Harassing Phone Calls...Question

[Halloweenqueen]

I've been receiving phone calls from a toll free number for the last couple of days. The first dozen times I picked up there was no one there. Yesterday I finally heard somone on the line and kept talking until they responded.

This person claimed to be from a collection agency. He said he respresented Lowes and I had an outstanding debit on a credit card I had back in 2000! He told me I needed to pay $700+ immediately.

Now I did have a card back in the late 90s. I had it before I married, so I know I only had it for a couple of years. I know I paid it off and closed it shortly after getting married.

I have never had any ding from Lowes on my credit report. We bought houses in 2002 and 2008 and I know we really scoured our reports prior and corrected any mistakes before applying for loan rates.

I told him this must be a mistake. He proceeded to become a big jerk and start threatening me. He told me he needed me to prove this. He also told me to pay anyway, then try to receive a credit afterward. I refused.

I asked for a written statement to be mailed. He just keep pushing me to pay.

Since then I've been getting calls practically every 20 minutes.

Anyway I can stop these calls? I know they must not fall under the telemarketing, no call list law.

Plus, how am I going to prove that I paid a credit card off almost 12 years ago?

TIA

 

[GOOFY4DONALD]

Calm down. First of all you don't need to prove you paid it they need to prove you owe it. Next time they call I would tell them you do not know abut this...DON'T ADMIT TO ANYTHING EVEN THAT YOU HAD A CARD IN THE PAST. Tell them to mail something to you also let them know they are to stop all phone calls asap or you will contact the police. Chances are this is a mistake. If it is not and you do somehow owe this. It is too old to be on your credit report. If you admit to it or you start to pay anything it can show back up on your report. These are bottom feeding collection agencies. Whoever Lowe's goes through has long given up on this.

 

[Halloweenqueen]

Great advice, thanks so much!

 

[CTdiznymom]

This has scam written all over it.

Don't give ANY information out over the phone.

Invest in a whistle and use it when you get another call.

 

[ellone]

Firstly - tell them you dispute it and that they have to prove it's your debt (Debt validation).
Secondly - they can't continue to call and ask you for money if they don't validate it after you asked them to.
Threatening is a violation of FDCPA - I'd suggest you record the calls (and tell them so). You may be able to sue them.

For better info go on creditboards.

 

[semo233]

Several years ago, I was getting harassing phone calls and called the phone company to see what I could do about it. They told me to dial something like *57 immediately after I received a phone call and their "security department" would get some kind of notice. When they receive a certain number of those noticed, I think they do something about it. It might just create a record or be released to the police, I don't know.

Start with the phone company and keep a log of all of the phone calls. Write down right now the conversation you had with the gentleman...as much as you can remember.

I believe that some states also have laws regarding collection phone calls. Look up the laws/rules and regulations in your state. In CT, I think you are required to say the words "Please do not call me anymore." Check th laws in your state so that you have a guideline.

Do an internet search on the phone number that keeps calling you. Once you find out what state they are from, you can look up their laws too! I don't know if you need to follow the state laws where you live or where the phone call originates from.

Then, if you need to make a formal complaint to a BBB, police, attourney general, etc. You have a log of everything that transpired.

 

[hereyago]

This has scam written all over it.

Don't give ANY information out over the phone.

Invest in a whistle and use it when you get another call.

Or air horn

 

[NYCDiane]

1. If this is not your debt and you know you paid this in full, you have nothing to worry about

2. A colllection agency has to notify you IN WRITING that they are attempting to collect a debt on ________'s behalf. This letter has to be mailed to you within 5 days of them getting the account in their office. You have 30 days to respond to their letter and dispute it.

3. They are only permitted to call you ONCE a day between 8am - 9pm in your time zone. They are not permitted to call your cell or work phone if you tell them not to. If you tell them to only communicate with you in writing, they are not permitted to call you.

