713-568-5936

This is Opportun’s collection Dept

calls my celfon DAILY for months regarding an acquaintance who named me as a reference

Debt collector is calling re the debt of a neighbor who used my name as a reference. They refuse to take my name/number off their calling list. Their name is Opportun Finance.

The first problem I have is that they "claim" that this neighbor used you as a "reference". This sounds more like the following:

One of the tricks they use is to call your family, friends, neighbors and/or places of employment (past or present or both) to create panic and embarrassment so that their intended victim calls them so that they can scare that person into paying extortion money.  They will usually also state information that would be illegal for a real debt collector to state to a third party such as that you are being sued, that you owe money to someone, etc. They threaten that if you do not call them back, they will contact your HR department and tell them that you are a deadbeat who does not pay their bills.  They often call people that have never even been associated with you because they get erroneous information off the internet.

That makes your neighbor the victim of an intended extortion attempt since this is clearly a violation of the FDCPA:

First, you should make a complaint at this Federal Agency, and while there you should also read up on how debt collection is supposed to work as well as what your rights in this matter are: https://www.consumerfinance.gov/

Also file complaints with the FTC: https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/#crnt&panel1-1

Also file a complaint with your State Attorney General's office.
List of State AG’s offices:   https://800notes.com/faq/attorney-general