Friday, February 5, 2010
Story Time
Well, this is what I get for being a registered home owner. Yesterday I received a letter from a supposed collection agency stating I owed over a thousand dollars to a bank I never heard of. Of course I knew this was impossible and thought at first that it was a scam. I theorized that if they send out enough threatening letters, somebody will be confused enough to pay the bill. (You can see I'm a naturally suspicious person.) When I called the collection agency to complain, I thought he would ask for my social security number, which, of course, I would never give him. Instead, after asking for the account number on the bill, he asked if the last four numbers of my SS are 1234. (He didn't say 1234, but I don't remember what it was.) I said no and thought for a second that maybe it was actually an honest mistake. But my fraud meter sky-rocketed again when he asked for my address. I asked, "Shouldn't you have that since you sent me this letter?" He had the nerve to cop an attitude saying he was trying to help me and needed the address so I wouldn't get more threatening letters. Then it hit me - using the same account number, they sent letters to everybody they could find with my (very common) name and needed my address to know which one of the thousands to remove! Wow! Is this really legal?
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WOW! I thought I was pretty savy, but it is a good thing your antenna were out. These scam artists are good!!!
ReplyDeleteGood thinking. We only have a cell phone. Do you have a land line, as well, that is linked to a physical address? Glad you didn't share any info.
ReplyDeleteNo, I only have a cell phone too. I think they got my name from owning a house. See what happens when you're a stationary target.
ReplyDeleteWow, what a scary story. When we lived in Shoey a guy called and said my husband cashed a check at a Sears store and they needed some info. I knew he was visiting one of his church members in the hospital and wasn't shopping. I told him nothing. Even without information other than our name and address which they got from the phonebook, they printed checks on a computer, made up a bank account number and bought a several thousand dollars worth of computer equipment, food and other stuff. We started getting calls from a collection agency because the checks bounced. The bank was the only one in town so I guess they took a chance that we banked there. It was also in the next block from our parsonage. It took a year and a half to get it settled and the police never did catch the person who wrote the checks. The police told us that they will only write three or four checks so they don't get caught. It certainly was an eye opener.
ReplyDeleteWow, Linda, that's my worst nightmare. I guess that shows if somebody wants to be dishonest, they'll find a way. And to take advantage of a minister! There's a special place reserved for them.
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