GMAC - harassing calls - a little scary

[ILoveMyDVC]

I had a call on my cell today. The message says that you need to contact them immediately about your overdue account...
They don't identify themselves so you push redial and get a message saying they are collecting on a loan - you need to enter your SS# or loan number (which loan number is rather troubling because YOU DON'T KNOW WHO THEY ARE - they could be cable, electric, CC - who knows - and you don't have any overdue accounts that you are aware of...
And why would someone in this day and age blindly enter their SS# to a 1-800 # on their phone...

Hitting "0" gets you a prompt to avoid foreclosure- ahhh a clue - might be the mortgage company. But why would they call me? I've NEVER missed a payment and, in fact, have been fortunate enough to be able to send them an extra 50 dollars every month towards principal (I know it's not a lot but it sure beats not paying them).

Finally, after much hitting of '0' and a 10 minute wait, you will speak to a person who will tell you they are representing two companies (one being GMAC) that it's the bank's new autodialer and it calls as soon as you are 'late' - seems my payment didn't get there until 3 days passed the due date - but well before the grace period.

Scaring people with a message "to avoid foreclosure" and encouraging people to blindly enter the SS# to a telephone prompt for a payment 72 hours passed a due date on an otherwise up-to-date account (with extra prinicpal!) seems just a little bit scary to me.

 

[CrzyforPiglet]

I think a lot of financial companies are getting a little jumpy these days! I know for my husband's Diner's Club card if payment isn't recorded 3 days PRIOR to being due they send him an e-mail to his work which is so poorly written that he usually thinks it is already late. I always pay our bills on time so I'm getting really annoyed at their scare tactics but at this point we just ignore them. Your call/message though seems quite extreme and not always effective - what if you had just ignored them b/c you knew you didn't have any over due accounts? Also, I thought it was law that companies were required to identify themselves and not just leave cryptic messages for people. And I agree with you, I would never blindly enter my SSN in a phone system for anyone. I can definitely see why you'd be frustrated!

 

[GOOFY4DONALD]

Are you 100% sure this is really GMAC? My FIL was watching my DS and a toll free number popped up on caller ID. He answered it and they said they were from Wells Fargo and we were late on our MTG and they were going to start foreclosure preceedings unless we called ASAP and gave them a payment. Guess what we are not behind on our MTG AND we don't have our loan w/ Wells Fargo. Scamms are running amock.

 

[pigletto]

I would be VERY suspicious of any call that wanted your SS#.
Yes they gave you the option of punching in your "Loan" number.. however they made sure you didn't even know what loan they were talking about so obviously you're going to punch in the SS#.
I would be very concerned with what information they could get from that point.
It SCREAMS of scam. Be very careful.

 

[CarolA]

I had a call on my cell today. The message says that you need to contact them immediately about your overdue account...
They don't identify themselves so you push redial and get a message saying they are collecting on a loan - you need to enter your SS# or loan number (which loan number is rather troubling because YOU DON'T KNOW WHO THEY ARE - they could be cable, electric, CC - who knows - and you don't have any overdue accounts that you are aware of...
And why would someone in this day and age blindly enter their SS# to a 1-800 # on their phone...

Hitting "0" gets you a prompt to avoid foreclosure- ahhh a clue - might be the mortgage company. But why would they call me? I've NEVER missed a payment and, in fact, have been fortunate enough to be able to send them an extra 50 dollars every month towards principal (I know it's not a lot but it sure beats not paying them).

Finally, after much hitting of '0' and a 10 minute wait, you will speak to a person who will tell you they are representing two companies (one being GMAC) that it's the bank's new autodialer and it calls as soon as you are 'late' - seems my payment didn't get there until 3 days passed the due date - but well before the grace period.

Threatening foreclosure for a payment 72 hours passed a due date on an otherwise up-to-date account (with extra prinicpal!) seems just a little bit scary to me.

Did I miss something? Did they threaten foreclosure or was it just one of the options? There's a big difference! It does not sound to me like they "threatened" you, you just got the phone options! It's a mortgage company... in this day and time that's an option.

Yes, they should have told you WHO was calling, but they didn't threaten you with foreclosure!

 

[Lstar311]

Thats a weird call. GMAC contacts me all the time because I my mortgage must always arrive after the due date but before the grace period is over. when I answer there are chimes that ring and it says,"This is GMAC" and asks if I am John Doe. I would just ignore that call and tell youir family to do the same or I would call GMAC and ask why they are calling you to find out if its legit.

