HARRIASSMENT AT MY WORK PLACE
Complaint
MARIA DOSS
Country: United States
This collections company keeps calling my job. I've told them time and time again to stop. I've suggested them to take me to court and to quit calling my job. I work in a call center the phone lines are for customers and family emergencies. I cannot have personal phone calls. They call very rude and unprofessional. I can't get any information their telephone number is 855-868-2577. Please make them stop calling my job before I get fired.
Comments
If you get further harassing calls, file complaints with FTC and your state Attorney General, and find a consumer attorney, as calling you at work when you have told them to cease, and continued collection without providing any proof of the debt, is a violation of FDCPA for which you can sue them.
They were also required to send you a letter notifying you of the debt and your right to dispute it, within 5 days of their first contact. If they failed to send that letter, that is an additional violation of FDCPA.
You are replying to a post a year ago, alleging attempts to collect when they know they do not have any delinquent debts, and attempting to portray that collection, including communications by email, as "normal".,
Merchants use their services to process checks, and they then handle collection of any that bounce. They also have a record of complaints of erroneously contacting the wrong people, and continuing to engage in harassing calls and other collection activity even when notified they have the wrong person.
You should send a written dispute, mailed certified return receipt requested, disputing the alleged debt, and requesting proof you owe it. If you send that dispute within 30 days, they are required to cease all collection activity until they obtain and send you that validation.
A REAL legitimate collector will give you an address, the full name of the company, any other pertinent details, and thoroughly comply with the law. These people obviously aren't obeying the law, so you needn't give them anything.
Telling them not to call doesn't work. If you hear from them, just hang up. Don't speak to them. Explain to supervisors that they are not a law abiding organization and there is nothing you can do to stop them. Then tell them to look up payday loan debt scams. The information about this criminal extortion scam is growing every day.
Knowledge is power. Know your rights and know when someone is trying to scam you.
Washington, D.C. December 07, 2010
FBI National Press Office (202) 324-3691
The Internet Crime Complaint Center has received many complaints from victims of payday loan telephone collection scams. Callers claim the victim is delinquent in a payday loan and must repay the loan to avoid legal consequences. The callers purport to be representatives of the FBI, Federal Legislative Department, various law firms, or other legitimate-sounding agencies. They claim to be collecting debts for companies such as United Cash Advance, U.S. Cash Advance, U.S. Cash Net, and other Internet check-cashing services.
According to complaints received from the public, the callers have accurate data about victims, including Social Security numbers, dates of birth, addresses, employer information, bank account numbers, and the names and telephone numbers of relatives and friends. How the fraudsters obtained the personal information varies, but in some cases victims have reported they completed online applications for other loans or credit cards before the calls started.
The fraudsters relentlessly call the victim’s home, cell phone, and place of employment. They refuse to provide any details about the alleged payday loans and become abusive when questioned. The callers have threatened victims with legal actions, arrests, and, in some cases, physical violence if they do not pay. In many cases, the callers harass victims’ relatives, friends, and employers.
Some fraudsters have instructed victims to fax a statement agreeing to pay a certain amount, on a specific date, via a pre-paid Visa card. The statement further declares the victim will never dispute the debt.
If you receive these calls, do not follow the caller’s instructions. Rather, you should:
Notify your banking institutions.
Contact the three major credit bureaus and request an alert be put on your file.
Contact your local law enforcement agencies if you feel you are in immediate danger.
File a complaint at www.IC3.gov.
Tips to avoid becoming a victim of this scam:
Never give your Social Security number—or personal information of any kind—over the telephone or online unless you initiate the contact.
Be suspicious of any e-mail with urgent requests for personal financial information. The e-mail may include upsetting or exciting but false statements to get you to react immediately.
Avoid filling out forms in e-mail messages that request personal information.
Ensure that your browser is up-to-date and security patches have been applied.
Check your bank, credit, and debit card statements regularly to make sure that there are no unauthorized transactions. If anything looks suspicious, contact your bank and all card issuers.
When you contact companies, use numbers provided on the back of cards or statements
Do not believe anything they say
"email documents" would prove nothing.
If you know you didn't take out the "loan", then nothing these scammers fabricate will prove to you that you owe them.
Legitimate debt collectors will send you a letter within 5 days summarizing the details of the alleged debt, and notifying you that you can dispute and request validation, which they will obtain from the original creditor before proceeding with further collection activity.
Those who ignore legal compliance with debt collection laws are generally running scams and frauds.
Debt collectors are required to identify themselves when they call.
They are also required to state that they are calling you in order to collect a debt, and after their first contact with you, they are required to send you written notice of the alleged debt, also notifying you that you may dispute and request validation (proof) of the debt.
The lack of written communications, vague and inconsistent identification, calls to relatives in other states, and the veiled threat that you "would know what it is about" is also, however, consistent with a number of phony "bad check debt collector" extortion rackets. If you search on their phone number, you can often resolve the real (but possibly non-compliant) debt collectors from the fake criminal operations, by comparing with other reports on sites like 800notes.com
If you have not had any bounced checks, it may be that TRS has misidentified you in connection with someone else's check. Note that TRS has a poor record of correcting its "mistakes", so if this matter is not resolved quickly, seek assistance from your state Attorney General, or a consumer attorney in your state.
The repeated calls were a deliberate tactic designed to intimidate you and embarass you in front of your employer. They have already indicated they have every intention of violating federal law, including both the prohibition against calling you at work when they have been notified not to, and the prohibition against abusive collection and third party disclosure.
Get an attorney and sue them.Once your attorney has contacted them, any other contact not through your attorney is a further violation of law.
You might try www.naca.net to find a consumer attorney in your state.