4. If they violate the FDCPA --- Fair Debt Collections Practices Act ---- you can sue them and get $1K for EACH offense. Meaning, if they call you 10 times in one day (and can prove it), you can get $10K. By "call", it means you answering the phone and having a conversation with them, not just them calling and you letting it ring.

5. The collections rep is NOT allowed to threaten you, demean you, or harass you (and look up the definition of "harassment")

 

[CTdiznymom]

5. The collections rep is NOT allowed to threaten you, demean you, or harass you (and look up the definition of "harassment")[/QUOTE]


You're absolutely right. However, can you absolutely be certain this is a legitimate collection call? Anyone can make a call and tell you they are from Lowes or Home Depot and and hit on someone that actually shops there. Since you questioned your debt, then he knew he hit a Lowes customer. If it wasn't Lowes it would have been another big box store.

 

[willowsnn3]

We no longer answer calls from toll free numbers at our house & I no longer answer them at my job either. Probably the reason that no one spoke when you first answered is that most of these collection calls are computer generated & it may take a minute or two before a live person comes on the line. The lady who used to work where I do now apparently had a lot of bills in collection cause I finally found out all those toll free calls were for her. It took a couple years but they have finally stopped calling here for her. At home apparently someone who used to live at our address (we've been there almost 4 years now) had some bills like that too, lol. I guess the collection agency cross referenced the address with the phone company & started calling our number repeatedly. That's why we don't answer the toll free #'s anymore.

 

[chris1gill]

5. The collections rep is NOT allowed to threaten you, demean you, or harass you (and look up the definition of "harassment")

You're absolutely right. However, can you absolutely be certain this is a legitimate collection call? Anyone can make a call and tell you they are from Lowes or Home Depot and and hit on someone that actually shops there. Since you questioned your debt, then he knew he hit a Lowes customer. If it wasn't Lowes it would have been another big box store.[/QUOTE]

Since this person won't send the proper validation that this is a bill owed, I would certainly be VERY worried that this is a scam. I'd call the phone company first to see what their procedure is for determining who is calling and to make records of those calls. I would warn the company that they are in violation of the law as they are only allowed to call once and that if they continued I would call the police using the logs from the Phone company as proof that the company was doing this.

No way in this day and age should anyone harass you every 20 minutes and get away with it....

 

[miralys]

I used to get these all of the time. In my case, it was total scam artistry. I owed nothing to anyone who would be employing these tactics. They were just trying to scare me and "zombie" my debt.

If you are sure the debt is not valid, then I would cease all communication with them. Don't answer the phone when they call or block the calls if possible. I just assigned them as a contact and sent their calls straight to voice mail. Funny how the calls stopped after that.

 

[DawnM]

This sounds like a scam to get you to reveal information about yourself. I keep hearing of more and more of these.

Do you have caller id? YOu can do a reverse phone number look up and see if this is a legit company.

Dawn

 

[Swimalie]

The other posters have great advice. I can tell you that we get these scam calls all the time for our neighbors across the street whom apparently do owe a lot of debt. I finally bought a Panasonic phone that lets me block up to 30 numbers. A place calls, I block them. Simple and it also helps to not have to listen to the phone ring from charities calling as well.

 

[Bren's Mom]

I am a big fan of creditboards.com.

Ask them what address they have on file for you (don't GIVE it to them!) and ask them to send you the information in writing. Get the NAME of the person you talked to and the NAME of the company. Make a note of the date and time.

If you get a letter, I would hire a consumer advocate attorney...seriously. This is what they do, handle these junk debt collectors. I wasn't convinced, until I had someone try to collect on me for a totally bogus Hollywood Video late fee debt. I just did NOT want to deal with them, send the letters certified mail, wait the required time, etc...what a pain! And I knew from the internet that this company was scum, and that they were doing this Hollywood Video thing to MANY people who did NOT owe ANY money and they were scaring them into collection. I wanted to hurt them in their pocketbook!

So I e-mail an attorney listed at:

http://www.naca.net/

I learned about attorneys who specialize in this, and about the website to find one, on creditboards.

