SCAM! FAKE phantom debt collection scam by madarchod criminals phoning from India. This is what the Federal Trade Commission calls a phantom debt collection scam where the scammer pretends to be a bank (often impersonating Chase, Credit One, Wells Fargo, Citibank, Bank of America, Capital One, American Express, US Bank), PayPal/Venmo, AR Recovery, credit union, utility company, debt collector, credit agency, billing department, lawyer, or law enforcement and threatens to sue or arrest you using lies, harassment, and intimidation to collect on fake debts that you do not owe. Debt collection scams are very common because many people carry debts, so it is easy for scammers to phish for gullible victims. And debt collection scams have vastly increased this year to prey upon the larger number of people in debt. The India scammer asks for you by your name in order to sound like a personal phone call to gain your trust, but they are auto-dialing everyone. The scammer may say "I am calling on a recorded line" just to sound official, but it is fake! The scammer either mentions an unpaid debt and past due amount that must be paid immediately or says that they have frozen your account due to fraudulent activity. The scammer then asks for your online banking login credentials, Social Security number and date of birth "for verification purposes", and says you can settle the debt by paying with a credit card, prepaid debit card, or eBay gift card, or demands that you wire transfer the payment, or asks for your bank account/routing number. Or the scammer pretends to offer a "50% settlement" deal where "you only have to pay half" of your fake debt. About 57% of North America scam calls come from India, 22% from Philippines, 14% from China/Myanmar. Foreign scammers run thousands of fraud, extortion, money laundering scams every day such as posing as a fake pharmacy, fake Social Security officer saying your benefits are suspended, IRS officer collecting on fake unpaid back taxes, debt collector threatening you for fake unpaid bills, fake bank/financial/FedEx/UPS/DHL scams, posing as utility/phone/internet companies, pretending to offer fake health insurance, car warranty, student loan forgiveness, credit card and debt consolidation services, posing as Amazon to falsely say an unauthorized purchase was made to your credit card, posing as Microsoft/Dell/HP/Apple to say your account has been hacked or they detected a virus on your computer, fake "we are refunding your money" or "your account has been auto-debited" scams, fake Google/Alexa listing scams, fake solar and home purchase offers, fake fundraisers asking for donations, fake phone surveys, and the scammers try to phish your financial and personal data. Indian scammers often rotate through fake tech support, fake auto-renewals/charges, fake pharmacy, many loan and tax/debt relief scams, and fake charity donation scams on the same day. Filipino scammers run many Social Security and Medicare identity theft, and auto/home/health/life insurance scams. Scammers use disposable VoIP phone numbers (e.g. MagicJack) and telecom software to spoof fake names and numbers on Caller ID. Scammers spoof thousands of fake 8xx toll-free numbers. CID is useless with scam calls unless the scam asks you to phone them back. CID area codes are never the origin of scam calls since scams use spoofed CID numbers from across the US/Canada, numbers belonging to unsuspecting people, invalid area codes, and fake foreign country CID numbers; e.g. fake women crying "help me" emergency scams spoof Mexico and Middle East CID numbers. Scammers often spoof the actual name and number of businesses such as banks to trick you into thinking the call is valid. How can you avoid being scammed by phone calls? NEVER trust any unsolicited caller who: sells something (most unsolicited calls are scams so your odds of saving money are very poor); asks for your Medicare or Social Security number; offers debt relief, loan services, Medicare assistance (people who are old or desperate in debt often fall for scams); offers a free gift/reward; threatens you with arrest/lawsuit; asks you to access a website, download a file, wire transfer money or buy prepaid debit/gift cards; claims your account is frozen or has suspicious activity; says a subscription is refunded or auto-renewed/auto-debited; and all recorded messages. Recordings are far more likely to be malicious scams and not just telemarketer spam. All unsolicited callers with foreign accents, usually Indian or Filipino, are mostly scams. No other countries are infested with phone room sweatshops filled with criminals. Most Filipino scammers speak better English than Indian scammers. Filipinos speak English with a subtle accent that may sound Hispanic. To hide their foreign origin, some India scammers use non-Indians in their phone room. Scams often falsely say that you previously contacted them or visited their website. Indian scammers play fake Amazon recordings. Amazon account updates are emailed, not robo-dialed. Many banks use automated fraud alert calls to confirm a suspicious purchase, but always call the number printed on your credit card to verify if the fraud alert is real or fake. Scammers impersonate phone/cable/internet companies, offering fake discounts or service upgrades. Indians impersonate the IRS and Social Security Administration. The IRS/SSA never make unsolicited calls and never threaten to arrest you; they initiate contact via postal mail. Real lawsuits are not phoned in, especially not using recorded threats lacking details; legal notices are mailed/couriered. The police, FBI, DEA never phone to threaten arrest; they show up in person with a warrant. Scammers try to gain your trust by saying your name when they call; your name, address, birthday are public data. Many scammers, especially female Filipinas, use "romance scam" tactics of sounding really friendly as if they are your best friend or lover to try to gain your affection and trust, hoping that you let your guard down so they can easily steal your identity and money. Scammers often play recordings speaking English, Spanish, or Chinese that is easily generated using text-to-speech AI translation software to disguise the origin of their overseas phone room. Some speech synthesis sound robotic, but most AI speech sound very realistic. Scammers often use interactive voice response (IVR) AI/NLP software that combines voice recognition with artificial intelligence, speaks English with American voices, and responds based on your replies. IVR calls begin with: "This is fake_name, I am a fake_job_title on a recorded line, can you hear me okay?"; or "Hi, how are you doing today?"; or "Hello? Are you there?"; or "Hi, may I speak to your_name?" IVR quickly asks you a short question to elicit a yes/no reply so it hangs up if it encounters voicemail. One myth is that saying "yes" to IVR lets scammers use your voice sample for other scams. IVR understands basic replies and yes/no answers. To test for IVR, ask "Is the willy fuzzy box open?" since IVR cannot answer complex/odd questions. IVR usually transfers you to the scammer, but some scams entirely use IVR with the robot asking for your credit card or SSN. Phone/email scams share two common traits: the CID name/number and the "From:" header on emails are easily faked, and the intent of scam calls is malicious just as file attachments and website links on scam emails are harmful. Scams snowball for many victims. If your personal/financial data are stolen, either by being scammed, visiting a malicious website, or by a previous data breach of a business server that stores your data, then your data gets sold by scammers on the dark web who will see you as fresh meat and prey on you even more. This is why some receive 40+ scam calls everyday while others get only 0 to 2 calls per week. If you provide your personal data to a phone scammer, lured by 80%-discounted fake drugs or fake loan and debt services, you receive even more phone scams and identity theft can take years to repair. Scammers often shout profanities at you. Google "Hindi swear words" and memorize some favorites, e.g. call him "Randi Ka Beta" (son of whore) or call her "Randi Ka Betty" (daughter of whore). Scammers ignore the National Do-Not-Call Registry. Asking scammers to stop calling is useless. Scam recordings often tell you to press a keypad number to be placed on their Do-Not-Call list or to unsubscribe from their scam texts/emails, but those keypad commands are fake and they say that just to sound legit. Scammers often provide a toll-free callback number to look like a real business, but they regularly shed old callback numbers so you can never reach the scammers once you have realized that you were scammed. Scammers tell you their callback number just to gain your trust long enough to steal your identity and money and then they frequently switch to using new callback numbers. You do these scammers a favor by quickly hanging up. YOU SHOULD SCAMBAIT ALL SCAMMERS - slowly drag scammers along on the phone call, provide fake personal and financial data (16 random digits starting with 4 for Visa, 5 for MasterCard), ask them to speak louder and repeat what they said to waste their time and energy.

