Watch Out for Phony Debt Collectors
Lately there has been a huge increase in phone calls from telemarketers claiming to be debt collectors with the goal of stealing your identity. The Better Business Bureau and the FCC are warning consumers about telephone calls from phony debt collectors.
According to the website EveryCall.us, there has been a increase in consumers reporting harassing calls from companies like NCO Financial Systems which call repeatedly throughout the day requesting personal information about friends and family members. It is unclear if these calls are legitimate or not, but experts warn to ensure the legitimacy of the caller before surrendering any personal information. Consumers have reported telephone calls from literally hundreds of other purported debt collection organizations, many of which have a poor rating with the BBB or simply do not exist and are front companies for scam artists to commit fraud.
The Better Business Bureau has issued a Nationwide alert and believes that there may have been a massive breach in customer information which has armed these scammers with personal information. These breaches occur when corporations fail to adequately protect consumer information, it gets released to the internet, and now millions of scammers have access to millions of American’s personal information such as bank account numbers and social security numbers.
Do not give out any banking information or other personal information. This may seem obvious to many, but you would be surprised how convincing some of these callers can be. For instance many callers claim to be your bank and can easily sound like they are legitimate when in fact they are not.
Do not provide any personal information or financial information such as bank account numbers, social security numbers or other information over the telephone. Rarely is this information required by a legitimate debt collector.
The next time you receive a spam call or debt collection call, we hope that this article has helped you with some tips to avoid becoming a victim of identity theft. It is important to be skeptical of any telephone calls you receive until you confirm the identity of the caller.
Did you get a call from a telemarketer or some other spam caller? Then be sure to find out who calls you at EveryCall.us, a free service to lookup unknown callers and report telemarketers. Blackberry owners can download Call Control, the best blacklist application for Blackberry to block debt collectors quickly and easily.
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