I was amazed to see that a collection agency that called me and has just now begun harassment regarding a bill that I have no knowledge of and supposedly dated just within the statue of limitations for my state, has received numerous complaints on this web site.
The deceptive and sleazy maneuver started this way: You get a call out of the blue from a fast talking woman who does not immediately identify herself and drives the conversation to a place to try to trick you into either acknowledging an unpaid bill based upon a broad, vague and fast talking description or will attempt to trick you into agreeing to let them record the conversation.
Simply amazing work, they are both clever and sleazy and in my opinion probably doing something against the law. Here is why I believe this:
1. I have a non listed phone and do not give any information out ever. They were able to somehow find my recently moved to address and phone number.
2. I found out that if any unpaid bill is acknowledged (rightly or wrongly) within the statute of limitations in your state, the clock to collect starts anew.in my state this is 6 years, which makes sense with the date they state the supposed bill was unpaid. They feel now that they can start a new 6 year cycle to harass you in order to collect a bill that you really know nothing about.
3. I of course told them never to call again and of course I will not allow myself to be recorded. But I can see how if someone is caught off guard how these types of phone calls can embolden these people to increase the harassment as if they are working within the law.
4. Letters start to appear from a law office in Rutherford, NJ. Now there is a highly rated business lawyer in Newark, NJ that uses the same name probably to mislead, harasses and scare the folks they target even more. Someone stated on this web site that no one from this firm is part of the bar. Is so, this is blatantly misleading since I know for sure you cannot impersonate or mislead anyone as an officer of the court.
5. Finally they never really state clearly that they are trying to collect a bill over the phone, only in the written correspondence, where there is a clear record. All of the information then collected outside of the written correspondence is probably gotten disingenuously.
6. Finally, I always, always pay my bills.
Thought this post might help others.
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