Collection Calls

S

Sad Max

Artful Dodger
So over the last several months I have noticed that I'm getting calls from various agencies attempting to collect on various debts...and that none of the debts they're trying to collect are actually mine.

Usually I have a first or a last name in common with the individual they're after, or a partial address, but sometimes it's total out-of-left field stuff that leaves me wondering if they just threw a dart at a phone book and dialed accordingly.

This seems pretty new to me; I figure that with the state of the economy collectors are getting desperate like a lot of other people, and are increasingly just stabbing in the dark in the hope of maybe actually catching up with the people who will pay them.

Anyone else notice this increasingly going on?
 
Not that, but I've recently been double billed for some medical tests, and a friend who works in hospital billing told me it's common for them to try to bill you again just to see who bites...similar tactic.

Last time I was on the phone with them, telling them I already paid the bill UP FRONT, I let them know my feelings on the subject. Loudly.
 
My brother is a deadbeat whom I share the same last name with. I get deluged with collection calls for his mess all of the time, it is maddeningly frustating.

Dan
 
Yep, but we just moved into a house and got a phone line added for our security system. Apparently the guy that used to have our number is named Nathan, and he owes a lot of people money. Enough that we're still getting 4 calls a DAY for him, and we tell them this isn't his number anymore.
 
Come to think of it, almost 16 years after buying the present house I still occasionally find a collection notice addressed to the previous owners, in my mailbox...
 
find out who they are. send them a certified letter and tell them this is not you, or your debt and (most importantly) they may not contact you further regarding this. Once they've received that letter, if they ever contact you again, then you *may* be entitled to a fine for each offense... Which may vary by state. It's not a "telemarketing" fine. It would be a fine against a collector for doing stuff they aren't supposed to... Could be 1200/pop from one example.

Short version... even if a debt were yours, once you send a letter telling the collection agency that they may no longer contact you by phone, they must cease, and will only be able to contact you by mail.
 
On days when I'm *really* bored I prefer to keep them on the line for as long as possible before they start to figure out that they have the wrong person...
 
We get calls about our credit cards being over due, "Last warning" ect. We don't have any credit cards.

We also get collection bills at our house for a guy we've never heard of and has never lived here, ever. We notified the post office numerous times, but, yep, they keep coming and into the trash they go.

Basically, long story short, we get about 10 calls a day from idiots, which we don't answer, or try not to.

We have to watch the call display before we answer, and if we don't know the number, it doesn't get anwsered.

Working so far but it's still inconvenient when it rings then we have to check the number first, see if anyone knows it... heck.
 
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My brothers and I sometimes get debt phone calls for my Mom's second husband (asswipe jerk) whom she divorced over 20 years ago.
 
Mark Harris said:
Not that, but I've recently been double billed for some medical tests, and a friend who works in hospital billing told me it's common for them to try to bill you again just to see who bites...similar tactic.
Click to expand...
Had that happen to me when I went to the ER, just shredded it, and never got another notice... its cause I already paid for it on my insurance, I knew it was the double bite
 
We are in the process of buying an income property. Throughout this process, so far, we have had the escrow company, the mortgage broker and the home insurance all try to rip us off. We have sent deposits and various payments to all three entities that conveniently have not shown up in various cosolidations and breakdowns until I raise holy hell over the phone and I have had to go to my bank to prove that the entities have, in fact, cashed my checks.

I believe that various companies and entities make it an unofficial procedure to try to obtain extra overages, misc. fees and charges from consumers. They can then stick this money into a slush account and earn interest on it while the victim is unaware that the company even ripped them off. Then when the consumer determines that the company has ripped them off and threatens them with legal action, BBB or the local District Attorney, the company cheerfully refunds the money with a profuse apology, money that has been sitting in this slush account earning them interest. In this way, they are not sued and barely skirt around being prosecuted and they make the interest off of this slush account. When you are a corporate entity and may have a few million dollars locked up in this "off of the books" slush account, that interest adds up very nicely.

I used to feel that most corporations and businesses were basically honest but I no longer hold these thoughts, I bave been proven incorrect several times over the past few years and the great Recession has simply exacerbated this issue. Watch your money people because the large majority of institutions and corporations will try to rip you off at every opportunity that they can.

Dan
 
My home phone number is two digits off UCLA Medical center's number so we get a lot of calls for people needing appointments.
What I find a bit amusing is that the answering machine lets you know we're not a business, but people still insist on listing
their personal health problems on the machine and how they need an appointment with doctor so-and-so.

What's really annoying is when they continually try to FAX something over to UCLA and we keep hearing the
beep on the other line.
 
Not on topic, but I got an invoice from my hosting company IX Webhosting for $91 for the coming year. Last year it was around $60, so I screamed. They wrote back and apologized for "the mistake".

Now, IX Webhosting is full of GEEKS from top to bottom..... and their automated billing "supposedly" had a "mistake" in it ???

My sweet pattot it was a mistake !!!!

If they can't get their billing straight (yeah right) I am still supposed to assume they know everything about hosting, servers and misc other GEEK things ???
 
The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) applies to personal, family, and household debts. This includes money you owe for the purchase of a car, for medical care, or for charge accounts. The FDCPA prohibits debt collectors from engaging in unfair, deceptive, or abusive practices while collecting these debts. Under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act:

Debt collectors may contact you only between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m.

Debt collectors may not contact you at work if they know your employer disapproves.

Debt collectors may not harass, oppress, or abuse you.

Debt collectors may not lie when collecting debts, such as falsely implying that you have committed a crime.

Debt collectors must identify themselves to you on the phone.

Debt collectors must stop contacting you if you ask them to do so in writing.
 
I get debt collection calls from names that are vaguely similar to mine, but nowhere near the same... probably desperate shot in the dark.

Not as bad as when i had a phone number one digit off from a pediatrician's- calls in the middle of the night, long messages on my machine describing symptoms.

I almost had my outgoing message say "I'm not a doctor, I just have a number similar to one..."
 
Some of these instances being described sound like collectiors trying to get a lead on skip traces. But some make me wonder if you guys ought to pull a credit report and see if someone has gotten you mixed up in identity theft...on the victim side of things.
 
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