You need to answer New Phone - Who Dis? and see if they get the reference.
It is not your job to correct their mistakes. If you do get in contact with them they will go into Weve got a live one mode and will use any means legal and illegal to get money from you. Remember 90% or more of all the numbers they call give no response. Once they get a response, they are not going to let go. They do not care who it is, they just want money.
Not my experience. These are bill collectors, not tele-marketers, and they are bound by Federal Law. They have always stopped after i got ahold of them, altho sometimes there was one more call the next day.
Depends on who they are. The sleazier the collection agency, the more likely they don’t care. The bigger and more established companies, however, most certainly do care: spending money pursuing somebody who isn’t liable and isn’t going to pay is a waste of money, and for the creditors themselves, harassing somebody who might be a paying customer of your firm is definitely a losing proposition.
I am at our cottage for Christmas; we haven’t been here since August. Listening to the answering machine has been very entertaining… a lot of robo-calls trying to sell me reduced interest loans etc but a couple I feel bad about…one from a doctor’s office … A cardiologist I think… offering a time slot to someone on their waiting list. They called two or three times back in November and then gave the slot to someone else. While it’s dumb that your doctor doesn’t have the right contact info for you, I hope the appointment wasn’t for something serious.
The other calls came from someone’s busy body neighbour inquiring if someone was feeding the three cats in the house. She said if she didn’t get a call back she was going to call the SPCA. She kept calling threatening to report this person with the final call ending with “you’re going to be in trouble” in this creepy sing-song voice. That was back in Septemebr so I hope the kitties are ok.
There seem to be a lot of people in Nova Scotia with my phone number!
It’s posts like this that make me wish the SDMB had a “Like” button.
I was getting a lot of calls on my cellphone from a number that I Googled and which turned out to be a scamming collection agency.
I never answered any of them and eventually they moved on to more promising targets.
Now if I could only do something about the IRS agents who call and threaten to put me in jail. I send them money but they keep coming back…
Brilliant! I have been getting calls for my brother even though we haven’t seen each other in over 25 years. But I do have an address for him. I have been giving the debt collectors phone numbers from my cell phone’s blocked number list.
Yes, I know - I work for Windows and your computer keeps sending error messages about it. You need to go to this website so we can fix the problem.
Regards,
Shodan, Wife of the Former Oil Minister with $10 million USD that I need to Get Out of the Country
[QUOTE=racer72;18948674 I have been giving the debt collectors phone numbers from my cell phone’s blocked number list.[/QUOTE]
What a great idea! Thanks!
I went through one of those this year. Kept getting calls from someone who clearly stated they were a debt collection agency. I ignored them for months. We screen all calls and don’t answer anything we don’t know. I absolutely knew I owed no one any money, but I couldn’t get it out of my head that it might have been an old video rental of my daughter’s from years ago, or some other. So, one fine day, I decided to engage them. I called the number back. The gal who answered the phone was the same one who made the recorded message. She didn’t ask my name. She already knew it. No big deal since there are something like five of us in the city I’m in. She asked me about an address associated with the debt. No, wasn’t me. Never lived there. She said thanks, and that she would update the information. That was it. An actual professional encounter. She was just working on first contact. The real collector would have called back.
When they ask for the person they want, just say “Oh, yes, I’ve heard of him – I bought the house from his estate.” If they go on to ask where he can be located, give them the name of a local cemetery.
Collection Agencies lie to people all the time – I see no reason to be honest with them. Especially when they don’t pay attention to true information. But this will usually get them to stop calling you.
Process servers are also a lot of fun. A few years ago, one contacted me about my ex-husband, who I hadn’t seen in about 10 years. I told the server this, and he kept asking if I had any information at all. After about the fifth or sixth time telling him that no, I have no idea where he is or how to get a hold of him, he asked if I would accept service on my ex’s behalf. I told him no, and that if I were served, I would throw the envelope in the trash. I’m not doing someone’s job for them. I didn’t hear back from him.