My elderly father received a call from a guy who said he was with INK and Associates a Litigation Firm who is suing him for $1300 for a credit card he "had" 16 years ago. My father has always had horrible credit and has NEVER had a credit card. When he called me and told me about this I immediately knew it was a scam. They gave a 1-866-516-2422 number to call him back if he would like to settle outside of court. I called that number and when the girl answered and asked my case number, I asked what's your address, her reply was "We're in Southern California", I said, "What is your Corporate Home offices' address?", she said "you can find it on our website inkandassociates.com. They asked if my father's social security number was xxx-xx-xxxx (which is illegal to give someone's social over the phone), which it was but I didn't tell them that and they gave his dob and said they have investigated him for the last 5 years and know that it is him that opened this credit card. When asked what address "all" the collection notices were being sent to, we were told "that's irrelevant, you either settle out of court or we will take you to court", they continued to say they will put a lien on his house and car (my dad doesn't own either, my sister bought and paid in cash for in her name), then said they will garnish his wages (my dad is retired). I can't wait to call them tomorrow and cuss them fuc***** out. Do NOT MESS WITH MY DAD OR FAMILY!! That was the voicemail I left them after-hours, with A LOT of curse words and added that I can't wait to call back tomorrow and talk to a person and tell them the same thing.....To GO F*** OFF!!!! The 904-274-8010 is the caller id number that they called from which if you call it, it says Dynamic Locators, but no one answers, can only leave a message. And oh boy, I did!!!! :) It is such a sad, sad world we live in that people like this are trying to scam elderly people. Horrible!! I want to SHUT THEM DOWN!!!!
No use bothering with these crooks. After 16 years there would be no way they could legally sue. There is no way they can put liens on houses or cars or garnish wages without suing and winning their case. These are out and out extortionists that have your father's identity. You need to deal with that first. Even with bad credit, things could get worse. It they use his identity to commit a crime, he might be arrested for something he didn't do.
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 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.
If you feel you SSN has been compromised, in addition to putting a fraud alert at the 3 credit bureaus, you may want to notify the IRS. Here is the link, fill out the proper form (probably 14039):
http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/How-Do-You-Rep ... aud-Activity%3F
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
Very disturbing. A woman called me from this number asking for my father. I haven't had contact with my father in nearly 15 years. Very upsetting. I don't know who they are, how they got my number, why they called me. Really rocked my day. Not cool.
Just today someone called my husband, saying the same stuff to him about me, same company, same phone numbers, and the exact same out come as you experience, total scam cause I know I don't owe a dIme to anyone. Oh but rest assure I will be calling tomorrow