Do Not Become a Victim...

When you answer the telephone and the party advises that they are a debt collector calling regarding your Visa, Mastercard, Sears or any account be sure to verify and validate who is calling.

Consumers who owe money or are behind on their bills may be legitimately
contacted by debt collectors. The BBB warns consumers, however, that phony debt
collectors are lurking and even some legitimate debt collectors have been known
to employ abusive and illegal tactics in violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). 

Sometimes the "debt collector" calling turns out to be an identity
thief who is trying to get you to divulge personal or financial information,
such as your Social Security, bank and credit card numbers. Many consumers are all too willing to provide personal information over the telephone when they feel venerable and the “debt collector” offers to help.

The Better Business Bureau of Texas recently reported that a resident and business owner was concerned that he may have been the intended victim of identity theft under the guise of debt collection. He had received a call from someone who said she represented a legal services office and was attempting to collect a nearly four-year-old Visa debt.

Using little more that information readily available in any computer “white
pages” look-up, the caller attempted to extract personal and financial information
to “verify” that they had the correct debtor; Social Security number, date of
birth, bank account info. The resident became suspicious and the call was terminated.

While it was likely that the resident was the victim of an overzealous
skip-tracer mistakenly identified through the co-mingling of accurate and
inaccurate information relating to a legitimate debt owed by someone else with
the same or a similar name, scammers will impersonate debt collectors in an
effort to scare consumers, through threats and harassment, into paying non-existing debts or the debts of someone else.

Consumer should not provide any new personal or financial information over the
telephone without requesting validation of the alleged debt. The Better
Business Bureau recently reported that collection agencies ranked fifth in
number of complaints received.

It's important for consumers to verify the alleged debt before releasing any personal information or paying a debt. Request written proof. Get documentation to help determine if the callers are actually identity thieves or if a debt is actually owed. By law, a debt collection agency must provide a validation notice within five days of contacting you about the debt. Within 30 days of receiving their validation notice, send the debt collector a written request to further verify the debt details. Do not provide personal or financial information unless the validity of the debt and the debt collector has been confirmed.

Verify the legitimacy. Get the debt collector's name and contact information to
research the agency further. Search on the Internet to see if they have a web
site.  Do NOT become a victim.

Patrick Ingegno can be reached at inner-circle@optimum.net or
www.innercircledebtsolutions.com

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