topic Re: I think I may have been scammed. Please help!! in General Credit Topics

I think I may have been scammed. Please help!!

Queen_Etherea — Thu, 14 Jun 2018 19:16:28 GMT

Ok so I got a call from a debt collector last week out of the blue saying that they were going to deliver a summons to my work or place of residence the next day. They claimed Wells Fargo was suing me for an account that was overdrafted and never paid about 9 years ago. This is the first time I've ever heard about this and they claimed I owed around $900 after fees and everything. I asked for them to send me proof of the debt and they sent a page with their company letter head saying saying I owe xxx amount of money with Wells Fargo and even listed an account number. Also, this was never listed on my credit report.

I just called Wells Fargo and they said they have no record of that account #. I even gave her my social and nothing. She said some old accounts were sold to collection agencies, but they should still have a record in their system. I did have an old account with Wells Fargo, but I don't know if I owed any money on it. I very well could, but I want to be 100% sure of this debt. It seems odd that would contact me out of the blue like this when all the info on my credit report has been accurate for quite some time, and that this debt isn't even on my credit report.

If anyone has anyone else I can contact regarding this matter, or what other information I can get from the company that contacted me, that would be so wonderful. I asked for something from Wells Fargo showing what this was for, but all I got was that letter in an email.

Thanks,

Alex

Re: I think I may have been scammed. Please help!!

Zolomon — Thu, 14 Jun 2018 20:39:32 GMT

If you've checked your credit report and the collection is not listed, and Wells Fargo themselves are stating they have no record of such account, then it is a scam. If you've paid any amount of money to them, call the police and file a report for fraud.

Re: I think I may have been scammed. Please help!!

rbentley — Thu, 14 Jun 2018 20:42:38 GMT

This is a common scam, although usually they claim it is an IRS debt and that there is an arrest warrant out for you. Ignore it.

Re: I think I may have been scammed. Please help!!

Kree — Thu, 14 Jun 2018 21:41:14 GMT

You didn't pay money, and you verified with Wells Fargo that it was not a legitimate debt. As such you were not scammed. Good job.

Re: I think I may have been scammed. Please help!!

Anonymous — Thu, 14 Jun 2018 21:46:21 GMT

Just stop and think about it: no one is going to "warn" you that they're deliving a summons. That defeats the purpose. These people are hoping to scare you into paying money you don't owe.

Tell them to drop dead and stop contacting you.

Re: I think I may have been scammed. Please help!!

RobertEG — Thu, 14 Jun 2018 23:38:56 GMT

If you send a cease communication notice to them, citing FDCPA 805(c), that will impose a cease communication bar on them.

I would also send a copy of their validation letter to the CFPB as part of a formal complaint, explaining that the creditor denies that the asserted validation was provided to the debt collector.

Validation without any contact with or official file records provided by the creditor is a violation of the investigation requirement of FDCPA 809(b). If the CFPB has other complaints, it might provide additional support for them to pursue the debt collector.

Re: I think I may have been scammed. Please help!!

Anonymous — Fri, 15 Jun 2018 00:07:26 GMT

@RobertEG wrote:
If you send a cease communication notice to them, citing FDCPA 805(c), that will impose a cease communication bar on them.

I would also send a copy of their validation letter to the CFPB as part of a formal complaint, explaining that the creditor denies that the asserted validation was provided to the debt collector.
Validation without any contact with or official file records provided by the creditor is a violation of the investigation requirement of FDCPA 809(b). If the CFPB has other complaints, it might provide additional support for them to pursue the debt collector.

Doesn't the statue of limitations have a place in this action?

Re: I think I may have been scammed. Please help!!

Queen_Etherea — Wed, 27 Jun 2018 14:39:44 GMT

I filed a fraud claim with Wells Fargo and got my money back!!

Re: I think I may have been scammed. Please help!!

Anonymous — Wed, 27 Jun 2018 15:04:37 GMT

@Queen_Etherea
I filed a fraud claim with Wells Fargo and got my money back!!

What money?

Re: I think I may have been scammed. Please help!!

RobertEG — Wed, 27 Jun 2018 15:57:24 GMT

Expiration of SOL does not preclude continued collection attempts.

It only precludes their ability to file and obtain a civil judgment ordering payment of the debt.

A few states have their own enhanced debt collection practices statutes that do require notice to the consumer if the SOL has clearly expired, but there is no general requirement for such notice on the federal level, and thus no violation of federal statute or regs by not providing such notice to the consumer.

Re: I think I may have been scammed. Please help!!

Anonymous — Wed, 27 Jun 2018 19:16:36 GMT

My wife actually fell for this same type of scam on monday night. They called her Mom in a different state first, to ask if she lived there still, and then called and left my wife a message. The message said that they were going to serve her at our house between 3-5 pm the next day otherwise they will go to her place of employment to serve her there. Since we did have a mess back in 2008 and weren't able to address all of it, I told her to call and find out who they were trying to collect for. BIG MISTAKE.

