check http://www.clarkhoward.com/ he is the financial god and knows credit and debt rules inside out.
real creditors would not ask for a wire, and they wouldnt hide behind a prepaid phone card.

Yes, it sounds like a scam. They also always have to identify what the debt is that they are contacting you about and should be able to provide something in writing.

A lot of 3rd party collectors don’t care if they break the law. Sometimes, when a loan is defaulted (which has been happening a lot since the economy took a downward direction) a bank will write it off as bad debt and “sell” the debt to another company in an attempt to get some money back, OR a lender (wells fargo, first national, wherever you get a loan) can hire a separate company to collect for them.

The other company then tries to get the money out of you. That’s third party collections. They’re terrible. They usually make more money by doing illegal things and just paying the fines when, if, they are charged, and it’s not uncommon for them to keep calling about old debt that has already been paid off.

It IS illegal to call a work number after it has been requested that they stop.
It is also illegal to contact the borrower more than once a day. If he confirms his identity and then hangs up, they are not allowed to call him again.
It is also illegal to make threats or contact anyone but the borrower and authorized parties (authorized by your father) on the loan.

If your father submits a cease & desist letter, they MUST STOP CONTACTING HIM except to let him know that they plan to bring about a certain action. I think they can call to let him know they are going to ding his credit or to tell him that they are charging off (that is giving up on collecting on the debt) but I’m not exactly sure. I used to work for a collections department (not a third party, thank God). He MUST submit the letter in writing and either mail it or fax it.

Here is a lot of information on third party collections, including more information on cease & desist letters: http://www.cardreport.com/credit-problems/collection-faq.html

and here is some information on the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act (FDCPA) : http://www.cardreport.com/laws/fdcpa/fdcpa-menu.html which regulates third party collections.

I hope this helps you (:

I was watching the news one day and there was a story about this. They were getting the gentleman’s wife and she was mailing in money orders. When the husband found out about it he told them to stop calling/harassing them and they started calling more and threatening their lives. They had to contact the police to try to get it stopped.

Get the name of the company. Call them directly and tell them they must stop, as the loan has been paid. And if they don’t, file harassment charges.

Definitely a scam. It’s easy enough for people to look up old accounts and gather a little bit of info from that.

i still get occasional debt collections calls for the people who apparently had my phone number over 5 years ago. also from the church group they belonged to.

“…sorry they cant come to the phone right now, their head is in my freezer,,, he’s getting a lapdance, can i take a message?”

I think this has nothing to do with your Dad’s actual finances and is strictly a phone scam. We have an alert in our housing complex of 2 currently going on. They just pose as someone else (in this case the scammer mentions a large chain store’s billing dept.). It’s illegal and a pain to pursue.

If you can get a caller ID on the phone, get that # to the FBI. The scammer probably has it blocked. You often can set your phone to only receive numbers that show an ID first, or the caller gets a message saying they cannot complete the call unless they unblock their own phone. (Someone in my family has that.) Even if it’s a purchased cell, it is info. the FBI can use. Meanwhile, a message on the voicemail saying “this call is being recorded for security purposes.” might scare them into stopping.
Tell him to just keep hanging up, after checking the ID or letting it go to voicemail first. Their business dept. should be able to put some new blocks like I mentioned on their phones at work, too.