I heard back very quickly. She agreed to represent me. Her fee was reasonable and would come out of any settlement. If she was unable to get me a settlement I would owe her nothing. I scanned and e-mailed the documents. We corresponded several times. I stopped hearing from the collection agency after they got her letter. And then she sent me a release informing me she had $X in settlement, that her total fee was $x and I'd be receiving a check from her after signing the release. The check was VERY large. Shockingly large. They had multiple counts of violations against me for this bogus collection. I felt very vindicated, and now I'm a consumer advocate attorney convert!

Good luck!

 

[vegas_mickey]

It is a phishing scam. A computer dials numbers at random and when they get someone on the phone they do exactly what they did to you. We get them sometimes and just let the machine get it and there is never anyone on the line. You can google the number and find out all about the scam. Just ignore the phone, as annoying as it is to have it ring all day. For us is goes on a few days then stops.

 

[Disneyliscious]

We also stopped answering any 800 numbers at our house. I also learned years ago to NEVER give out my cell number to ANY business, I don't care what it is. I have a home phone line which I use for my dial up internet service. Anytime I have to put down a phone number, I use that lines number. It has never had a phone hooked up to it so they can't bother me. They can dial their little fingers off and they will never hear me answer and I don't hear a ring. If a situation comes up where I need to call someone or work out a payment arrangement, I call from a pay phone (seriously) or plug a land line phone into my internet line for a few minutes. I never call from my cell phone because then they have your number.

My cell is for friends, family, schools, things like that....where you know your number wont be sold or traded.

I agree this sounds like a scam OP. I would not give them any information and tell them you are recording their phone calls. Its a PAIN to get some of these places to stop calling you.

I also was not aware they could only call you once a day. Is this only for a collection agency or what about the business itself? When they leave messages on an answering machine, can they call unlimited times?

 

[klmall]

I had a problem not quite like yours but very irritating on my cell phone two months ago. It was so bad I couldn't even keep my cell phone turned on!!! Turns out I had never put my cell phone number on the "DO NOT CALL" website so I was being plagued by two different scams leaving almost undecipherable text and voice mail messages every hour during the daytime about refinancing my debts. We have no debts other than one car and our house. One of them would leave the phone number with all the digits but the last digit so it took me awhile to eliminate which number to block before the 30 day "DO NOT CALL" took effect. And to think I've had that cell phone number for 15 years before somebody abused it!

 

[blueiis99]

definitely a scam.

I used to have a service on my phone that i paid for (not sure how much) but it was nominal. (we had verizon) It was called call intercept.
I happen to work for a place that is not to well liked, and I was kinda in the public eye...so I didn't want my family to be harrassed or hunted down (in addition i had my number unlisted)
But the call intercept would make the person on the other line say their name, and then put the call through to me, (with a special ring) and then I could accept or deny the call. It was the best thing ever....NEVER EVER got any calls from telemarketers

if you have this capability..I highly recommed it. I finally took it off cause i switched services. The piece of mind was worth the money.

 

[rock_doctor]

You need to get the calling number, try to get a name of the person (will not be a real name but does not matter) get a name of the company. Then call your states attorney generals office and tell them what is going on. It is a scam. They look on your credit report and see what loans you have had a long time ago (i.e. old enough you will not remember the details) and they call you trying to collect a debt that does not exist. I get calls all of the time for a student loan i had more then a decade ago. Paid it off in full long ago. If you can change you number may be the easiest fix and make sure the new one is not listed. You number must never be listed, a listed number is now accessible across the planet. If you don't think so type your name into google and see what comes up with MyLife (reunion.com after California sued them) and spekeo.... I think these two groups should be class-actioned in non-existence. Yea it's public information but how many will spend the time going from organization to organization to find the information. These website pull it all together in one nice package. A wonderful tool for stalkers and thieves!!!

Oh by the way it is illegal for them to threaten you and berate you so that tells you that it is a scam. Likely based in another country.