The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the nation's consumer protection agency, is warning consumers to be on the alert for scam artists posing as debt collectors. It may be hard to tell the difference between a legitimate debt collector and a fake one. Sometimes a fake collector may even have some of your personal information, like a bank account number. A caller may be a fake debt collector if he:
•is seeking payment on a debt for a loan you do not recognize;
•refuses to give you a mailing address or phone number;
•asks you for personal financial or sensitive information; or
•exerts high pressure to try to scare you into paying, such as threatening to have you arrested or to report you to a law enforcement agency.
If you think that a caller may be a fake debt collector:
•Ask the caller for his name, company, street address, and telephone number. Tell the caller that you refuse to discuss any debt until you get a written "validation notice." The notice must include the amount of the debt, the name of the creditor you owe, and your rights under the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
If a caller refuses to give you all of this information, do not pay! Paying a fake debt collector will not always make them go away. They may make up another debt to try to get more money from you.•Stop speaking with the caller. If you have the caller's address, send a letter demanding that the caller stop contacting you, and keep a copy for your files. By law, real debt collectors must stop calling you if you ask them to in writing.
•Do not give the caller personal financial or other sensitive information. Never give out or confirm personal financial or other sensitive information like your bank account, credit card, or Social Security number unless you know whom you're dealing with. Scam artists, like fake debt collectors, can use your information to commit identity theft – charging your existing credit cards, opening new credit card, checking, or savings accounts, writing fraudulent checks, or taking out loans in your name.
•Contact your creditor. If the debt is legitimate – but you think the collector may not be – contact your creditor about the calls. Share the information you have about the suspicious calls and find out who, if anyone, the creditor has authorized to collect the debt.
•Report the call. Contact the FTC and your state Attorney General's office with information about suspicious callers. Many states have their own debt collection laws in addition to the federal FDCPA. Your Attorney General's office can help you determine your rights under your state's law.
I got a message to call this number. States is about a Bank of America check that was returned before charges are filed. Scam? I do not bank with Bank of America and have not in three years.
I received a call from this same phone number, the name of the caller was Jerry Owen and he left me a message claiming that he was from CDC and Associates and that he had received a claim for a check that was possibly fraudulent and further stating that I might be a victim of identity theft. He also said that if I didn't call back that he would assume that I condoned that check and would continue further legal action. Neither myself or my wife have written a check in maybe a couple of years, and if I had a returned check in what was possibly a fraudulent amount, shouldn't my BANK be calling me first instead of some law firm?
This is a fraudulent company. They go by Clark, Daniels and Cunningham, LLC, also CDC and Associates and also Patrick Connor and Associates. Look at the other phone numbers they've used for additional comments. 888-644-5564 and 855-228-1255. Supposedly they look up and obtain really old delinquent accounts of yours, like sometimes over 20 years old and attempt to collect on them. They use fraudulent and illegal means of harassing you and threaten to send you to jail or have you arrested. That is against the law. Ask them for something in writing about the debt you owe and don't give any information, credit card numbers, addresses, phone numbers or any other personal information about yourself to them. They can kind of reinstate the old debt if you make a payment and they can come after you for a judgement if you make a payment. I believe these debts they obtain are really old, if even real and the statute of limitations has probably expired for them to collect. If I was you, I would check out the legal stuff for consumers prior to contacting them. There is a lot they are not allowed to do, that from the comments, appears is happening. I'm not contacting them at all until they find me, if they do, and then I have the consumer information to back up my conversation. There is a website for them with grammatical errors on it and only one page with no other means of contacting them but one phone number. Address I obtained is 5677 South Transit Road, #295, Lockport, NY 14094. Good luck with this one. I also commented on other phone numbers for them I was able to link to them. Contact at your own risk.
these people harass me, threaten me, will not tell me what I owe money for. They only want a bank account number or credit card number and will not allow me to send a money order.. If they were a legit company, they would take any form of payment. They also tell me they ate going to send the sheriff out to my work.