877-695-0611

did not identify the company calling--asked for the phone number of a friend who used my name as a reference

debt collector of the highest moral disregard for humanity, a real emotional invalid

Yup.... been calling me for a few days now.  Left one msg saying they wanted to verify employment but didn't say for whom.  Left reference number.  

Then another VM and they said a reference number and said to call em.  I don't trust them and Im not calling and would suggest the same to everyone else.  If they're not willing to give up any info on why they are calling.... then it's not important enough for me to get in touch with them.  

There are a few more stories on another site about this same number saying the same things.

This is Pioneer Credit Recovery, a debt collector working on contract for the US Department of Education.  Their name is on the DOE website at http://www2.ed.gov/offices/OSFAP/DCS/collection.agencies.html (second down on the right), so they are legitimate (or, as legitimate as you can consider any debt collector to be - they are at least backed by the government).  The reason the number there is different is that's their main office number.  Different divisions all have different numbers that change periodically, and this happens to be one of them (for the time being).  They don't give out any information on messages due to disclosure laws.  It's actually illegal, and they would risk a multi-million dollar contract by breaking the law.

If they are trying to verify employment, you can be sure the government is looking to garnish one of your employees.  They can't garnish them until they verify that they work there, so if you want to protect your employees who have defaulted on loans you could continue to ignore them.

they called me looking for someone that listed me as a contact person. They said they were from the Ringwood, NJ Board of Education, that they were looking for one of their employees, and could not find them because it was summer and may be on vacation. I had never heard of the person they were looking for.

They called me about 20 min ago. There was a lady calling herself "Barbara Sue". She wouldn't tell me where she was calling from or what the call was in regards to.  She asked for the previous owner of my house, who was foreclosed on. I should have known that they were trying to collect on a debt but "Barbara Sue" kind of caught me off guard. When she first called, she called me by my first name, who no one knows me by.  That should have been the first red flag. That should have told me that she obviously obtained my number by looking up the new owner of the house, me, then looking in the phone book for my home number. Next, she used a line on me that I've never heard before. She said that the previous owner, who I know personally but don't keep in contact with, said that she was renting from me. I thought for a minute that maybe the previous owner did say that she was renting from me. But, the previous owner, since she was foreclosed on, doesn't even know me by my first name or my home phone number. I didn't think about this until later. I didn't confirm or deny the renting accusation. So "Barbara Sue" told me to tell the previous owner to call this 877 number with a reference number.
 So since I've read this website that has confirmed that this is in fact a creditor,  I'm not going to give the message to the previous owner. They'll have to find another way to contact her. She knows that she owes people. And maybe she'll pay or maybe she won't. I don't know. I just know that I refuse to do "Barbara Sue's" job to  for her and those creditors are getting more clever and creative everyday so WATCH OUT!

how about pay your billssss and they wont bother u

Even if you pay they will call. My wife was called by these guys. Someone with her name has defaulted on a loan. They had the wrong social. The collectors are trying to find people to pay.

Maybe we/they can't pay due to unemployment, A**hole!

When you say "They don't give out any information on messages due to disclosure laws.  It's actually illegal, and they would risk a multi-million dollar contract by breaking the law" does that include leaving messages that say "Mr. X, this message is in regards to your student loan for $X.XX"?

Just curious

Just got a call from them.  They left a message with a reference number.  I called back and it turns out they were looking for another person with my same name.  They asked for my birthday and then told me the last 4 of the social they were looking for to see if it was mine.  No harm no foul.  And they were very polite.

Got messages over the past days to call subject number, and then refer to a reference number. Investigation showed that the company was a debt collection business. No intent on calling back.

I called them back and when I told them I would not give them my social security number they hung up on me. I know this is fishing for information because they told me it was in regards to student loan debt. Except I've never taken out a student loan.

A Michelle Shaffer left message asking to call her back. Only info she left was reference number and said it was in regard to previous owner of my house - more than 14 years ago. There is no legitimate reason to contact me just because I live here. BAD PRACTICE.

Michelle Shaffer called my phone today for my sister,  my sister has never used my name as a reference, she was inquiring a little too much on my sister, where she was, when would she be out of vacation, is she planning in going back to work?
Too much info to want to know,  I told the lady that we live an hour apart and I don't know every step of my sisters life.

Fact is I got creeped out by this lady asking all these questions...  

They called me this morning...left a message for Cynthia?  That is not me - and for this person to call with back with some Jcode for reference.  How they got my number in reference to another person whom I don't know is beyond me.