I am not an expert, lawyer or in any way stating you should listen to me. I am a victim (that physically hurt to say btw) and I am relaying my story.
I remember hearing awful stories about nice young gentlemen showing up at Granny’s house and walking away with her life savings. Whether it was for charity, or an investment, the ‘scam’ artist was usually easy to spot, at least I thought they were. They are, if I am being honest. They know it too which is why they employ some nasty tricks to get them to do what they want. They use guilt, conscience, and fear to make you move forward with a given scenario.
So as you have guessed by now, I have been scammed out of some money. Yes, I feel like a dunce. My particular scammer was successful for several reasons, and if I had been a little more educated their trick would not have worked so easily on me. First, there are rules to the collection game, yes I owe people money, who doesn’t? However, my lack of knowledge in regard to the rules has reared its head as the mistake #1. Mistake # 2 was letting emotion, fear and or guilt ‘convince’ you. Like Granny I want to do the right thing. I want to help the starving children in Africa, and or I want to invest in swamp area in Florida! I owe people money and thus I feel guilty and ashamed these people were contacting me. Scammer’s use fear language and the promise of a settlement to ‘make the debt right’. So my brain says – pay off the debt, no more guilt – WAHOO!
NOT!
First, some definitions, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC),
is the nation’s consumer protection agency. The FTC enforces the Fair Debt
Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), which prohibits debt collectors from using
abusive, unfair, or deceptive practices to collect from you. Under the FDCPA, a
debt collector is someone who regularly collects debts owed to others. This
includes collection agencies, lawyers who collect debts on a regular basis, and
companies that buy delinquent debts and then try to collect them.
Mistake #1 – Rules of
Engagement - there are a few big things to keep any eye out for as
indicators of fraud.
Misspellings in communication
Grammatical errors in communication
Threatening or hostile language
Saying you will be Sued for Debt - If you are actually sued for a
debt, you won’t get a call. Instead, you will be served with a legal notice
(typically a complaint and summons) that contains instructions for responding.
A variation on this scam is when someone calls and says that a lawsuit will be
filed immediately if you don’t pay. That can also be a red flag: Under the
federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, collectors can’t threaten to take action
they can’t legally take or don’t intend to take. If you are sued, you must be
given time to respond.
Stating they are Law Enforcement - The caller may even offer to
give you his or her “badge number.” This is almost a certain sign of a scam:
Local law enforcement is not going to call you to try to collect a personal
debt, and the FBI certainly won’t. If they claim to work with the sheriff’s
office or FBI, tell them you will call them back at the published number for
that agency. No doubt you’ll find out they were lying.
Here are the Rules of
Engagement from the FTC for debt collection in the United States:
Contact - Debt
collectors can contact you by phone, letter, email, or text message to collect
a debt, as long as they follow the rules and disclose that they are debt
collectors. No matter how they communicate with you, it’s against the law for a
debt collector to pretend to be someone else — like an attorney or government
agency — or to harass, threaten or deceive you to act. A debt collector may not contact you at inconvenient
times or places, such as before 8 in the morning or after 9 at night, unless
you agree to it. And collectors may not
contact you at work if they’re told (orally or in writing) that you’re not
allowed to get calls there.
Harassment. Debt
collectors may not harass, oppress, or abuse you or any third parties they
contact. For example, they may not:
use threats of violence or harm;
publish a list of names of people
who refuse to pay their debts (but they can give this information to the credit
reporting companies);
use obscene or profane language; or
repeatedly use the phone to annoy
someone.
False statements.
Debt collectors may not lie when they are trying to collect a debt. For example,
they may not:
falsely claim that they are
attorneys or government representatives;
falsely claim that you have
committed a crime;
falsely represent that they operate
or work for a credit reporting company;
misrepresent the amount you owe;
indicate that papers they send you
are legal forms if they aren’t; or
indicate that papers they send to
you aren’t legal forms if they are.
Debt collectors also are prohibited from saying that:
you will be arrested if you don’t
pay your debt;
they’ll seize, garnish, attach, or
sell your property or wages unless they are permitted by law to take the action
and intend to do so; or
legal action will be taken against
you, if doing so would be illegal or if they don’t intend to take the action.
Debt collectors may not:
give false credit information about
you to anyone, including a credit reporting company;
send you anything that looks like
an official document from a court or government agency if it isn’t; or
use a false company name.
Unfair practices.
