Got a call on my landline today stating that they are a debt collector and to return the call. They did not give a name of who they are calling for, which is very questionable. Thankfully I do not have any debt. Tried to call them back Just to be nice and let them know that perhaps they called the wrong number or were given a bad number. Received no answer so I'm blocking them from future hassle.
message left on answering machine: The caller was a woman with heavy accent. Said it was urgent to return call because they were united collections. She did not ask for anyone by name. p s I have no debt with debt collectors..cold call???
I got a call from this number at 8:07 am. The VM IDed as Barbara from United Collections with a call back number of 800-810-3584. She did NOT ask for me by name, and I have no outstanding bad debts, so it's 100% certain this is a scam in which they get anybody on the phone and berate you until you agree to pay a bill you do NOT owe. The problem is that if you give in thinking it will make them go away, they will record on their list that you are a sucker and you will get MORE calls. Maybe they hit you with a 'reload' in which the next caller will tell you were scammed and for a small fee will help you get your money back.
Called at 9am on June 1, no message left. I have no bad debts (no debts at all, really), so they aren't looking for me. One possibility is that they could be calling about a neighbor; debt collectors will sometimes pose as "college friends" or "old army buddies" trying to reach the debtor, and will call neighbors and ask them to ask the debtor to call them. Of course they legally can't tell the neighbor that they are debt collector, but the intent is to shame the debtor.