800-477-6441

Someone named Dawn called concerning my late mothers estate.  I did not live with my mother, so I'm not sure how the got my phone info.  The woman did not leave specific details and seemed to intentionally muffle the name of the company she was calling from, hence my search for the number.  I listened to the message 5 times and could never make out the name of the company.

She left an extension and case number, but I have not called back, nor do I plan to unless I get another call.

COMETCATCHER@AOL.COM

Dear Curious and Concerned:

The call you received from 800-477-6441 was from a collection agency which calls itself "Phillips & Cohen Associates, Ltd." Its address is 695 Rancocas Rd, Westampton, NJ 08060-5626.  Its regular telephone number is: (609)518-9000.  Its web address is www.phillips-cohen.com.

This outfit promotes itself as a "professional deceased debt recovery service."  I would not recommend that you either call them back or take any of their calls, as talking with any of their collectors can be of NO benefit to you whatever.

The West Virginia State Attorney General has filed suit against this agency, according to a story in www.consumeraffairs.com, after receiving complaints from consumers that the agency was threatening consumers with jail, discussing the alleged debts with persons other than the consumers, and attempting to collect money for debts that have already been paid.

At best, any collection agency is obnoxious, inconsiderate, threatening, and without any legal authority to take any action against anyone whatever.  Their means of collecting consist of harassment, threats, annoyance, and usually lying about the potential consequences of not paying. At worst, their conduct can consist of illegal and predatory tactics.  Ignore those calls and the liklihood is that they will cease on their own.

I received a call message from a man named Chris Smith who was calling about my deceased mother's estate. The number was 800 477-6441 for me to call back and a case number given. My mother had no estate, shall I call back and tell them?  No company name was given. The caller # was 405 409-8737.  What to do?

COMETCATCHER@AOL.COM

BUGSY:

All I know about the number which called you is that it is an Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, number, as your caller I.D. indicated.  It is likely that this is an independent associated collector for Phillips & Cohen, Ltd., because there is no question whatever but that the number you were given as a call-back number, (800)477-6441, is "Phillips & Cohen Associates, Ltd."

As stated in the response to "Curious and Concerned," above, this company is a collection agency, pure and simple.  My advice would be to ignore them, unless you want to spend valuable time out of your life conversing with some anonymous collector who will poke and probe you for information about yourself and/or your deceased mother, and inquire into any assets or source of recovery which might be available for them to pursue in support of whatever the alleged debt might be.  

It would be nice if reason and logic and courtesy were effective with these people, but they are not.  Remember, you are dealing with android-like people who only care about collecting money, not about little matters such as facts and truth, much less courtesy, empathy or understanding.

Thank you for your reply.  I will ignore this call.  I thought to be courteous but I can see from your response that this will not mean a thing to them.  Again, thank you.

I too received a couple phone messages, with a return number of 1-800-477-6441, concerning the estate a late person. They had the right last name but wrong first name. I called the 1-800 number, talked to the person, said I don't even know the person, and they said they would remove my number from their list. We'll see if it happens!

This "late" person - I had received a number of calls from other debt collectors about this name. Don't know if they just thought they'd try a number that was close or what - but each time I told them they had the wrong phone number, didn't know the person and don't call again. And they haven't called.

I too received a call that my answering machine picked up. It was from Tiffany who only said it concerned my late mothers estate and left a case number and telephone 800-477-6441. Thank you all for clueing me in on this scam. I'm throwing the number away.

it seems another player has jumped in.  Mcdonald at 888 382 8144.  Is this one of the Phillips-cohen gang? Can these people do anything? I'm not returning calls.  the estate is over two year old. and the passed one was on medicare. no assets left.

It's a bill collector

I have received calls for weeks from this company It shows up on caller ID at out of area and only a 3 digit number They call all time sof day and night.
They previously have not left amessage on answering machine or when I answer just silence.

This time some oddball left a message Im not returning it.

Ah ha, I too recceived a call on my answering machine this evening about the estate of the late Mrs.  Deborah left phone number 800-477-6441, her extension and a case number but alas, but no company name was mentioned. That in itself was unprofessinal and fishy.   I decided to Google the number and here I am.   Thanks for the information.  I will notify the Attorney General's office as well as my attorney.