They told her that we owed $5k to US Bank but would settle for $1800. We haven't had an account with them since 2008 and in MN the SOL is 6 years. She told them she was going to talk to me and get back to them. He then told her that if she got off the phone without agreeing to a payment plan that it would go back to $5k and they would serve her papers. She panicked and agreed to $50 payment now and then $150 per month. She gave him a credit card for the payments and they processed the first $50 that night.

I was worried that the payment plan would restart the SOL and they would be able to pursue legal action again. When I got home and listened to the message and read the email detailing the payment plan it all seemed really fishy. After researching the company, Great Lakes Capital Management, I had read other people scammed by them. We called the CC Company and cancelled the card and contested the charge as fraudulent. I sent them a reply email detailing violations of FDCPA, told them that all future communication would need to be in writing, and told them we had cancelled the card. I also searched the county records for any possible court records and found none. We haven't heard from them yet and I don't anticipate any further contact.

We had had no prior contact in years from US Bank and the amount wouldn't have been close, even with penalties and fees added.

Re: I think I may have been scammed. Please help!!

Anonymous — Wed, 27 Jun 2018 21:15:18 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:

We called the CC Company and cancelled the card and contested the charge as fraudulent. I sent [the scammers] a reply email detailing violations of FDCPA, told them that all future communication would need to be in writing, and told them we had cancelled the card.

When most people talk about cancelling a card, they mean closing it. Is that what you mean? Or do you just mean that the CC company is (as a result of the fraud) sending you a card with a new number?

Re: I think I may have been scammed. Please help!!

Anonymous — Wed, 27 Jun 2018 23:41:17 GMT

@RobertEG wrote:
Expiration of SOL does not preclude continued collection attempts.
It only precludes their ability to file and obtain a civil judgment ordering payment of the debt.

A few states have their own enhanced debt collection practices statutes that do require notice to the consumer if the SOL has clearly expired, but there is no general requirement for such notice on the federal level, and thus no violation of federal statute or regs by not providing such notice to the consumer.

Thank you for explaining the effects of SOL and the differences between state and federal governments.

Re: I think I may have been scammed. Please help!!

Anonymous — Thu, 28 Jun 2018 18:56:53 GMT

Yes we closed it. It was a crappy sub-prime card that we were going to close soon anyway.

Re: I think I may have been scammed. Please help!!

Anonymous — Sat, 30 Jun 2018 04:44:57 GMT

I bet this is the result of the Equifax data breach. They have your history and know enough to make you think it's a real collection by naming accounts you really had.

Re: I think I may have been scammed. Please help!!

DaveInAZ — Sat, 30 Jun 2018 13:35:38 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I bet this is the result of the Equifax data breach. They have your history and know enough to make you think it's a real collection by naming accounts you really had.

Not necessarily. I had a debt collector call me this week and threaten legal action - for a debt allegedly owed by my sister!

He called me on my cell phone, which I thought was strange as my phone is a Tracfone pre-paid, so the # isn't listed anywhere. He went a spiel about an $1800 debt owed to Huntington Bank, I cut him off and told him I've never done any business with Huntington Bank. He replies that the debt is owed by Mary XXX, my sister, who lives in Ohio, I'm in Arizona.

I reply: "You're calling me about a debt owed by someone named Mary? You have the wrong #, my name isn't Mary and there's no one here named Mary".

He replies: "We know she's your sister. Do you want your sister to go to jail?"

I think for a second and reply: "So look, I don't know anyone named Mary, and you should know that it's against the law to contact anyone about a debt except the person who actually owes the debt. Don't ever call me again!", and I hang up.

I got to thinking. I know Lexis Nexis connects me to my sister when we both had the same address - our parents address in Ohio, in the 1980s. I occasionally get questions about her in security screening questions and it always scares the crap out of me as she has terrible credit and usually has more than one bill collector chasing after her. And my cell phone#? It is my contact phone # for all my credit and banking, and I recently pulled my EWS report: BoA, Cap One 360 banking, Discover Bank & Chase all report my contact info - name, mailing address, email address, and phone #, which is my cell phone #. It's not any stretch to think that Lexis Nexis now has that info.Or in the least the big collection agencies subscribe to both Lexis Nexis and EWS. Our family name is pretty unusual, so it's not hard to make a connection.

Gee, thanks BoA, Cap One, Disco, Chase & EWS for putting my personal, private contact info out there.

Re: I think I may have been scammed. Please help!!

Anonymous — Fri, 06 Jul 2018 21:24:06 GMT

Yeah that's another way, and no doubt this kind of information could be obtained through other services, data breached, hacked email accounts, etc.

I guess the lesson is there is a new and more sophisticated type of scam running now where people have a lot of real information to use to try and make you believe it's legit.

Be very skeptical of any surprise collection where you didn't know you owed money, and EVEN IF YOU DID, always make your payment by independently contacting the party you owe money to, and never pay somebody who called you out of the blue.