It would be helpful if you told us the company name.
It is incumbent upon them to prove that the debt exists and that you owe it. Not the other way around.
This is a common ploy by criminals masquerading as debt collectors who are 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, friends, or relatives repeatedly in an attempt to shame you into paying. 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
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
Got a call from this number today asking if I was so and so (which ended up to be a family member) I told them no and that was a family member. The woman asked if she could have a phone number for them and I asked her what it was pertaining to. She replied, "an important business matter". I told her they were out of town and not available at the time and she still persistently asked me for their number. I told her I didn't feel comfortable just giving out the number and I would let them know so if they wanted to call back. She gave me another number to call back at which now I do not have but it started with 888. Family member is not calling back but wanted to check the number that called me out. Found all kinds of crazy stuff from this number. I *67 the number and called back and a message came up saying this was Kenum and they were not available but to leave a message and 2 numbers. Not sure of the company, I couldn't find it and I'm not even sure if it's the correct spelling because it was hard to understand what it actually was on their message.
Missed call, returned it and upon answering their opening pitch was nearly inaudible. They wouldn't repeat themselves when asked, instead asked for Michael S. I have no clue who that is. HE proceeded to ask where to reach him, I said idk who Michael is, are you a debt collector? He asked my name, I said this is a new phone number for me, should I be concerned? He said we will just mark it as a bad number. I asked what was the last name? He hung up. SUPER sketchy and fradulant sounding. Beware.