Sorry if in wrong forum... Looking for Debt Collection opinion here... I am retired, same city for 17 years and same owned home for 8 years with listed phone number. I am not hard to find. I have a small mortgage and use my one credit card as a no-cash convience and pay the entire balance monthly. My only old debt dispute is an out-of-state/out of statue-of-limitations parking ticket that my daughter received some 12-13 years ago. Recently, I have been receiving callback messages from various numbers, sometimes identified as Pentagroup Financial (on caller Id). When I pick the phone, I get an automated message to call some number about a confidential debt matter. When I'm home, I answer the phone but apparently they only want me to call them. I have received nothing writing about any debt from them or anyone else except for my usual monthly bills. Being a curious person and worried about possible identy theft, I checked my credit reports with two of the three major agencies and they showed nothing except for inquires for "firm offers" of addition credit cards and insurance. I saw no "creditor" or any other inquries from Pentagroup Financial on my credit reports. Lastly, when I first located to this fair city back in 1990, I received several inquries from debt collecters looking for a person with the same name who had defaulted on charge accounts in inexpensive jewelery stores in a nearby city. I was able to convince them that nothing matched except the name and they finally quit bothering me. Thanks for you time, if you're read to this point... I willing to talk to almost anyone, but am very leary about callback scams.Quick research on the Web shows that many collection businesses buy old debt for cheap and try to find a creditor for it. I don't think I should worry about this, unless I get something in writing, but it is annoying me. What do you think?
I think that if you are losing sleep over this then give them a call and see what they have to say - and have a tape recorder running.
My bet would be that it is regarding this "same old debt" you mentioned. I'm sure some debt buyer purchased this as part of a package, and what's the investment of an automated call? It's just a numbers game they're playing. If it eases your curiosity, give a call, but as suggested, record the call or take copious notes.
Unless one is truly terrible on the phone, there is no reason why a return call shouldn't be made. A simple question as to why they are calling is all that is needed. No need to say anything other than thank you for the information. And you might just want to drop in the fact that it is inconvenient for you to receive their phone calls. Record the call? Of course. But if you are in a 2-party state for phone call recording, call them late at night before hand and see if their answering system says that they are recording calls for "quality assurance or training purposes". If they say that, then you can record away from your 2-party state without a second thought.
We've had numerous calls about debts that had nothing to do with us. We've called them back and told them that the party they are looking for is not at this number. Someitmes it take more than one call.
