Scam, much?Follow

Last night I recieved a phonecall from someone who would not tell me the companys name, stating that the state of Mass filed a complaint against my husband and he needed to call back immediatly. He wasnt home and by the way she was phrasing things it sounded dire. She refused to elaborate until she asked if I was his wife which I said I was. She then told me Cingular had sent a complaint for an unpaid bill of some ungodly amount and that as I was his wife I needed to pay it by credit card immediatly. I told her that as it was my husbands account I could not at the time, but I would pass on the message to him. She then told me that if I didnt pay it right then and there she would ruin my husbands credit and mine alongside. Alarm bells rang in my head. Im not on his account for the account they were talking about and as far as I know, that can not be done. I said I would not pay now but I would pass the message on. She hung up on me.

Flabbergasted, I called back, intending to talk to a higher up or CR. A man answered the phone, mumbled the companys name which I didnt get. I asked to talk to a higher up or CR. He asked why and I told him one of the employees had hung up on me after threatening me. He got nasty and told me then obviously I had a payment to make and would I take care of it now? I told him I didnt it was for my husband and I would let him deal with it, but that I wished to talk to a manager about the professionalism of one of his employees. The guy then told me it was a collection agency and I should go look it up in the dictionary, and that if I didnt pay immediatly he would personally ensure that my husband and my credit was ruined. I refused and he hung up on me.

I called back about 8 more times, to have them either hang up the moment they heard my voice or to let it ring. So, I called Cingular. I found out there was acollection agency on my husband but it was for a pitiful amount which I took care of immediatly.It was nowhere near the amount the other comapny was demanding. However, I asked for the name and number of the agency they used and the numbers didnt match up. Not a big deal, except Cingular could not match up the number I had recieved through caller ID with any they had for the agencies they used. And as I didnt get the name of the company claling me we couldnt figure out if they were one and the same.

This morning I called the number again pretending to make it a wrong number and got the name of the company. It was Morgan IC, not the company Cingualr had used. I called the agency that Cingular HAD used to see if they were anyway affiliated. They weren't and had never heard of Morgan before. So I called the BBB. I told them the story, and they definitely believe it is a scam. They ran the name of the agency and numbers and found nothing listed at all. But the bad thing is they cant do anything about it unless there is an address. That's quite the loophole for scammers, Im thinking. So now husband is off trying to call and get an address, seeing as they know my voice pretty damn well by now.

Anyways thanks to Smoggy, Bloodwolf, Nephs brother and Bhodis GF for listening to me rant on WOW while this was going on. Poor things had to listen to a shaking DSD froth at the mouth. Thanks Smoggy for the advice. Let's see if I can make it go anywhere

Edited, Thu Dec 29 14:01:10 2005 by DSD

Oh wow, how frustrating, but at least you didn't fall for it!

I wonder if it was just coincidence that this company happened to call someone who actually had an outstanding debt with Cingular or do they somehow have access to who has been turned over to a collection agency?

Cingular recently almost turned me over to a collection agency. Long story, be careful if you move and change your cell number, Cingular can't keep up with who you are and it is easy to miss paying bills.

I wonder if these same jerks would have been calling me about it. Something tells me yes.

Under the fair debt collection laws they are not supposed to threaten you or give false information (like telling you they can ruin your credit if you are not on the account) and they can be reported most likely to the FTC.

Linky


I was always under the impression that unless the business was a member of the BBB there is not much BBB can do other than maybe make a file about them.

People who try to scam people like this make me lose faith in society.




Aboslutely Nothing.

It might not hurt to call the local media. Our local news station has a hotline for consumer help, scams and such. Even if your local news station doesn't have something like this they may be interested in helping or at least publicizing your story so that more people can be made aware of it. The FCC and such may not be able to do much, but almost everyone watches TV and word of mouth can be a powerful thing.

yeah, just people did that for me.

in Baltimore, we used to "get Gelfman". A local news guy who was ruthless against stuff like this.


could always just scream into the wind »»» http://www.complaints.com/

You could pay 5 bucks to reverse search the number you have called. I couldn't find a site that would do this for free. If it works you would have the address and names of those who reside there. From here you could ask any adolescent male to give you ideas about revenge! I’m sure you have some of your own though.

I was going to suggest "Help Me Hank" but I see you've beat me to it. She's more than willing to go after scammers and help report them to the authorities. Hope she follows through with this.

http://www.anywho.com/rl.html

Doesn't usually find a match for the numbers I try, but worth a shot.

Ya **** like this is why I don't rent from Blockbuster anymore. I had a collection agency calling and threatening me a few years back. They wanted like $75 (for $7 in overdue movies plus collection charges). I put them on hold and called Blockbuster on my other line and confirmed with the manager I had no late fees, but also found out that the collection agency had free access to their database and was trying to collect late fees I paid the month prior.

I got back on the phone with the collection agent and told them I had confirm with Blockbuster I had no late fees. The chick starts going of on how they will ruin my credit if I dont pay and I told her to stop calling me as I owed nothing. Then the Blockbuster manager (whom I had conferenced in) spoke up and confirmed I had no late fees.

I had to get a written confirmation that I owed no fees to send to the collection agency before they would stop calling.

The fact that they let this company have free access to my account info and the threatening manor was enough for me to drop Blockbuster all together.

Edit for typos--probably still missed some

Edited, Thu Dec 29 17:41:43 2005 by BloodwolfeX

sorry to hear you were the target of a scam like that, had to deal with same thing not to long ago.

one thing i was able to do was have the phone company give me the address to match the phone number, you can also try to google for that number, but doubt you will find anything there for it.

a real dirty trick to do if it is an 800# or toll free number like 877 or 888 or one of those, is to post it and let a bunch of people call in to harash them for name of company, address, etc... by FEDERAL law they have to provide that information when asked.

you can also turn them into the FCC as they are in direct breach of FCC regulations with telemarketing and collections.

good luck either way.

*grins*

remember to *67 before you call.


tried just now, but line is busy... ill try later after i finish some work.