Debt collectors may not engage in unfair practices when they try to collect a
debt. For example, they may not:
try to collect any interest, fee,
or other charge on top of the amount you owe unless the contract that created
your debt – or your state law – allows the charge;
deposit a post-dated check early;
take or threaten to take your
property unless it can be done legally; or
contact you by postcard.
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Below is a copy of the letter I received, I have marked out
any revealing information, but I also wanted to share it so if you see
something like this you are aware. Actually pathetic I fell for it now that I
am reading it again…ugh.
I also filed a
complaint here.
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FINAL
AND LAST CHANCE TO GET SETTLE THE CASE #SD5-987485
NAME XXX-XX-XXX
Case
file #SD5-987485
Settlement
amount offered $
Your
case file #SD5-987485 are handling by LEGAL DEPARTMENT OF , So now you may
cooperate them in order to resolve the case file #SD5-987485. You can reach on for
further more information.
We had sent
you the so many notification regarding this matter, but still you didn’t
responded us, if you failed to reply us with positive intention after this
email then we will have to download your case file in the court house on Sept 3
2015.
We are talking
about the loan that you took with the company due to penalty charges, interest
charges and attorney charges the amount rises up to $1050.50 , and they
do have a signed copy of the contract which is signed under your e-mail address
--also would like to mention your
computer's IP address was also traced. When you were signing the contract with
the company. The company have more than 14 technical evidence in order to prove
the money was successfully deposited into your bank account.
NOTE: IF YOU IGNORED THIS EMAIL AND FAILED TO
TAKE CARE OF THIS DEBT THEN ALL OF YOUR BANK ACCOUNTS INCLUDING WILL BE SEIZED THRU
MAJOR CREDIT BUREAUS WITHIN NEXT SEVEN BUSINESS DAYS THAT’S WHY YOUR
CO-OPERATION WOULD BE REALLY APPRECIATED.
Do reply us ASAP with option so we can
update at legal department in order to stop all this legal consequences against
your Name and SSN .
BEFORE YOUR CASE FILE #SD5-987485 WILL
BE DOWNLOADED.
NOTE : KINDLY LET US KNOW IF YOU ARE WILLING TO RESOLVE THIS CASE SO
THAT WE CAN OFFER YOU THE SETTLE AMOUNT OF $ AND IF DON’T THEN WE HAVE TO
DOWNLOAD THIS CASE FORCEFULLY AGAINST INTO THE COURT HOUSE. INFORMED TO YOUR
EMPLOYER PLACE WHERE DID YOU WORKED BEFORE Ricoh
This
is in reference to your Case File #SD5-987485 with in order to notify you that
after sending several emails and we were not able to get hold of you. So the
IC3 (Internet Crime Complaint Center) has decided to mark this case as a flat
refusal and press charges against you.
Once
your case file forwarded by us legal department, you account will be considered
as not paid anything because you have never did any reply from a long time.
After taking action against your name and SSN your case file will be forwarded
to the courthouse.
And once you found guilty into the court house than you
have to bear the entire cost for this law suit $4518.15 which is excluding loan
amount, attorney's fees, and the interest charges.
if
you failed to update us with cooperate us then be ready for going into jail
under FDCA for 3 Years, and We will seize your all bank account and hold on
SSN,
Your
account with is in Final Collections. According to our records, your
outstanding balance was $.
So,
we are just giving you a last chance that if you just make a payment by today
or tomorrow then we will close this account as paid in full with zero balance.
We do
hope that you will work with one of the best option in order to settle this
matter or else we won't be able to hold your case file #SD5-987485.
Do
revert back if you want to get rid of these legal consequences and want to make
payments within the next 48 hours or else the case will be downloaded against
you.
The
opportunity to take care of this voluntary is quickly coming to an end. We
would hate for you to lose the option of resolving this before it goes to the
next step which is a Lawsuit against you, but to do so you must take immediate
action.
You
can avoid this by taking care of this now.
It is
quick and easy:
Do
reply us right now and provide us the date on which you can make the payment.
If
you do not take immediate action we will be forced to download this case
against you and once it is downloaded the creditor has entire rights to inform your
employer regarding this and if you are found guilty under the bench of jury
then you have to bear a law suit which will be amounting to $4515.85 and will
be totally levied upon you and that would be excluding your bail charges, your
attorney charges and the due amount pending on your name $1050.50
Thanks
for being our customer,
Best Wishes,
Settlement
Department
Sept
1 2015
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