 

[bjakmom]

I have gotten two of these calls in the last two weeks - comes up on caller ID as "International" and says this is the final call regarding my 'overdue' credit card account. They do not identify themselves and just say to press #1 for more info. I know I have NO overdue accounts - so I have just been hanging up - BEWARE - scams are definitely running rampant with so many people running behind - it's scary what info these people can get - they are just shooting blind and hoping someone will give them info.

 

[cats mom]

Timely thread.

We've been getting annoying automated calls from Homecomings, which appears to be a loan modification operation of some sort. Except they ask to speak to someone we've never heard of.


I tried the "push 5 if this is a wrong number" thing for the first few weeks, but it didn't stop the calls. Then I tried to get to a real person by putting in a fake loan number, and a fake SS# no luck... they couldn't route my call properly since they didn't recognize the account. And good luck getting a real person from the recording without that info, I would just get caught in endless looping until I was finally disconnected.


Today I finally did some research and found a different phone number to call. After a little looping and 30+ minutes on hold, I finally talked to a real person. She took my phone number and promised to delete me from their call list. I hope it happens, I'm afraid it may not though... way too easy, even though they really are calling the wrong number.

It must be awful for folks who are getting those phone calls legitimately. They can be ruthless!

 

[rparmfamily]

Whoa!! That's crazy!! I haven't gotten any at home but a few odd numbers on my cell, but I don't answer them (prepaid LOL, not wasting my time on them) and some are prob crazy spam calls.

 

[ILoveMyDVC]

Did I miss something? Did they threaten foreclosure or was it just one of the options? There's a big difference! It does not sound to me like they "threatened" you, you just got the phone options! It's a mortgage company... in this day and time that's an option.

Yes, they should have told you WHO was calling, but they didn't threaten you with foreclosure!

The message says you are overdue -key in loan number or SS# - punched "0" -message repeats - push '0' again and get message "we are collecting on a debt and any information will be used for that action - push "0" again and get prompt - push 1 to prevent foreclosure and a message in Spanish to push 2. Message about avoiding foreclosure and then after several more "0" - get put on hold for next representative est.. wait time = 10 minutes. Get rep whose first language is not English and try to figure out what company names they are saying and what the mesage is.

I don't think they were really going to start foreclosure proceeding but they sure are intimidating, annoying, and encouraging the very, very bad practice of blindly entering one's SS# to an unknown entity.

And, my blood pressure and immune system did not need the 'freak out' while trying to find out
1. Who they were and
2. Worying for 10 minutes if my payment had been cashed fraudently and if so, all the horror of trying to fix it.

 

[vicb]

I would seriously doubt this is actually GMAC. I think the OP was correct to be concerned because we all know to NEVER give out our SS# over the phone or internet. Sounds like a scam.

I went through a credit card fraud situation at xmas time this year and in all my dealings on the phone with the legit cc company I was never asked for my SS#. Someone had used my cc for off shore gambling on the internet... scary. There is so much scamming going on right now everyone be careful!

 

[lovemygoofy]

The message says you are overdue -key in loan number or SS# - punched "0" -message repeats - push '0' again and get message "we are collecting on a debt and any information will be used for that action - push "0" again and get prompt - push 1 to prevent foreclosure and a message in Spanish to push 2. Message about avoiding foreclosure and then after several more "0" - get put on hold for next representative est.. wait time = 10 minutes. Get rep whose first language is not English and try to figure out what company names they are saying and what the mesage is.

I don't think they were really going to start foreclosure proceeding but they sure are intimidating, annoying, and encouraging the very, very bad practice of blindly entering one's SS# to an unknown entity.

And, my blood pressure and immune system did not need the 'freak out' while trying to find out
1. Who they were and
2. Worying for 10 minutes if my payment had been cashed fraudently and if so, all the horror of trying to fix it.

I recevied the same kind of phone call. The person with the accent was very insistent that I was late either in my mortgage or my credit cards. I said no I'm sorry please take me off your list of numbers.(If they had been a real company that have 90 days to comply with your request to take your number off their phone list). Then he starts in about me being late and loosing everything and blah blah

I just got mad and told him to kiss my butt(probably not that word) because I didn't have a mortgage(which I don't). I then hung up the phone and wrote down the number. If they come calling back I'm calling the BBB or the police because obviously it's a scam.

OP, if you get another call like that don't be worried BE MAD. You know you aren't late on anything and this is a new phising scam. Be offensive not defensive.

 

[Mermaid02]

We have our mtg pmnt through GMAC come directly out of our account monthly. No worries of late mail!

Sounds like a scam to me OP. With the economy so bad, the scammers have revved things up....

