Was this phone call a scam?

[Anonymous]

I have gotten a similar call several times now.

I have not ever had a payday loan in my life.

I assume my deadbeat former roommate may have had them, and may even be in default on them (since she defaulted on basically everythign else in her life including our lease), but she is not me.  Not sure if that's how they got my phone number (maybe she wrote me in as some sort of "reference" or something?), but at any rate I still get these stupid scam calls.

[pipeguy]

If you want to have fun with them - don't admit it, but say "Oh man I have to pay that, just tell me where to send the Money Order" then insist on a physical address so you can fedex the money order - now you have a name and address to file a complaint 

[StartingOver10]

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@pipeguy wrote:

If you want to have fun with them - don't admit it, but say "Oh man I have to pay that, just tell me where to send the Money Order" then insist on a physical address so you can fedex the money order - now you have a name and address to file a complaint 

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^^Good idea pipeguy.

Also, these Payday Loan Collection Scams have been around for a very long time - they use various names - some fake, some borrowed from legitimate sources. They use many different numbers.  If they have your actual bank account numbers and other valid data, it is a form of ID theft and precautions should be taken - even if they are scammers. 

Found an FTC article that is a little more detailed  here  http://www.dfi.wa.gov/consumer/alerts/cash-advance-group-payday-loan-debt-collection-scam

Here is a pretty good post about how to spot one of these payday loan collection scams:  https://www.avvo.com/legal-guides/ugc/how-to-spot-a-payday-loan-collection-scam

[Anonymous]

Work's been busy so I'm finally getting a chance to get back on and see these comments.  After the last call, figuring that it was indeed a scam, I just blocked the phone number on my phone.  

I'm not sure if this payday loan they called about was the legit one I actually got or if it was another I had to sign up and fill in some basic information for while shopping for the "best" option.  I will take action to safeguard my accounts though.  I have a different back account number since the one used all of those years ago although I am still with the same bank.  Also that address is 3 addresses old and they only repeated the last four of my social which leads me to believe they didn't have the entire thing.  

As for the crime part, they did use the word crime.  She told me that what I did was a serious crime in which I wrote a bad check and it was considered a felony.  The thing was, I never wrote any checks the way you guys described.  The loan that I actually recieved, I gave them my bank account details and we setup an agreed payment date on which they were authorized to debit funds from my account.  I remember this because I had to fax and authorization form back to them.  Never did I write a check or say I was planning to allow a debit for payment when the funds were not available.  So their whole fraud angle is just that, an angle to try and scam me into paying them money.  I did see in the news, after years of scamming, that the fake IRS phone scammers were caught in some other country.  The cops are happy to inherit their funds, I'm sure.  $90k-150k a day in revenue the news report said.  You wonder in the goverment over there turns a blind eye just to let this thing grow before they bust them and "seize" the money.

ANYWAY, thank you all so very much for the replies!!