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I have had some odd phone calls (and two mailings last fall, 2013) from what apparently are various debt collectors (the number of debts and amount owed vary call to call, etc.)
Now, as far as I am aware--and I am quite sure-- I have no outstanding (delinquent) debts. I have a medical bill which I have had dispute with insurance from last December, 2013 but far as I know no reason for it to go into collections. I have no student loans of any kind, had the same credit cards and bank accounts for over 14 years with no late payments, same phone number for 10 years, etc.
I am stable and live well in my means, hardly a 'credit type' and I keep a good track of what I spend.
I will keep this as short and simple as I can:
Last October, 2013 about 3 weeks after I sold my previous house in SC (I was living with my parents temporarily nearby, until I moved and bought the new house) I began to receive letters from a collection agency from NY (this was while I was at my parents house) stating I owed, in the first letter, about $250 for a old Verizon phone bill.
I could find nothing in my credit report that month which indicated such a debt.
I got a second two weeks later, from the same agency stating I now owed $400 for the same bill. Well, the big problem is not only have I had only my one phone for ten years, but I have Verizon as my carrier. I was very confused I am sure I owe no debts, so I called them using someone else's phone to ask who was the original creditor of the debt, how old it was, etc.
They had my old address on file (it was forwarded) but they could not tell me (or refused anyway) to tell me an original account number or how old the debt was, only that it was 'years old' and was from Verizon Wireless...
Well, by December, 2013 I had moved to Massachusetts and bought my new house (in cash)...those Verizon collection bills stopped (my parents reported no more ever arrived after November, nor did I receive any more since).
Come this summer, June, 2014 I began to get phone calls (now on my cell phone number of ten years) about once or twice a month from various numbers out of Virginia, DC, NY stating they were a collection agency and that I had "a couple" and later "a few" accounts and that it was important that I call them immediately, though this time I did not call them as it seemed very suspicious....
I had been living in my new house for six months by the time the first call came in June and I had never received a single piece of mail from any sort of collections agency in that time (nor had my parents--and I had old mail forwarded from my previous house).
I got a 5th or 6th call last week stating I had "several" accounts which I needed to settle....yet, never a single piece of mail has ever arrived and I can not think of a single debt I could owe, even going back say 10 years. My address is easy to find, I own the house and have deed to it, etc...so I am easy to find.
Could this be a scam of some kind? I think I ought to call them, as I had before last year, but this too seems very suspicious....nothing shows in my credit report which could be these supposed debts.
I have heard of rogue collectors who scour recently sold homes and will target people who have just sold houses, hoping to 'scare' them into paying a bogus debt in the hopes that that person will be afraid it might mess up their mortgage application (which they assume the person will be taking out as they have just sold a house and therefore could be buying a new one very soon)...in my case I used cash so this was a moot point....but I found it awfully strange the Verizon letters stopped soon as I bought the new house in Massachusetts....any thoughts?
(Sorry about the length of this...but thanks to anyone who took the time to read through this!)
Last edited by Austin023; 11-22-2014 at 12:56 AM..
Reason: correction
it is not uncommon for a collection agency to sell old, uncollectable accounts and the new collection agency will add some fees and interest and send out notices hoping to get someone to pay or agree to pay and reset the collection clock.
This could have been an insignificant fee that was never collected and over the years (and numerous paper sales) has been inflated to serious money. There is probably no legal recourse for the collector, but it costs them little to make a few calls and send a bunch of letters demanding payment.
If you fall for it, great. They get paid. If not, they just sell it to someone else to try.
Scam. If you get a call, demand proof of the amount via mail and tell them they may only contact you by mail from now on. Do NOT acknowledge anything or give any info other than your address.
Scam. If you get a call, demand proof of the amount via mail and tell them they may only contact you by mail from now on. Do NOT acknowledge anything or give any info other than your address.
Don't even give these people your address. These people
are bottom feeders and have no problem lowering your
credit score so don't make it easy for them to.
Ok, thanks everyone...this is something which I do not know a whole lot about, though I have read up on some of this recently. I found it very suspicious given no mail from any had ever been sent, which I understand is done as first contact or is done in addition to calling, but legitimate ones will send a paper notice, if not several. How they got my cell phone number is a mystery though as I tend to keep that under wraps...they have, oddly enough never called my house phone! (which is listed).
The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act provides that every creditor must provide written proof of any debt upon written request. If you believe you do not owe this money, you should request this from the collection agency. I have a feeling once they realize you are aware of the laws governing collections, you will never hear from them again.
Also, if the debt is 6 years old or more they can not collect it due to statue of limitation in most states. I had an identity theft debt for a cell phone that I never had that followed me around for 6 years. The credit reporting agencies had it tagged as id theft, but the debt kept being sold. They would call until they were told it was id theft, police report filed, police report number, and do not call again or I will report them as its id theft...then all would be silent until they sold the debt then it would start all over again. They apparently did not get the you can not sell id theft debt. There was a BIG push to pay anything--even a dollar at 5.6 years so they could restart the 6 years on the debt (Any payment lets then extend the debt)..but after 6 years all went away
Just ignore them if they can not give you information about the debt...and make then use us mail to send it as fraud folks do not want to use the mail.
as an update: In the last two weeks I have received two letters in the mail from two different collection agencies now stating I own $425 to AA&T!
Ugg....I have not had any sort of AA&T phone since about 2004 and I am next to certain i owned them nothing (this would had been a house phone btw)...years of it never showing in a credit report---until now. Very recently added. Has anybody had a problem like this?
One of the letters I received was pretty deceitful and frankly, was in a format which really didn't seem to be standard issue from a collector at all (it looked like a Christmas card of sorts from the outside with a fake return address from a town in TX, where I have family, but was postmarked out of Boston, MA). No return envelope, just the letter stating I owned AT&T $425, etc etc..of a Boston collection company. A second one came in the mail yesterday from one in Danvers, MA yet for the exact same debt (purporting to be anyway).
Question: have you pulled a credit report? It's the first thing I would do, in the off chance someone racked up debt in your name. If its clean, just ignore them. Any debt you have will be on the credit report and it'll take you all of 5 minutes online.
I get occasional phone calls from a number I don't know, they leave a message saying they are calling about my student loans and I need to call them back. I paid off my last student loan 10 years ago, so I just delete the messages and ignore them. I think they are "phishing", I call and they ask for my social security number to "verify" and boom, identity theft. I know I have no such debt so I am never going to call nor answer the phone when I see that number.
Again though, you are one free credit report and 5 minutes away from getting to the truth.
as an update: In the last two weeks I have received two letters in the mail from two different collection agencies now stating I own $425 to AA&T!
Ugg....I have not had any sort of AA&T phone since about 2004 and I am next to certain i owned them nothing (this would had been a house phone btw)...years of it never showing in a credit report---until now. Very recently added. Has anybody had a problem like this?
One of the letters I received was pretty deceitful and frankly, was in a format which really didn't seem to be standard issue from a collector at all (it looked like a Christmas card of sorts from the outside with a fake return address from a town in TX, where I have family, but was postmarked out of Boston, MA). No return envelope, just the letter stating I owned AT&T $425, etc etc..of a Boston collection company. A second one came in the mail yesterday from one in Danvers, MA yet for the exact same debt (purporting to be anyway).
Just respond in writing. Say you do not recognize the debt as belonging to you, and ask for written documentation that the debt belongs to you.
It isn't necessarily a scam. It could be an honest mistake. It could be a dishonest mistake.
If the collection agency cannot provide written proof that you owe the debt, there is nothing they can do.
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