Collections department keeps calling me . . . and it isn't my account!

[XMan]

A couple days ago I got a call from CITI Financial. They asked for a "David X-Man". I called them back and said, "No David here, my name is Daniel X-Mans." The person who left the message on my voice mail was not the person I spoke with

Well, I get home tonight, and I have another voice mail from CITI Financial Collections, asking for "Daniel X-Man" to call back IMMEDIATELY.

WTF is going on? I've never had an account with these guys, and nothing showed up on my last credit report, so I feel fairly certain that my identity hasn't stolen (hehe, even if my credit was good enough to steal . . . !).

I can't call them now becuase they're closed, and this is pretty fricking annoying if you ask me. They sound very rude and forceful on the phone, and I don't appreciate it when I'm not the person they're looking for.

 

[Evadman]

thats funny. I would say they are never going to get one red cent, no matter how many times they call. Then call the phone company and have their number blocked.

 

[globalstud]

You inform them this:
I am an elite member at anandtech. You call me again and you'll have to deal with that. Get it?

Your problem is solved.

 

[XMan]

Originally posted by: globalstud
You inform them this:
I am an elite member at anandtech. You call me again and you'll have to deal with that. Get it?

Your problem is solved.

 

[ToBeMe]

I got that a few years back.....................they just wouldn't give up either..............I finally started playing with them and told them yeah, I'm XXXXX and just made up a story.................they kept calling cause u always refused to pay anything or said I was broke......I made up a new story every time until the guy called me on it.......................I then let my wife talk to them and she told them I had gone nuts and had multiple personalities and she was my care giver who checked up on me daily...........................they never called again!

 

[globalstud]

Originally posted by: X-Man

Originally posted by: globalstud
You inform them this:
I am an elite member at anandtech. You call me again and you'll have to deal with that. Get it?
Your problem is solved.

Listen. Tell them the person is deceased and they should check their records.

 

[shiner]

Tell them that you are not the person they are looking for and if they call you again you will sue the hell out of them. I had this happen to me while I was in college and after calls every day for about a month looking for some guy named Mark. I was bitching in a bar about it and there just happened to be an attorney there that explained how the laws work and that if you tell them to call, even if you are who they are looking for, then they have to stop calling you or you can smack them hard core. At least that's how it works here.

 

[yellowperil]

Those collections agencies are a bitch. We got up to 2-3 calls a day on our voice mail for a Joseph Welch, and the calls didn't stop coming until I dropped my landline a few weeks ago. They had been calling us since January 2001. :|

 

[Kevin]

Something like this happened to us at our weekend house. The phone number we have down there belonged to some guy who owed Sprint a lot of money according to the messages. Finally, they called when my father was down there and he told them off. He was a rep in high school and worked himself up the ladder, so he knows the ropes. He tells them that " _____________ does own this telephone number any more. If you continue to call, I will contact the FCC and have them handle it. I work for Verizon, simply put this on your _________ list." I don't remember the details but they haven't called again. Just play the FCC card, hopefully they will stop.

 

[tk149]

Ok, I used to work for the Darkside (Collections) a few years ago...

When a debtor goes AWOL, you run through a bunch of hoops to try to find him or her. Unfortunately, this means you often get a lot of bad leads.

In your case, odds are pretty good that the Collector found your phone number from Directory Assistance and is calling EVERYBODY in your city with the last name of "X-MAN."

Now, the Collector knows how unlikely it is that he has actually found the deadbeat scumbag debtor he is looking for, because no deadbeat scumbag debtor with half a brain is likely to list their phone number with Directory Assistance. What he's hoping for, is that YOU are the debtor's cousin, and you just happen to have the debtor's phone number handy. After all, how many guys can there be with the name of "X-Man"?

Therefore, all you have to do is call the Collector back, and tell them that you've never heard of this person. The Collector notes "Wrong number" on the account, and you never get called again. End of story.

Does it suck? Yeah. But just think about how much everything would cost if Collectors didn't try to find debtors.

Oh, and since CITI probably has multiple Collectors working the same debtor account, it might take awhile for them all to realize your number is a wrong number. Or maybe one of them is just stupid. If they keep calling, just ask for a supervisor and then scream in his/her ear for awhile.

BTW, the process of finding a debtor is called "Skip Tracing." I think it's 'cuz the Debtor "skipped" out.

 

[kherman]

Originally posted by: tk149
Ok, I used to work for the Darkside (Collections) a few years ago...

When a debtor goes AWOL, you run through a bunch of hoops to try to find him or her. Unfortunately, this means you often get a lot of bad leads.

In your case, odds are pretty good that the Collector found your phone number from Directory Assistance and is calling EVERYBODY in your city with the last name of "X-MAN."

Now, the Collector knows how unlikely it is that he has actually found the deadbeat scumbag debtor he is looking for, because no deadbeat scumbag debtor with half a brain is likely to list their phone number with Directory Assistance. What he's hoping for, is that YOU are the debtor's cousin, and you just happen to have the debtor's phone number handy. After all, how many guys can there be with the name of "X-Man"?

