bill not being paid. I asked where the company was so I could perhaps visit them today and pay off this delinquent invoice. She stammered a bit and mentioned New Jersey. "Perfect," I said, " I LIVE in NJ. What town?" "Ummmmm.... ahhhhh... Oakland." This town is a 45 drive from me so after offering to stop by and pay the bill, she passed me to a manager.
This is where is gets fun.
"Betty" answered from a DIFFERENT company. As a former professional wrestler says..." Can you smell what the Rock is cooking?". Yup. BS. I called her out and told her I was recording the call. She immediately told me I did not have her permission to..... and hung up on me. How rude!!! I just wanted to warn her that the FCC would be notified and that she'd sleep better with an ethical job.
There is something else that makes this pile of poo stink. If you deal with a legit collection agency, they will inform you at the beginning of the call that it is indeed being recorded. You'll here a "beep" every minute or so to reenforce this.
The "collection" department from a small, legitimate Alabama based firm has left 4 calls for me in over the past three business days. The company and caller's names are conveniently mumbled, but the "call the collection department about your order" is perfectly clear. They leave a different, toll free number for you to call them back on. This number almost matches the small firm I mentioned earlier... except - conveniently for the scammer - there is a one digit difference, so if you do a search for the legit company, you may think you were calling them. You can guess that no, I had not ordered anything from this company.
I spoke to the Alabama company's manager who told me the do NOT have a collection department. I explained what was going on, and she apologized for any problems this may have caused me. Gotta love that Southern charm!!
With this information in hand, I called the scammers toll free number left in the voicemail. The automated answering voice gave me a few options, and I pressed "2" for collections as the scam's message instructed me to. Here I spoke with Megan and explained my concern over a bill not being paid. I asked where the company was so I could perhaps visit them today and pay off this delinquent invoice. She stammered a bit and mentioned New Jersey. "Perfect," I said, " I LIVE in NJ. What town?" "Ummmmm.... ahhhhh... Oakland." This town is a 45 drive from me so after offering to stop by and pay the bill, she passed me to a manager.
This is where is gets fun.
"Betty" answered from a DIFFERENT company. As a former professional wrestler says..." Can you smell what the Rock is cooking?". Yup. BS. I called her out and told her I was recording the call. She immediately told me I did not have her permission to..... and hung up on me. How rude!!! I just wanted to warn her that the FCC would be notified and that she'd sleep better with an ethical job.
There is something else that makes this pile of poo stink. If you deal with a legit collection agency, they will inform you at the beginning of the call that it is indeed being recorded. You'll here a "beep" every minute or so to reenforce this.