Don’t Fall For Debt Collection Scams

We all know there are bad people out there in the world. People who make a living deceiving others out of their hard earned money, with a series of more elaborate scams. Often scammers will try to impersonate legitimate businesses in an effort to get quick money from their targets, and the debt collection industry is not immune to this. There are plenty of scammers out there who will don the disguise of a ‘debt collector’ and try to scam people and businesses out of large amounts of money. And while we would all like to think we would never fall for a scam, the criminals are becoming more and more sophisticated, and the truth is many of them succeed every year. We don’t want that to happen to you. So, here are a few key things to look out for that could help you identify a debt collection scam.

Repeating Information

If the person calling you is asking for information they should already have, this is a pretty big warning sign. Almost all debt collection agencies have a form of CRM or data management system in place, which means they can track your file and the caller can see what information they already have on you. This means any legitimate collection agency will already have your personal and business info, as well as an account number for the debt. If you’re even slightly unsure, don’t give out any sensitive personal details or financial details like bank account information or credit card numbers, as they could be used to commit identity theft or fraud.

Avoids Giving Details

If you start to question the person on the phone and they shy away from actually answering questions, this is another red flag. Scammers are very like politicians – skilled at not answering a question, but making you think that they have. A few things you can do to verify that they are genuine is ask them for their full company name, the business address and a business number to call back on. You can then search these things online and even call them back if you want to. A legitimate company will be happy to give you these details and understand your caution – a scammer will avoid answering and tell you that you have to stay on the phone and not call back.

No Online Links

If they do provide you with a phone number – take a second and type it into Google. Any genuine debt collection agency will have their phone number linked to their website, and searching it will bring up a lot of results for that business, employee profiles and more. In short – a good digital footprint linking that number to the agency. If it doesn’t, then it’s probably a scam. In fact, you might even find the number turning up on watchdog sites flagged as dangerous, so this step is always worth following.

Lots Of Pressure

Callers pretending to be debt collectors will often put lots of pressure on you right away, trying to fluster you into just giving them the information they want. Ways they might do this include making threats regarding legal action or other enforcement practices should you not comply right this minute, while on the phone with them. And while legitimate debt collection agencies do also want you to pay quickly, they won’t be overly pushy and they certainly would never threaten you. Also, it’s illegal for any collection agency to threaten you with arrest or time in prison, so if this happens, you know it’s a scammer.

Payment Methods

How are they asking to be paid? This is a more subtle clue, but one that’s definitely worth paying attention to. If they are asking for payment to be made via wire transfer, something is wrong and you should absolutely not pay. Scammers often use this as a payment method as it is quick, easy and untraceable, making it very, very difficult to recover your money. Any reputable agency will have a range of payment methods for you to choose from, including a credit or debit card, BACS or CHAPS. They will never offer, let alone push, wire transfers.

Phone Contact Only

Finally, they will call you repeatedly to demand money from you. But they won’t do anything in writing at all – insisting it has to be done over the phone. Not only is a legitimate agency not allowed to continually call and harass you, but they will often be required to provide information in written form (and will usually have done so before the phone calls start).

At Debtcol, we are always happy for you to verify that we are who we say we are. We have a full commercial website (complete with records of our phone numbers), only do payments by BACS and other approved methods, we never ask for information we already have, and are happy to have things in writing. In fact, sometimes we insist on it! If you would like to know more about our debt collection services, or have questions about a service you have used before, please get in touch with the team today.