Yup - 888 382 8144.  A guy identified himself as Bob Davis and said the same thing about "...the estate of the late..." and "...reference number...".  Yeah right.  I'm so calling you back, Bob.

Just when one thinks these scumbag debt collectors couldn't possibly go any lower, they do, preying on the deceased and their loved ones.

Here is the lawsuit against these amoebas on fleas on rats that COMETCATCHER alluded to, in his post on Budd Hibbs' website:

http://www.budhibbs.com/debtcollectorpages/phillips_cohen_collection_agency.htm

Bud Says...

West Virginia Sues New Jersey Bill Collector

Congress may have severely toughed bankruptcy laws, to the detriment of consumers, but state officials in West Virginia say bill collectors can't threaten and harass debtors. State Attorney General Darrell McGraw is taking an out of state collection agency to court, saying it may have violated West Virginia law.

McGraw has filed suit to compel Phillips & Cohen Associates, Ltd., a New Jersey collection agency, to comply with the Attorney General's investigative subpoena.

The Attorney General began investigating Phillips & Cohen's' debt collection practices after receiving complaints from consumers that it was threatening consumers with jail, discussing the alleged debts with persons other than the consumers, and attempting to collect money for debts that have already been paid.

Phillips & Cohen is not registered to do business in West Virginia and has not posted a bond, a requirement for all collection agencies doing business in the state.

"Rogue collection agencies will not be allowed to harass and threaten West Virginia consumers," McGraw said. "Any consumers who receive repeated telephone calls from debt collectors or have debt collectors threaten them with jail or criminal prosecution should contact my Consumer Protection Division."

They ought to be STRUNG up by their ----'s.

I too have been getting calls/messages on my answering machine from this company.  It is always regarding the estate of a person I have never heard of.  I have not called them back.  The number comes across the caller ID as "unknown", but they leave their 800 number with a case number in their message.

Someone called from 302-355-3500 and left a message for "the person handling the estate of the late" (my father in law who died this spring.  You can't make out hardly anything this man is saying, much less who he is calling from.  Google search turned up philip & cohen, as previous comments said. Has anyone actually called these people back? i'm not sure i want to keep this message or erase it from voice mail. my mother in law don't need this aggrivation.  suggestions?

Call on answering machine tonight when  got I got home.  "Corinne" wanted to speak to someone about the estate of my late mother, even apologizing for mispronouncing the last name.  She left a phone number (800)477-6441 and a "case number" to refer to when the call was returned.  No mention of a company name or what it was about.  Her voice was extremely soft and I had to play the message several times to get the whole message.  I will be calling back tomorrowe and referring her to my attorney per his instructions.

Same here! Keep calling and looking for someone whom I have no idea about.

I figured it was some Junk Debt Collector, and it is.

Any time you get a mysterious 'official' sounding person who oesn't leave a name of association it is a sure tipoff. These people are the pariahhs of the world!!

I received a call from Mrs. State at 1-800-477-6441 and I would that these people not call my home again and I don't know how they got my number because it is private and unlisted. There should be some legal recourse for allowing companies like this on to call and harass people.

I have received at least 5 messages from 800-477-6441.  The caller gave his name only on most recent message this morning as John Flynn.  All of the messages referred to "the estate of Robert Montgomery" a person I don't know of in any way.
The first messages stated that he was looking for "someone in charge of the estate" and to call back.  The message today stated my name, mispronounced, and said again that it was in regards to the estate of Robert Montgomery.  Seems like he forgot to have his cue card notes in front of him when he called again because his story changed.

Well, since the first message came through, I've ignored all of them since I don't know any Robert Montgomery and I usually received about 100 emails a day telling me that I either won a half billion dollars in an online lottery or I am the surviving heir to some huge fortune and I need to collect it overseas.
Anyone else sick and tired of that bulls**t???
So I thought this call was something along those lines and hoped one day they'd stop.
But today, when I heard my name along with this bogus estate name, I became curious and started to look for the number online.  That's how I found this site and am more than pleased to share my info if it helps any one person.

These people have the BBB link on their website.  Is there any part of them that's reputable or are they scamming and threatening people without any purpose of collecting or recovering funds???

I'm going to have my husband call them.  He's armed with all of the information I found here, and he's really good dealing with people in this type of situation.

I just got a call from them concerning my father's estate, or lack of one.  So they ain't gettin' jack S%@t!  I'm glad there was some info here.