Call from United Courier Services wanting to deliver a legal documents tomorrow between 12 and 2 pm. I will need to be available to sign for them. Call and reschedule if I will not be at home. I have received the same message before, but from a different number. No one ever showed up to deliver the documents.
Criminals are masquerading as debt collectors in an attempt to extort money from people by scaring them into believing that:
a. You are going to be sued and it will cost you lots of money when they allegedly “win” their case.
b. That they are about to file criminal charges or that you will be criminally charged (they use the bad check or hot check claim a lot) and go to jail, even though debt is civil not criminal, there are no criminal charges, and debtor’s prison was outlawed over 200 years ago.
c. That they will take away your driver’s license.
d. That will garnish your wages without actually being suing you, going to court, or even winning a case and obtaining a judgement followed by a judge’s consent to the garnishment. They also claim that your wages will be garnished in amounts far above all legal limits.
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 often call people that have never even been associated with you because they get erroneous information off of the internet.
They will use the words “Mediator”, “Arbitrator”, “Law Office” or claim that they are a “Lawyer or Paralegal” 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, even though they do have to follow those laws. They also tell you that if you fail to call them back you are "waiving your right to council" or that “the case will proceed without you” which is pretty much nothing but hogwash. They tell you that they need a “statement” from you regarding the complaint and if you don’t call back they “wish you good luck as things unfold”. They use the phrase “consider yourself notified/served” or “govern yourself accordingly” a lot, something they should do themselves.
They claim they are officers of the court, or that an officer will accompany them, or even that they are sending officers to arrest you. All hogwash. They tell you to lock up your dogs and guns for “everyone’s” protection. More hogwash.
They mention that they have received a Fax document, to create the sense of urgency and tell you that they are a “process server”. This is simply ruse to get you to call another number (with a made up case 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). They threaten to serve you at home or at work. They tell you that if they serve you at work they need a supervisor, security, or HR person there as a witness, hoping that will cause you to panic over the alleged embarrassment of being served at work. They also tell you that you will need two forms of ID. None of which is true. Process servers do not ever call ahead so that you can dodge them. Process servers get paid to serve papers, nothing else. They certainly are not going to pass up a paycheck by telling you that you can avoid being served, they are not going to give you an extra day or even a few hours to get a “stop order”. Court documents are time sensitive and have to be served within a certain amount of time. Remember that you can always call the local courthouse to see if there is actually a lawsuit that has been filed against you.
It is incumbent upon them under the law to prove that the debt exists and that you owe it, and that they have the legal right to collect it. You are not obligated under the law to prove that you don’t owe or that it is paid.
Federal law (FDCPA) requires them to send you a letter (US MAIL ONLY) postmarked 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 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