August 14, I received a call from 562-264-2621 from a male who called himself Paul Gerber. He said something about a formal complaint had been filed against me. I have no idea what this is about. His message said to speak to a Ms. Chavez. There was even a case number. When I called the number back today, I got a female voice saying she was Tori Chavez. I left a message. Has anyone else experienced this and who is Paul Gerber with???
If you really had a "formal complaint" filed against you, you wouldn't get a phone call about it - you'd receive documents from a court process server or sheriff's deputy.
Report the call to the FTC, the FBI and your state's Attorney General. Only scammers and very shady debt collectors call and say you've got a formal complaint against you (or even say you're going to be arrested). Once the callers have scared you, they intimidate you into paying some bogus or paid off debt. It is a violation of the FDCPA to threaten a lawsuit against an alleged debtor.
Even if you do owe money to someone, you have rights under the FDCPA, including documentation mailed to you (not emailed or faxed) proving that you do owe a debt and that the company calling you has the legal right to collect said debt in your state. And another red flag that it's a scammer or someone who can't actually prove you owe a debt is they will refuse to give you their name, company name and mailing address.
Someone claiming to be from a legal delivery service called my work and said they are going to serve me documents between 1 and 4 today but if I call I can pick them up . They told me call Tori Chavez with a case number.
I will let you know what happens at the end of the day. By the way I do not owe any debt to anyone.