This one is actually legitimate. I just looked up the number in my "Rolodex" and realized who it was. This number belongs to United Adjustment Services, a collection service for several Rural Health facilities here in southernmost Illinois. My doctor is a Rural Health provider. I believe this collector also provide services for the various Community Health facilities. They never make demands or try to humiliate or threaten debtors. In fact, their first question is to find out the days & times are best for a call back to work through (instead of "settle") their bill. Generally, if it's the first time, they briefly explain that they provide a SERVICE for health care providers, but their ultimate goal is to provide PEACE OF MIND for the people they call..... individuals with medical debt, 10. The people there who make the calls take that statement very seriously. (I'll bet THAT'S a first for you, huh?) I'm unblocking them now.

August 10, 2022

Medical bills

July 30, 2022

Fake "lower your interest rate" credit services scam call by madarchod criminals phoning from India This is a fake "lower your interest rate" credit services scam call by criminals phoning from India, trying to steal your credit card numbers, Social Security number, date of birth, and personal information. There are hundreds of these India scams where they either pretend to be fake debt collectors threatening you for debts that you do not owe, offer to lower the interest rate on a fake student loan that you do not have, consolidate all your debts at 0% interest, or give you an unsecured $100,000 line of credit. This call begins with a pre-recorded stiff robotic speaker who says, "this is cardholder services calling in account reference to your current credit card account, there are now problems with your account, it is urgent to you contact us concerning your eligibility for zero interest rate that expires shortly so please consider this your final notice, please press one on your phone now to speak with a live operator to lower your interest rate on your credit card." The robotic English message with bad grammar is generated using text-to-speech translation software to disguise the origin of this India scam. If you respond to the call, then you get transferred to the East Indian scammer who tells you that because of your good credit history, he can offer you lower interest rates... he just needs all your credit card numbers and SSN "for verification purposes". More than 95% of all North America phone scams originate from crowded phone rooms in India that rotate through numerous different fraud, extortion, and money laundering scams every day such as pretending to be a fake pharmacy, posing as fake Social Security officers saying your benefits are suspended or fake IRS officers collecting on fake unpaid back taxes or fake bill collectors threatening you for fake unpaid debts, pretending to offer fake health insurance, car warranty, and debt, student loan forgiveness, credit card consolidation services, posing as Amazon to falsely say that an unauthorized purchase was made to your account or that your Prime membership was auto-debited from your credit card or bank account, posing as Microsoft or HP to say that your software needs renewal or they detected a problem with your computer, fake "we are refunding your money" or "your account has been auto-debited" scams, fake Google/Alexa listing and work-from-home scams, pretending to be DHL, UPS, or a bank, falsely stating that they installed ransomware virus on your computer and you need to pay them money, etc, and the scammers try to steal your credit card, bank account and routing number, or Social Security number and personal information. Some scammers try to gain your trust by looking up the name associated with your phone number and asking for you by name when they call. Many India scammers now phone you with an initial pre-recorded robotic person speaking English, Spanish, or Chinese that is easily generated using text-to-speech translation software to disguise the origin of their India phone room, but then you speak to the East Indian scammer when you take the bait and respond to the pre-recorded message. Scammers always either use disposable VoIP phone numbers (e.g. MagicJack devices) or they spoof fake Caller ID phone numbers. Anyone, including you, can use telecom software or a third-party service to phone using fake names and phone numbers that show up on Caller ID. India scammers often spoof fake toll-free Caller ID numbers that begin with "8". The Caller ID name and number is often useless with scam calls unless the scam setup asks you to phone them back and the Caller ID area code is almost never the area from which the scam call actually originated since many scams use fake area codes from across the U.S. and Canada, and also purposely faked foreign country Caller ID numbers (e.g. fake women crying "help me" emergency scams often use fake Mexico and Middle Eastern Caller ID numbers). Some India scammers also spoof the actual real phone numbers of businesses such as Apple, Verizon, and U.S. banks so when you phone the number back, you realize that you were scammed from the spoofed Caller ID number of the actual business. What is the best way to avoid being scammed by a phone call? Never trust any unsolicited caller or anyone who phones you with any kind of sales offer (more than 90% of unsolicited sales calls are scams so your odds of saving money are poor), any kind of legal or arrest threats, any claims of suspicious activity on an account, any claims of refunds or auto-renewed/auto-debited accounts, and any pre-recorded messages. Any unsolicited caller with a foreign accent (nearly always East Indian) should immediately be treated as a scam until carefully proven otherwise. India scammers do not care about the U.S. National Do-Not-Call Registry and asking scammers to stop calling has no effect. I love to play with these scammers and keep them on the phone by pretending to be interested in their scam because many scam victims are the senile elderly. You do these scammers a favor by yelling at them and immediately hanging up. But you ruin their scams by slowly dragging them along on the phone call, calling them back if their phone number can be phoned, pretending to be interested in their product or service, pretending that you are worried when they threaten you, always giving them fake credit card numbers and fake personal information, asking them to speak louder and to repeat what they said to use up more of their energy, pretending to innocently ask the scum why he is shouting profanities at me, etc. The best defense against phone scammers is a good offense by not quickly hanging up the phone, but instead toying with them for at least 10 or 20 minutes to use up more of their time and energy so they have less time to deceive an elderly victim. Never give an unknown caller your credit card number or Social Security number. Companies who already have your information may ask for the last four digits for verification. Some India scammers ask for your bank account and routing number or ask you to wire transfer them a payment, giving a fake explanation that they cannot accept a credit card or personal check. This is an instant scammer alert because scammers can withdraw money if they know your bank account and routing number (e.g. counterfeit cashed checks) and illegal wire transfers are far less traceable than unauthorized credit card charges. India scammers may threaten to have you arrested, but the IRS, Social Security Administration, and debt collectors cannot threaten to arrest or sue you on the phone; they are required to send you paper notices by registered mail. The police and FBI also will never phone you and say that officers are coming to arrest you (many India extortions threaten to send officers); if the police really want to arrest you, they just show up with a warrant without phoning first. Some India scammers ask you to use your browser to visit a website that allows the scammer to directly access and control your computer and then they can install a ransomware virus to extort money from you, or they ask you to download a virus file to your computer. If the scam sounds very authentic, ask the scammer for their verifiable company name, street address, and a callback number that can be searched and matched to the company name and address, which all real businesses will provide. Every East Indian scammer will immediately fail this test since they all use spoofed fake Caller ID numbers or VoIP numbers that they quickly dispose of. Never trust any unsolicited call because they are mostly scammers, usually with a slight or strong East Indian foreign accent, and most scam calls originate from India. No other foreign country is infested with numerous noisy sweatshops filled with phone scam criminals who belong to the lowest India caste and many are thieves, robbers, and rapists who were serving jail sentences but released early due to prison overcrowding. Most India scammers are men, but many are women who also readily shout profanities. Just laugh at them. Google "Hindi swear words" and memorize some favorites to feed to these scammers.

February 12, 2020