Harassment
Complaint
Debra M. Persiano
Country: United States
I got a call today at home from a man stating he was a process server for Collin County DA's Office and he is with the Sheriff's office and needed to come serve a warrant on me. I was shocked and asked why? He stated do you live ....are you still at this address are you now at this address and I stated who are you? He again, stated he was from the county going to serve court papers on me today. He gave me a toll free number for what he stated was the county's office which is 1 866.872.6116 gave me a case no. which he called a Cause No. 008307-TX. I called the number was transferred to a Mr. Fisher's office who stated that law suite in the amount of $6,214.24 was filed in Collin Co., Tx and that warrant was out for me. He then after back and forth said let me get more information from my secretary and state this was for an outstanding debt in from Capital One a credit card that I obtained several years back and had disputes over interest charges etc. He stated that if I did not want to go to court or jail that I could pay $1,951.00 in full by end of business today and this matter could be cleared up. I explained that I recently lost my job etc. Anyway, he stated that I needed to call him back by EOB today or they will serve the papers. Ok, so that was a heads up for me. I called the DA's office nothing is filed on me as of today, after searching PMG it is clear that they do not practice best practices for collections and have been in trouble for this before back in 2004. I need someone to give me advise. I want to pay off my debt, I don't want this type of collections to continue this upset me, made my blood pressure raise, this type of collections are not the right thing to do. Had they called and ask to make arrangements or give me an opportunity to clear the matter, rather then threaten me by taken legal action, or harassment stating they are sending a sheriff over today. This is wrong, bad business, and should not continue this company is bad news.
Comments
A growing number of consumer complaints of fraudulent charges by Experian may really have been evidence of illegal purchases of consumer credit reports by id thieves, to be sold and traded through black market websites.
http://redtape.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/26 ... ainst-consumers
"...
EXCLUSIVE: Hackers turn credit report websites against consumers
By Bob Sullivan
The most important tool consumers have to fight against ID theft has been turned against them by hackers, msnbc.com has learned. Websites that offer consumers a chance to see their credit reports are being brazenly used by hackers to steal victims' information.
The prices of the reports rise and fall depending on the credit score of the victim. For consumers with credit scores in the 750s, report data might fetch $80; reports from victims with scores in the low 600s sell for about half that, according to "for sale" pages viewed by msnbc.com.
"It shows how people with good credit and a net worth now have a bull’s-eye on their backs," said Dan Clements, who operates the Internet security firm CloudEyez.com. Clements gave msnbc.com a virtual tour of the marketplaces, which he has been observing for months.
The most troubling part of these markets however – many hosted in the .su domain, which stands for the now-defunct Soviet Union – is the ready availability of credit reports and the hackers' bragging about how easy it is to infiltrate websites like AnnualCreditReport.com or CreditReport.com.
"I'm selling super prime credit reports and scores which include all 3 bureaus and other information," brags one advertisement on one site.
Clements helped msnbc.com view dozens of credit reports on the forum, many of which had CreditReport.com stamped across the first page. But others viewed by msnbc.com indicated they were stolen from AnnualCreditReport.com and Equifax.com. Clements said most other online credit report and some credit score suppliers were hit, too -- he shared a page showing a victim's score produced at CreditKarma.com.
"We really have no idea how many reports have been used or put up for sale in the 'libraries,'" said Clements, who also operates a consulting firm.
The credit report trade shows why even simple credit card fraud – long considered a relatively benign form of ID theft – can escalate quickly into a full-blown identity nightmare. Criminals with stolen cards can obtain background reports, credit reports and ultimately open new accounts using the information gleaned about the victim, Clements said.
In one how-to posted on a bulletin board, a hacker describes one brute-force attack used to gain access to credit report websites. Most sites are protected by "challenge" questions such as, "Which bank holds the mortgage on your home?" But there's a critical flaw, the hacker said:
"Normally all ... of them will ask you the same question," the hacker wrote.
Because the sites use the multiple choice format, it's easy to use the process of elimination and determine the correct answers, he claims.
The hacker explained that the trick is to open several credit report sites and keep trying random answers until one set works.
The recipe is highly detailed, including helpful tips such as, "Take a shot of screen to remember what answers you gave. After that click the submit button and see what it says."
..."
The common factor is that the CRA security and customer vetting procedures are so lax that they allow both types of fraud to continue with little impediment. Despite their pious statements of how they are protecting consumers from id theft and other illicit uses of credit reports, even selling consumers services to supposedly monitor and watch for it, they are probably one of the major sources of identity data leaks allowing it.
