Am I a Target of a Scam?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Has anyone had any dealings with an alleged collection agency calling themselves BCS?

Here’s the thing … about two weeks ago, I got a call from these people. I talked to someone with a really thick Indian accent named Steve. He told me that I owed $150 to Pac-Bell, but I could settle for $100 if I agree to pay immediately over the phone with my debit card.

First of all, I haven’t lived in California since 2002. Secondly, I don’t think I ever even had a phone number in my name out there. I can’t swear to it, but I think the phone was in my ex-wife’s name. And I know for a fact that the phone was in my roommate’s name when I lived in Oakland.

My response was basically, “if you think I’m giving you my bank info over the phone, you’re fucking high, Steve.”

I keep getting calls from these people. In frustration, I tried to track down Pac-Bell, which is no longer Pac-Bell, but AT&T and figure things out for myself. I finally got a hold of someone at AT&T Customer Service and described the whole situation - including the fact that this is apparently regarding a bill from a decade ago. The guy on the phone basically told me that it sounded like a scam to him and not to send any money. I concurred with him whole-heartedly.

I’m confident I’ll get another call from these people. My plan is to simply tell them that I called AT&T and that I don’t owe them any money and to stop fucking calling me.

Any other recourse? Should I threaten them with the Better Business Bureau? Should I threaten to track them down personally and kill all their pets? Should I move to India and start looking for guys named Steve to attack?

2

I seem to recall that if they’re a legitimate collection agency, you can inform them that in the future, you will only communicate with them via paper, and they have to conform. Something like that.

That said, it sounds to me like a scammy scammy scam scam.

3

Are you sure their name isn’t BS, C?
'Cause that would be a dead giveaway right there. :smiley:

4

It’s a scam. Just put the phone down and walk away, or block their number.

5

They bought a bunch of bad debt accounts for pennies on the dollar and now are calling anyone with a similar name to try and get them to pay up. They probably paid $5 for the debt and would make $95 back if someone actually was dumb enough to pay it (and a lot of people are that dumb). Not necessarily a scam, but definitely scummy.

6

Well, there is a scam-based agency called the BCS, but there are plenty of discussions about them over in the Game Room. :smiley:

But seriously, all alarms are going off on the scam-meter. Don’t have much advice about how to deal with them other than maybe to start recording your phone calls. If they call you enough, maybe you can actually file a police reprt and get a judgement on them when they don’t show up in court. They’ll never pay, but it might make you feel better.