2 days ago I got a message, which was left around 8pm stating something like:
Sorry for the recorded message, this is not a sales call, we have been trying to contact you for some time, due to the nature of the subject I am unable to give you details. Please call me at 866 ### #### and ask for terry -----, or one of my associates. Caller ID has the number of 716-650-####, which is a willimtion Delaware exchange.
OK, now I figure if this is important and you know me you would know my name and use it, know my address and mail me something if it were important, if calling didn’t work.
I tried to call the 716 number with my number blocked, which had no answer. From a payphone I called the 866 number (as 866 numbers don’t use caller ID, but a different way of displaying your number that can’t be blocked). It answered National Something or other, I will have to try that number again to get the company name.
OK last night I got another call, from a different recorded voice saying again we’ve been unable to contact you, we will base our decision on your inaction, if this is not your wishes contact us at the same 866 #.
A bill collector. If not for you, then for someone who gave out your number as their’s, or for the person who had the number before you. I’m still getting messages like that for the previous owner of my number, more than three years later.
Put either phone number into Google like this: ###-###-#### , includung the dashes. If it is a listed number, it will identify it. If not, you may get some hits in messageboards about debt collection or telemarketers that will identify them.
Made me think of my new mobile phone. I sent it back to be repaired (it was broken on arrival) and while it was away, someone tried phoning it. As soon as I got it back and turned it on, I got a voicemail from a Mercedes garage in England
Thanks Fear Itself, I tryed it like ##########, the dashed made all the difference.
It seems like it’s a collection agancy, or someone appearing as one - there is no reason for any collecting agancy to contact me. Some have reported if you call their toll free number you will be getting more calls, as they now know you respond (much like the spam’s unsubscribe instructions will get one more spam by confirming the address), They seem to use a shotgun approach and even try to call everyone in a town to try to collect.
I am considering contacting the police, though the did nothing but leave 3 (one this morning) messages, I do suspect a scam and wonder if it’s worth notifying the police (would like suggestions).
Now I feel safe to warn you, the number is 866-529-1899, their CID # is 716-650-6240 (which if you call it you can block your number their CID)
I had exactly that happen to me. I got the same call so often, I finally decided to call the damn number to ream them out and take me off their list. Turns out it was a credit card company collection dept., looking for somebody that had the same last name and had evidently given my number to them. Strange thing is… my credit cards have an activation number to call that “must be called from your home phone number”. Not sure how she got around this.
See if the calls come around the same time each day. I have some debts that I need to repay, the company is NCO Financial systems. It’s from the same area code as your calls. If you get on their auto-dialer, not even making payment arrangements seems to get them to stop calling. My messages were just “please call Mr. Whomever at blah blah number” They never said who they were calling for, why they were calling or anything. Curiosity finally got the best of me. It worked out, because the debts were on my list of things to get paid.
I had some woman call my cell phone asking for my husband, she would not identify herself, or say why she was calling. I told her it was my dime and my phone, and she called me. If she wanted to pay for my phone, she would be more than welcome to call and not identify herself. Whether I or my husband owe her money or not, you call me, you tell me why you are calling and you identify yourself. I am digging myself out of debt incurred because my husband had a hidden drug problem I recently found out about. I am doing my best to get everything paid off, but the nice people get paid first.
I’ve called from work before and activated similarly marked cards. Some I’ve tried to, and it wouldn’t let me. Seems to be like those Security Company signs people put outside their houses: some are for real, and some are to discourage people from trying, but have no actual security.
Respectfully, this doesn’t make sense to me. It makes sense for sales calls, where if you return the call or e-mail, even to say “don’t call me/e-mail me again,” they consider you a “live one” and add you to a sales list. (Illegal, BTW, if you’ve called to say “take me off your list,” but it still gets done.) But you have identified this business as a collection agency. Collection agencies have no interest in calling random wrong numbers; they can’t collect debts from people who don’t owe money and, more specifically, don’t owe money to the company that hired them to try to collect it.
Highly unlikely, because that’s not how it works. A collection agency is hired by a particular company to collect a particular debt or debts. It then calls the person owing the debt in order to try to make them pay it. If the agency succeeds in convincing or compelling the debtor to pay all or part of the debt, it is paid for that service by the creditor. So it makes no sense – and makes the company no money – for it to be randomly calling people, regardless of whether or not the people owe money to its creditor-clients.
