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.
RESPONSIBLE AMERICANS
I owed it and I paid it! (If you do not owe it then do not pay it!) Some of these comments stink because they are obviously made by irresponsible people who are just making excuses; people who will say anything to weasel out of standing up to their legitimate financial obligations. Some of these whiners act as if they have an axe to grind and as if they have a chip on their shoulder. I disagree with some of you and you call me names? Wow! Standing up to our commitments and not … making excuses, is what makes this country great. My word is my bond and I just believe in paying my bills.
You realize that repeating the same tantrum from three days ago is not advancing your argument or this discussion, yes?
The only one whining and making excuses and grinding an ax is you, a blatantly obvious cheerleader for a company of thieves desperate to justify their own shirking of *LEGAL* obligations. The complaints here detail extortionist threats delivered to collect so-called "debts" which nobody wants to validate. You don't win any "they hit us back first" defense for bullying and bluffing your way to a commission.
.... but it will not be relevant. The FCC has very little jurisdiction over debt collectors, even fraudulent ones. You want the CFPB and FTC.
} spoofing was illegal. Spoofing is when you get the same call from the same person using different numbers.
WHAT?! How in any universe is "using different numbers" the same as spoofing? Do you pay a telco to use more than one number? Does that mean you're spoofing yourself? A company can purchase and use all the phone numbers it likes, just like you.
You as the call source don't have a spoof until the phone number (CNUM) or the name tag (CNAM) is manipulated to display what does not or could not belong to you, in other words a deceptive abuse of the Caller ID system. The Truth In Caller ID Act you're trying to invoke was not written to apply to debt collectors, and it takes a quite narrow range of circumstances before it could.
Useful discussion from December 2012 is found here:
http://800notes.com/forum/ta-6bb16173db9ea0c/fbcs
} You could earn upto [sic] 1500 dollars per case.
Where did you get that one? Something you half read about the TCPA, another law which *does not apply* to debt collection? First thing, a winning TCPA plaintiff *may* be awarded up to that $1500 per *violation*, not "per case". Second, when you sue a debt collector, it's most often for violating FDCPA and similar state laws, which does not allow you to stack up statutory awards.
Your price tag statement following a fast cut-paste is also misleading in suggesting that by dropping off a few lines of complaint a federal agency will magically reward you with money. If you want a damage award, you have to go to court yourself, which means you need a sober review of your facts and the will to prosecute under *the correct laws*. Meanwhile you've miscategorized debt collection activity as a "Prank Call", casting serious doubt on your chances.
Honestly, I think you need to stop right there and do much more homework before you go around sprinkling what you think is good advice. The CFPB and FTC each have volumes of helpful documents to get you started.