February 6, 2026

Voicemail says call this phone #back, repeats it. Then says use this Ref#, and repeats it. It's an automated msg, though the computer voice changes while saying the phone # and ref #. It reverts to the standard sounding voice (that everyone's used to) otherwise. Didn't mention anything about what it's for or who they are. Legit company would.

September 12, 2025

+1 (866) 966-9580 Scam caller . Asking for personal information claiming medical help

July 2, 2025

Echos other comments. Scam. Stay away

May 8, 2025

This is a phishing scam, and it’s actually a fairly convincing one. The number claims to be “UPMC Business Office” and asks the victim to return the call, giving an 8-digit reference number. If you call back, the number goes through two or three “welcome to UPMC, we value your time, your call will be answered in the order it was received” steps (some with background music) before connecting you to a human agent. The agent first asked for my name; I provided the reference number instead. She claimed that “due to HIPAA” she could not discuss further details without identifying me. When I provided my first name, she addressed me by my proper last name (e.g. “Mr. Smith”). She then asked for my date of birth, which I refused to provide, explaining that I believed this was a scam and challenging her for further information. The agent refused to break kayfabe, even after I knew that I had caught her. I have no doubt that the requests for personal information would have escalated from there (home address, SSN, and potentially even bank accounts if they could string the victim along far enough). Due to the effort the scammers put into the set-up to make it convincing (the hold message, the hold music, the agent who was clearly a native English speaker and spoke with no obvious accent), this is definitely a scam to be aware of.

April 8, 2025

Seems like a scam. Claimed to be UPMC "extended business office." When I asked what that means, they said "it's just an extended business office." Great. They wanted more personal information to tell me what the call was about at which point I hung up. Called actual UPMC and they said there was nothing on my account that needed attention.

March 6, 2025

Claimed to be UPMC Business Office. Called UPMC before returning call. No one in member services, scheduling, or billing (who says nothing owed) able to identify number as belonging to UPMC. Hold music is not the same as every known UPMC number. Person who answered (Amy) refused to give office/UPMC department information/address other than "off location extended business office". Seems like phishing scam.

February 19, 2025