I don’t think it’s a scam, because there’s no angle here – no reason for a collection agency to be scamming you. It seems far more likely that they are trying to collect a debt and somehow got your number. (Possible reasons: Debtor used to live in your town and formerly had your number; debtor intentionally or unintentionally wrote the wrong number on the credit application; debtor has a name that it very much like yours and they just have the wrong person.) They aren’t breaking any laws to just call the number they have and try to contact the debtor – assuming they aren’t calling before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. and assuming you haven’t directed them not to call you. The police aren’t likely to be sympathetic to what may be only a wrong number.
This same thing has happened to me. I lived with the collection agency calling me daily (leaving cryptic messages while I was at work) for a week or so, but when it seemed they weren’t going to stop calling, I called back and found that they were looking for someone I’d never heard of. I told them the number they had was wrong, and instructed them not to call me again, and they haven’t. Again, there’s no profit for them in calling the wrong people; it wastes their time and resources and doesn’t get them any closer to collecting the debt. So if you are pretty confident this is a debt collection agency, I suggest you call them back, tell them they have the wrong number, and tell them not to call you again.
Now I feel safe to warn you, the number is 866-529-1899, their CID # is 716-650-6240 (which if you call it you can block your number their CID)
For about six months last year I was getting similar calls, that I never answered, from a number in the Chicago area. After some Googling, this turned out to be from an outfit called Arrow Financial. One of the things Arrow does is buy up old, uncollected debts for pennies on the dollar, then attempt to collect on the debt, keeping the proceeds. Often these debts are well past the staute of limitations for collection in the state where they were incurred. The collector nevertheless attempts to collect whatever they can, usually through a combination of repeated telephone calls, verbal abuse and threats of legal action, and relying on the assumption that the persons being dunned are unaware of their legal rights.
This is therefore a form of extortion and basically a scam, but, it seems, a legal one.
Arrow apparently was attempting to contact someone who had my phone number previously, as I have no such old debts to collect. It would appear that there is no use in actually talking to them, however; according to most stories I’ve heard, they will assume any person who to one of their calls is the debtor, and either attempt to coerce you into paying or demand that you give them personal information such as your social security number to ‘prove’ you are not the debtor.
The best response for the OP, IMO, if he/she is sure that no such collectable debt exists, is to simply ignore all such calls. If the debt is legit, the collecter is bound by law to provide a written statement listing the nature of the debt, the amount, the date it was incurred and who the original creditor was.
I can provide a couple of links on this subject if anyone needs more info.
To be fair, collection agencies are prohibited by Federal law from telling a third party they are trying to collect a debt, and may only even identify their employing collection agency if specifically asked. This is so that the debtor is not embarrassed by having third parties know his/her financial difficulties, since spreading that information around could well be a tactic to harass the debtor into paying, which is illegal. She could have identified herself by whatever fake name she uses for her job (“Ms. Jones”) but that wouldn’t have helped the conversation along much.
In case anyone is interested, in the U.S., consumer rights and collection agency responsibilities regarding debt collection are set forth in the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), found at 15 USC sec. 1601. This is a link to the FDCPA.
The problem with ignoring the calls is that they won’t stop calling. Why would they? They don’t know they have the wrong number.
The collector is bound by law to provide you the written information you listed, but only if you actually are the debtor and only after they’ve contacted you, the debtor (or the claimed debtor). So you can certainly tell them “Look, if you think I’m the debtor, send me written verification of the debt” and then when they do – as they are required by law to do – notify them in writing that you are not the debtor and they are to cease any futher attempts to collect the debt from you. But I don’t see how you get to that point if you just ignore their calls. The problem is they won’t stop calling until someone tells them to. For all they know you’re the actual debtor who is just refusing to return their call.
Oh, I’ll agree with that, and if the OP wants to respond, I say go ahead. Obviously you can call them back and ask for more info or tell them to piss off or whatever, but from what I understand, if it’s one of these scam artists like Arrow they will make even that one response something of a hassle to go through. For me, it was no problem not responding, because they would only try two or three times a week and because I never answer my land line anyway. Eventually, although took several months, they stopped calling.
You’re absolutely right; not calling back is always an option, and the easiest option if you can stand the incessant calling. Which is clearly a case of YMMV, since months of calling would bug the crap out of me.
Well, most of the time I wasn’t home when they called, so it was just a matter of deleting a message from my answering machine. I was kinda curious as well to see just how long they would continue to call a phone number that never, ever generated a response. I’m a bit funny in the head, I’ll admit.
Well I really just use that number for interent (yes I still have dialup), and outgoing calls, so I don’t even need a ringer on that line. It does have voicemail, which comes w/ the package, but I may just have the telco turn that off. Perhaps I could get my modem to autoanswer.
Well I’m going to ride it out for now and see where it goes.
