This is a total scam. Do NOT fall victim and contact the FTC and your State Attorney General's office. They state they are the "National Information Center" and have an address of 2764 Pleasant Road P.O Box 10116 Fort Mill, SC 29078 for any correspondence. There is no known business with this name that operates as debt collection. They also use fake names like Regina Ward and Andrea Foster and call from other VOIP numbers such as 401-495-7021. This is a completely fraudulent group of scam artists and have no legal authority to threaten anyone with court summons. In fact, everything they are doing is 100% illegal and hopefully they will pay the price. https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/when-debt-collection-illegal-0
Criminals masquerading as debt collectors attempt to extort money from people by scaring you into believing that you will be criminally charged (they use the bad check or hot check claim a lot) and go to jail, lose your driver’s license, have wages garnished without actually being sued or going to court, 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 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 will use the words “Mediator”, “Arbitrator”, or “Law Office” 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. They do have to follow those laws, but they won’t. They mention that they have received a Fax document, to create the sense of urgency. They also tell you that if you fail to call them back you are "waiving your right to council", which is pretty much nothing but hogwash. 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 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). Process servers do not ever call ahead so that you can dodge them. Process servers get paid to serve papers, nothing else.
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/
They called for my sister, saying she had two charges against her. I called them to give them her phone number. They called the next day, same automated message. At this point I was curious, so I asked what was going on and how deep in trouble my sister was. They said that I was listed as a point-of-contact and that I would need to go to court too if the debt wasn't paid.
NOPE
I told them about some of the stuff I read about them online - how they hustle people for money using shady tactics and illegal threats. He got real defensive and agitated, so I hung up.
Don't get bullied into forking over your money to these guys. If someone ACTUALLY has a lawsuit against you, you'll either get the summons delivered to you or you'll get a letter in the mail.
They call my daughter phone and leave message to me which I had 2 charged against me. Leave phone 401-495-7021 w/ case ID to settle case otherwise will pursuit to court and warrant arrest at my residency or work place. This is scam and bs, try to scare people and make some $? what a joke.
I got the same when I called the 401 number the lady didn't even say the company name she just said her name which was Brandy something talking about I have 2 charges.. they've called me the last 2 days