Debt collection wrong number

[Anonymous]

Hello!

My company switched telephone numbers about four months ago. About two weeks ago, I started receiving calls from Citi regarding a customer that is not me (names not similar at all) or anyone else who has ever worked at my company. I checked the number online and discovered that it is their debt collection department. They have been calling several times a day, even though I've told them repeatedly they have the wrong number. Up until now, it's been mildly irritating but not particularly worrisome. Tonight I received a call from someone on a blocked line who was incredibly aggressive and seemed to give me fake information about his identity. The fellow was very confrontational and seemed to be certain I was the person he was looking for -- it took a lot of effort to shoo him off. I surmise he's with an outside debt collection agency.

In any case, I'm now concerned I could actually be pinned for this random person's bad debt. I realized that I had listed my work number for one of my credit cards, so I immediately took that off. Is my anxiety warranted? What can I do? I just called Citi and demanded that they remove the number from their system, but doubt they will actually do this.

-David

[llecs]

Welcome to the forums!

I personally wouldn't worry about it. I'm also a business owner and we do have some legit calls come in from time to time calling for former employees. I'll do the right thing and politely tell them to stop calling and that the person no longer works for our firm. That works almost all the time, but every now and then, I'll get a knucklehead. I'm nice the first time. After that, my manners get tossed. I usually string the CAs along before having fun. I enjoy making teasing them and sometimes I do take it a bit too far.

Don't worry about it. When a phone number gets cancelled it'll remain unused for a few months before the phone company puts the number back in circulation. There's no way that you can be legally linked as the debtor. They can't report on your reports. Maybe with skip tracing they can link an address to the line, but that doesn't prove anything. Just have fun with it.

[RobertEG]

Since the calls are coming from what appears to be an initial credtior of the party, unfortunately, you cant invoke the protections of the FDCPA, which only apply to debt collectors.

If a debt collector conducted such a practice of calling, it would first be illegal under FDCPA for them to ask for anything more than current location information regarding the person, and if told once that you do not know the person or their location, futher calls would be barred by FDCPA 804.  They could not even state that they are calling regarding a debt alleged to be owed by the person.  Additionally, it is illegal under FDCPA 804(3) for a debt collector to call a consumer's place of empoyment once advised that the employer prohibits the consumer from receiving such communications.

However, if you ask who they are, and they use ANY name other than their own which would indicate that the person is attempting to collect a debt, even if they are a creditor attempting to collect their own debt, they become a "debt collector" under the provisions of FDCPA 804(6), and thus subject to all of the above prohibitions under the FDCPA.

I would ask who they are.  Make them become a debt collector!