Carrie,
Portfolio is well known for calling people like this and they do not care if you owe or not. This is why this company's is constantly being sued for violations of the FDCPA and TCPA laws. You can invest in a call blocking device, they run around 60,00 and you can block them, but your better off keeping a notebook of the calls along with any and all messages, also recording them if you speak with them. Check your states recording laws first, some states require you notify them they are being recorded.
State recording phone:
http://www.pimall.com/nais/n.tel.tape.law.html
Follow the steps in what you need to know and send them a cease & desist letter via the US mail, return receipt or certified.
http://800notes.com/arts/Jb8EW-eDhQA/harassin ... ou-need-to-know
See Residents post here also:
http://800notes.com/forum/ta-34af6a034ba34b6/unending-collection-calls
Templates of Letters:
http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-319-242-7350
To File complaints FDCPA/TCPA violations:
Your State Attorney General
Their State Attorney general
www.naag.org (you can find your state AG at this link).
https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/#&panel1-1
http://www.consumerfinance.gov/complaint/
The BBB
If the calls continue, file those complaints and seek a FDCPA/TCPA attorney..
These people are idiots. They have called me thousands of times. I have never answered, even after many years of calls from them.
What is the mindset here? "We have called him over 9000 times, so let's keep on calling. He'll break one of these decades."
These people are losers, Debt collection is usually staffed by ex cons, drug users, and others who can't get a real job.
You have to have no empathy whatsoever to be a debt collector. When they go to their break rooms, they all tell tales to each other about how miserable they have made people feel. And they laugh at their victims.
Whatever you do, DO NOT give them one dime, or even speak to them. Sure they will make you feel miserable, but it's a far worse feeling you have in your gut when you take needed money from your budget to shut them up. And then when you think they are gone, they come back. You've already proven to them you are a sucker, so they figure they can use you as their personal cash machine.
Let's call this what it is: extortion. And it could all, end overnight, by having a statute of limitations on debt-- a REAL statute of limitations. When it's taken off of your credit report, and they can't prosecute, it should disappear.
Who is being served by this, after all? The original creditors sold the debt long ago. They couldn't care less.
412-235-6111 phoned me 5:08PM, Eastern time, Mon., April 11th. I never answer if I don't recognize the number, and they never left a message. I did not return the call.
I finally made the default ring tone on my phone silent (just make then assign an MP3 with no sound).
Now only inbound calls that are in my contacts or address book, and therefore have a custom ring, can make my phone ring.
I also removed voice mail from my plan. So inbound calls not in my address book just ring and ring.
This works really well for me. I never tell anyone the above. I just say "Darn AT&T, I didn't get your call. What's your number so I can put it in my contacts?"