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The came in through private call straight to VM. He said his name was Steve with "Process service dispatch" he had my husband's name and said he had a notice of  action/complaint law suit in our county to delivery. It was very urgent & he must call immediately!  He gave a Texas bond #. He said he would deliver to his work or home. To call them back of he won't be able to sign or be available for his paperwork.

Scam! Real process servers don't call in advance.

Call came in as UNKNOWN callerID so I sent it to VM.  “Kayla” left a very good, very convincing message saying that she was from the Process Service Dispatch for my local county and calling in reference to a civil complaint that has been forwarded “to my office”. Then she went on to say, “If you have any questions or concerns regarding he pending actions that have been found against you or you will not be available to accept or sign for these documents, you will need to contact the firm [she didn’t give a name…just called it ‘the firm’].”

She gave a case number but I called my local county clerk and the district superior court clerk and they said that their case numbers don’t use that numbering that she gave.

 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 department and tell them that you are a deadbeat who does not pay their bills.  They often call people that have never even been 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 associated with you because they get erroneous information off the internet.

 The fake process server/location finder extortion SCAM usually consists of the following:

They mention that they have received a Fax document or some sort of complaint and that there is a pending legal matter or action about to filed against you to create the sense of urgency.  They tell you that they are a “process server” and cannot give you the particulars of the case since the file is sealed. This is simply ruse to get you to call another number (often with a made-up case number) where they will ask for money to “make it go away” (this is actually the same place, they work in teams, one pretending to be the server, and the other usually pretends to be a lawyer).  They threaten to serve you at home or at work.  They tell you that if they serve you at work then they will need a supervisor, security, or HR person there as a witness, hoping that will cause you to panic over the alleged embarrassment of being served at work.  They also tell you that you will need two forms of ID.  None of which is true.  Process servers do not ever call ahead so that you can dodge them.  Process servers get paid to serve papers, nothing else.  They certainly are not going to pass up a paycheck by telling you that you can avoid being served, they are not going to give you an extra day or even a few hours to get a “stop order”.  Court documents are time sensitive and must be served within a certain amount of time.  Remember that you can always call the local courthouse to see if there really is a lawsuit that has been filed against you.

  It is incumbent upon them under the law to prove that the debt exists and that you owe it, and (this is the important part) that they have the legal right to collect it.  You are not obligated under the law to prove that you don’t owe or that it is paid.  

Federal law (FDCPA) requires them to send you a letter, email, or text (postmarked in the case of a letter) within 5 days of their first contact that contains their name, physical address, the creditor’s name, and the amount of the alleged debt. Unless they have communicated it to you verbally at the beginning of your conversation.  It also must contain the “mini-Miranda” telling you that it is an attempt to collect a debt and that all information will be used for those purposes.  The one other important thing that this communication must also have in it is that you have a right to dispute the debt within 30 days of receipt of the letter and if you do so, all collection activity must be stopped until the debt is verified.  If and when you get that communication you should immediately send that debt validation letter by certified, return receipt mail.

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

Thank you very much for that information.  I sincerely appreciate your taking the time to share that.

They called looking for me under my last husbands last name which I haven’t used in 12 years. But the most disturbing thing is they had the last 4 digits of my SSN and read them to me. Then said they were pulling up info and left me on hold for 7 min before I finally hung up.

Message left on my voice mail. Gave the name of my sister and said there was a civil lawsuit against her. Did not identify himself or his company. Checked with the court clerk. No lawsuit had been filed.

They called and said I owed a past MasterCard bill. When I expressed that I have never had a MasterCard, he said my ss# showed otherwise and that I would be served. He was very dismissive and rushed me off the phone with we'll see you in court and you can tell it to the judge!