Therefore, all you have to do is call the Collector back, and tell them that you've never heard of this person. The Collector notes "Wrong number" on the account, and you never get called again. End of story.

Does it suck? Yeah. But just think about how much everything would cost if Collectors didn't try to find debtors.

Oh, and since CITI probably has multiple Collectors working the same debtor account, it might take awhile for them all to realize your number is a wrong number. Or maybe one of them is just stupid. If they keep calling, just ask for a supervisor and then scream in his/her ear for awhile.

BTW, the process of finding a debtor is called "Skip Tracing." I think it's 'cuz the Debtor "skipped" out.

I hope the telephone book wasn't your first option.
My fiance does collection in the summer for extra $BLING$. The first thing she does is gets the persons credit report. Credit reports have the last place of employment listed. Then she calls there and tracks the person down. A great way to garnish wages too

The funiest stories ever are when person X owes bank A $13,000. Person X refuses to make payments even though they've been contacted. Bank hires fiances place to collect money. Fiance finds that person X has $13,500 at bank A. Collection agency seizes $13,000 from bank A. moral of the story: some people are more than just stupid idiots.

 

[tcsenter]

A couple days ago I got a call from CITI Financial. They asked for a "David X-Man". I called them back and said, "No David here, my name is Daniel X-Mans." The person who left the message on my voice mail was not the person I spoke with. Well, I get home tonight, and I have another voice mail from CITI Financial Collections, asking for "Daniel X-Man" to call back IMMEDIATELY.

Yeah, give them a call back and be firm but polite, then get tough if they can't take the hint.

My parents were harassed by a collections agency for nearly a year over an account that was not theirs. They finally had to get an attorney because the calls wouldn't stop even though they demanded not to be called. Even still, they continued to get bills and threatening letters. The collection agency FALSIFIED RECORDS to intimidate my parents, which when threatened with legal action for, they stopped. My parents even started to believe they may have simply forgotten about this account or something, which is exactly what collections agencies want to happen when they KNOW DAMNED WELL this is not your account. They don't give a f-ck who pays this bill, as long as someone pays it.

So my parents were almost ready to pay the bill, until their attorney noticed something unusual. The collection agency 'claimed' that bills had been going to my parent's current address even before the house was built! The collections agency even sent a "copy" of a bill that was dated more than four months before the construction on the house was completed and a full month before my parents even bought the house. Which of course is impossible, so the collection agency flatly falsified those documents.

They put a dozen or more derogatory marks on my parent's credit history which they refuse to remove to this day, unless my parent's want to sue them, which is expensive. So my parents just send a letter to all three credit reporting agencies every six months proclaiming the account is not theirs and is in dispute. The credit reporting agencies are required to note that in your credit history so that it appears whenever a report is requested. My parents have like 40 years of excellent credit; three homes bought and paid for, 10 cars bought and paid for, credit cards, personal loans, medical bills, all paid timely. So its not like this one incident can tarnish their record. But its infuriating to say the least, they shouldn't have a single derogatory mark on their credit history, unless its their own.

 

[Spac3d]

Originally posted by: tcsenter

A couple days ago I got a call from CITI Financial. They asked for a "David X-Man". I called them back and said, "No David here, my name is Daniel X-Mans." The person who left the message on my voice mail was not the person I spoke with. Well, I get home tonight, and I have another voice mail from CITI Financial Collections, asking for "Daniel X-Man" to call back IMMEDIATELY.

Yeah, give them a call back and be firm but polite, then get tough if they can't take the hint.

My parents were harassed by a collections agency for nearly a year over an account that was not theirs. They finally had to get an attorney because the calls wouldn't stop even though they demanded not to be called. Even still, they continued to get bills and threatening letters. The collection agency FALSIFIED RECORDS to intimidate my parents, which when threatened with legal action for, they stopped. My parents even started to believe they may have simply forgotten about this account or something, which is exactly what collections agencies want to happen when they KNOW DAMNED WELL this is not your account. They don't give a f-ck who pays this bill, as long as someone pays it.

So my parents were almost ready to pay the bill, until their attorney noticed something unusual. The collection agency 'claimed' that bills had been going to my parent's current address even before the house was built! The collections agency even sent a "copy" of a bill that was dated more than four months before the construction on the house was completed and a full month before my parents even bought the house. Which of course is impossible, so the collection agency flatly falsified those documents.

They put a dozen or more derogatory marks on my parent's credit history which they refuse to remove to this day, unless my parent's want to sue them, which is expensive. So my parents just send a letter to all three credit reporting agencies every six months proclaiming the account is not theirs and is in dispute. The credit reporting agencies are required to note that in your credit history so that it appears whenever a report is requested. My parents have like 40 years of excellent credit; three homes bought and paid for, 10 cars bought and paid for, credit cards, personal loans, medical bills, all paid timely. So its not like this one incident can tarnish their record. But its infuriating to say the least, they shouldn't have a single derogatory mark on their credit history, unless its their own.

Yikes, that is terrible how that would happen. I hope everything works out well for your parents

Spac3d