They make money selling data to all comers, even those using stolen credit cards, and even set up credit files for illegal aliens using "borrowed" SSNs, then they make more money "helping" the victims.
Their consumer credit report site security is a joke, just like their debt collector client vetting.
They are a critical lynch-pin in these scam debt collection operations, so if you don't want to forever play wack-a-mole, that's what you have to change.
that fraudulently becomes a client of theirs is entitled to all my private information?
This is crazy!!!!!! Maybe we are going after the wrong business.
In retrospect, the online credit report sites' security was breached by techniques many high school kids would recognize: Just keep trying and guessing til you get a hit. You don't even use the stolen card number until you're in, and if the name doesn't match the card, no big deal, it's not even a red flag.
The problem created by skip-trace services is one the public has been largely unaware of, unless you have been targetted by one of these "process server" scams. The whole game of locating relatives, to threaten, coerce, and imply a "lawsuit", depends on Accurint. They sold their data for use in an extortion racket, and that should be treated as seriously as Choicepoint selling their data to criminals.
Try getting a copy of your Accurint file. In particular, try getting a list of the inquiries, like you can with your credit report. Accurint will sell more information on you to their clients than they will ever reveal to you, even if a lot of it is junk. They create the same fraud opportunities as Facebook, with possible disclosure of personal information to complete strangers with unknown motives, useful for "social engineering" frauds. The "process server" con is basically a "social engineering" fraud.
How can you hold these people accountable, when you can't even see who's using them to target you, and what they are doing?
The utter failure of the CRAs' security, and their inability to prevent massive theft that they should have been aware of, does however, offer an opportunity. The pressure must come from the public, and be directed through their elected representatives in Congress. This is an election year.
If you blindly follow some procedure, and are not actively looking for and aware of possibly changing threats, sooner or later you will get stung. You are dealing with adversaries that are not limited by your procedures and habits, that are in fact looking for opportunities to take advantage of them.
You ignore small charges fraud, and the crooks will do all their fraud through small charges.
You set report thresholds below which a threat is not "significant", and the crooks will just make up a batch of names so that complaints against each one will slip under your threashold.
Ignore whole categories of fraud, because historically they have always been "overseas" and out of your reach, and you'll wake up one day and find some crook here just made it look like it was overseas, till it grew into the tens of millions.
Ignore your bank statements, or only look at larger charges, and the small charges crammers are ready to slip a charge per month by you. It's not a lot, but with millions of "customers" they can do very well, lots of fast cars and "blow" on the weekend.
If you are a banker, law enforcement, or state or federal regulator, don't follow hard and fast rules about doing nothing. Recognize why you are doing this, or any other security procedure. Thresholds may represent a business policy decision reflecting costs vs. benefits, but those are based on risks and conditions at the time they were made. Conditions change, your adversary adapts, your response should change.
Even TSA knows this, randomly picking 1 in N passengers for more complete screening. It can't guarantee you catch everything, but it means your adversary can't count on systematically slipping through based on knowing your procedures. More importantly, if your adversary starts testing something different, there is a chance you might catch it, soon enough to adjust your tactics.
The value of catching unexpected outliers is not in the direct losses prevented but in the necessity to catch, track, and respond to change. The exceptions, the deviations, the differences from expected, are where the information lives that tells you that something has changed, or that there is a discrepancy between what you believe and the real world. They may appear statistically insignificant, but from a dynamic viewpoint, they are critical.
Give your adversary some credit, if they are surviving, they aren't total idiots.
The mammals beat the dinosaurs.
Smart wins.
Don't be dumb.
Or, you want others to believe this.
Just because you claim or pretend to believe it is no reason others should follow.
What you believe only provides clues to your own motives, goals, and background.
The perception you wish to create is just that, and may have little to do with reality.
You are an occupant of the House of Games, but you are now playing in the House of Mirrors.
Welcome to the Corona Room.
Deception aims at illusion, but it IS evidence.. of deception.
http://www.geom.uiuc.edu/graphics/pix/Video_P ... EucTiling3.html
You, on the other hand, identify yourself as from the Corona world. Your "loser who could not cut it" talk labels you as from this debt collection culture, much like an accent. Presumably you are, or pretend to be, "Jim Donovan" formerly with CMAG.
So what's your viewpoint, other than discrediting other sources of information?
(Your very attempt suggests "fyi" is accurate.)
And why do you all type in upper case?
Before Pam took down her facebook page, she had posted that she was opening another office in Anaheim she called PB Recoveries.
http://members.calbar.ca.gov/fal/Member/Detail/174528