Don't talk to these crooks. Again, DON'T talk to these crooks. It is Portfolio Recovery. They keep calling me about a debt that belongs to my brother who use my 2nd home address and phone number to get credit. Now they call me saying he lives her. I explain they are calling Illinois, not Florida. They state I must be him and to make restitution or they will take me to court. I say that harassment and she states its harassment not to admit I am him. I filed several complaints with both the FL and IL attorney general office. But these crooks are well connected and give a lot of money to politicians. The work hard to make it impossible for laws to be passed and/or enforced to prohibit they from contacting anyone to collect a debt. My best advise is to answer any calls from these crooks, demand proof of the debt if you do talk to them, never admit to any debt even if you know it is valid. The law states they must prove the debt and take you to court. They won't for fear you will file for bankruptcy. If you are the few they try to take to court, do go and get a lawyer. If you can't afford a lawyer, go to court and the judge can help you file for bankruptcy. The worst thing you can do is ignore a court date, but they won't take you to court for fear of bankruptcy and they get nothing. Make sure to vote for elected officials that work for the people and not special interest groups.
The Wall Street Journal posted a story about Portfolio Recovery Associates, using the signature of a woman named Martha Kunkle, who died in 1995. Although she died in 1995, Kunkle's signature has apparently shown up on thousands of affidavits submitted since her death by Portfolio.
If they were honest, they would say "This is an attempt to collect easy money; and any personal data we can pick up along the way."
When a caller states "This is an attempt to collect a debt;" it is part of their pitch to give the impression that they have legitimate business with you. They want you to talk and provide info. If you end up making a payment over the phone, that's a completely sucessful call for them.
Somehow, they are accessing old credit reports to learn the name of a past creditor. This will give the FCA scammer a familiar name to run by the victim to gain confidence. The best way to proceed is to say "I can't help you," repeatedly until the FCA scammer gives up.
If you have a little time to engage in some maliciously destructive dialogue with the FCA scammer, which I do, here are a few tips.
First of all, keep the FCA scammer on the line as long as possible, they are calling long distance. Ask where they are; and how the weather is there, etc.
Offer to pay the entire amount right then; and ask where you should send the payment. Guess what? The FCA scammer will not go for it. Because the debt is not current. Their goal is to get you to make a payment over the phone right then. The money goes to the fake collection agency. The operator gets a commission.
The FCA scam caller will ask you a lot of questions. For example, when I mentioned I would pay with a cashier's check, FCA scammer asked the name of my bank. Never give real information. Give answers that seem credible, so that they will waste time trying to chase it down.
While you are talking, get the full name of your operator and the name of the company. Report them to the Federal Trade Commission. Be sure to mention you operator by name several times in your complaint.
There are more advanced techniques, if you have time to interfere with this destructive scam. When I offered to pay my "creditor" by mail, I was transfered up to 2 "supervisors" who kept repeating that they must have immediate payment by credit card or check by phone. The last one gave out his email address at Portfolio Recovery. Now who is data mining?
One last trick. I can not say that I ever did this to a fake collection agency scammer. It is an old trick. Get their fax number. Fax them a big stack of black paper after midnight; and run them out of toner.
Remember, these are scammers. Show them no quarter.
A Mr. King keeps calling me from this number, along with many other numbers from this place. He is trying to collect on a closed account. He will not stop calling me and insists that I am going to be prosectuted to the fullest extent of the law. I called the card service and they said the account has been closed. This guy has used many verbal scare tactics with me. I am contacting who i can legally to get these phone calls to stop. He has made rude comments and even hung up on me yet keeps harrassing me by calling me back swearing he is prosecuting me. Wants me to give him info over the phone YET he won't even send me a letter with his company letterhead on it...SCAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!