This is a fake phantom debt collection scam! This is what the Federal Trade Commission calls a phantom debt collection scam where the scammer pretends to be a debt collector, bank or 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. Although more than 95% of all North America phone scams originate from crowded phone rooms in India that run numerous fraud, extortion, and money laundering scams every day such as pretending to be fake pharmacies, posing as fake Microsoft, Amazon, and Apple representatives, and pretending to offer credit cards and student loan forgiveness, some of these phantom debt collection scams are committed by Americans, but many phantom debt scams also come from India scammers using text-to-speech translation software to generate a pre-recorded message without a foreign accent. Another version of these phantom debt collection scams is the frequent extortion scams perpetrated solely by Indians posing as Social Security or IRS officers threatening to sue or arrest you for fake unpaid back taxes. The 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 thousands of numbers. Scammers use huge phone database listings of millions of names with phone numbers and addresses to have the autodialer automatically say your name and display the name that is currently dialed. The scammer may say "this call may be recorded" or "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 either tells you that you can settle the debt by paying with a credit card or demands that you wire transfer the payment for the fake debt or asks for your bank account/routing number. Here is how to tell the difference between a real debt collector and a scammer: A debt collector must tell you specific information about your debt such as the name of the creditor, the exact amount owed, and if you dispute the debt, the debt collector has to obtain verification of the debt. A scammer either avoids providing this information or says very vague or totally false information. A real debt collector will mention the name of the creditor on the first phone call. A scammer tries to sound very ominous and threatening, but never gives any precise details. A debt collector has to mail you a printed-on-paper "validation letter" within 5 days of first contacting you. If you do not dispute the debt in writing within 30 days, the debt collector has the right to assume the debt is valid. Scammers always pressure you to settle a debt immediately on the phone, often demanding that you make a wire transfer from your bank that can be untraceable; this is very common with India scammers posing as debt collectors and fake IRS officers. A scammer may threaten to tell your family and employer about your debts, but a real debt collector can only ask other people about your address, phone number, and place of employment; they cannot tell others about your debts. Scammers will ask for your bank account/routing numbers and Social Security number, whereas real debt collectors will not. Ask the debt collector for their name, company name, street address, and a callback number, which all real debt collectors will provide. Every one of the thousands of India scammers will also immediately fail this test since all of the India scammers use spoofed fake Caller ID numbers or disposable VoIP numbers. If you suspect a scam, contact the creditor the debt collector claims to be working for and find out who has been assigned to collect the debt.

We’re

b******t

Some business with same first name.

Looking for someone other than me, perhaps a previous holder of the phone number

Sales

Calls in the middle of the night.

At&t

[deleted]

AT&T/DirecTV

This call keeps coming through

never left message

These are priceless.

Fake collection

Credit card scam

AT&T uverse collections

Help with this please

Probably a bill I haven’t paid