 

[twinmommyks]

Yesterday I received a phone call on my cell phone from somewhere indicating that I needed to call them before the warranty on my vehicle expires. Well, the warranty has already expired and I never have given my cell phone out to anyone other than a few friends. So I just hung up.

Are these people starting to contact people on their cell phones - it's bad enough getting all those calls on the home phone.

My only concern is that my ds13 has a prepaid cell phone and I would not be happy to have his minutes used up because of phone calls from solicitors or whatever they are.

Do you know if it is possible to block a particular number on a cell phone?

Bren

 

[rcraw45425]

Well, I received the "call of death" on myt cell the other, 999-999-9999! I ignored it, no message, then I started reading that some places are using that to avoid using their real number. I have also received some weird 800 numbers lately, when you call them back they say the number does not exist. Also, DD13, DH and I have all received texts saying that our credit union account has been compromised, yada yada yada. Guess what, no such account. It got DH all upset till I told him that we we don't have that account and it's a scam. What bothers me is even though we have unlimited text, what about the people that don't.

 

[vicb]

Yesterday I received a phone call on my cell phone from somewhere indicating that I needed to call them before the warranty on my vehicle expires. Well, the warranty has already expired and I never have given my cell phone out to anyone other than a few friends. So I just hung up.

Are these people starting to contact people on their cell phones - it's bad enough getting all those calls on the home phone.

My only concern is that my ds13 has a prepaid cell phone and I would not be happy to have his minutes used up because of phone calls from solicitors or whatever they are.

Do you know if it is possible to block a particular number on a cell phone?

Bren

Something similar happened to my 13 yo son when he first got his phone (verizon). They recycle phone #s and he kept getting phone calls from India and Los Angeles from men who didn't speak english! We asked verizon to block the phone #s coming in and they said they couldn't so we ended up changing his actual cell #... what a pain.

 

[lovesmurfs]

Do you know if it is possible to block a particular number on a cell phone?

I called AT&T about this several months ago (someone had the wrong number and was texting my husband 15+ times/day, at all times) -- there's some kind of parent monitoring that can block numbers, but they charge $4.95 per month for the privilege. Everytime I call AT&T it seems they can help me for an additional fee.....

I have our cell phone numbers registered on the Do Not Call registry just in case they get released to telemarketers.

 

[fun4me]

Yesterday I received a phone call on my cell phone from somewhere indicating that I needed to call them before the warranty on my vehicle expires. Well, the warranty has already expired and I never have given my cell phone out to anyone other than a few friends. So I just hung up.

Are these people starting to contact people on their cell phones - it's bad enough getting all those calls on the home phone.


Bren

Dh got that call on his cell phone too. He figured it was the wrong ##. I told him it was probably some scammer trying to get his cc# or other info.

We've received so many calls on our home phone from a "CC company" telling us it is our last chance to get a lower interest rate. We just hang up because it has to be a scam. We only have one cc with a great promotional rate.

 

[luvdzne]

We have been receiving calls several times a day from numbers I do not recognize. My dd has also received calls on her cell phone during school time (thankfully she keeps her phone in her locker). Everyone has been instructed not to answer any calls from numbers that are not recognized especially after my dd answered one and was put on hold for 5 mins. If you google the phone numbers you will usually find that the phone number is from a telemarketer or scams and others are experiencing the same phone calls. Sometimes if you dial the number back it says it's not in service. I would recommend that you put all your phone numbers including cell numbers on the do not call list. Even if you think you did it a while back it probably expired and you need to do it again. Also on the same site you can report the harassing phone calls.


I also want to add that I just found out recently that cell phone companies can give out recycled phone numbers after only 60 days. We switched carriers and phone numbers back in Oct and I had to call the old company back for something and the phone numbers were already attached to other accounts. So if you recently received a new cell phone number this could be why your getting calls as they were already a problem for that number.

 

[seashoreCM]

>>> ... only have one credit card ...
You may need another. Should you be on vacation and some fourth party steals information from some third party then your credit card company might cancel your card suddenly and you have no credit card to finish your vacation with.

>>> ... someone had a wrong number and was texting ...
Was there a phone number you could call back using voice to tell them?

For annoying companies call their 800 number from a pay phone "to ask them to remove you from their list". On the first answer, pretend its a bad connection and seven seconds later hang up. Then make a second call. They will be "innocuously" surcharged twice (even if they have flat rates) without suspicion on your making of harassing calls.

What do cell phone companies offer in the way of refunds for unwanted calls? Particularly for prepaid plans it may be time to choose a different company.

Disney hints: http://www.cockam.com/disney.htm