Anatomy of a Fake Debt Collection Call

There are plenty of real debt collection agencies operating legally in the US, and one may call you. Here's how to tell real from fake:
1. Fake callers use a robo-message to threaten you with arrest/jail, real debt collectors will only leave a message that they are calling about collecting a debt but will usually have a live person manning the phone until they get pushed to voicemail.
2. Fake callers do not identify the name of their collection agency - real debt collectors display a number, company name on caller ID and leave their name in voicemail.
3. Fake callers do not identify the source of your debt - real debt collectors are required by law to provide this information in writing upon request. (Confirmation of debt.)
4. Fake callers may not address you by name or know who you are. (This isn't always true - some may have your name before calling.)

Re: #3 -- You do not have to request confirmation of debt, at least not in the US.  The debt collector is required to send that to you in writing via the postal service within 5 days of their initial contact.
Re: #2 -- From past experience (debt collectors trying to contact my numbers previous subscribers) legit collectors do not always display their company name on caller ID.

If a real collector were to display their name on a caller ID, it might lead to an FDCPA violation since they would have no idea who would see it.

There are valid reasons for a collector not to use caller ID and not to volunteer too much info up front.  However it is a huge red flag (as well as a FDCPA violation) if they don't identify their company after being asked, and any information they provide has to be truthful and not deceptive.

One trick I've seen used lately by fake collectors is to skip the robocall messages (since no one pays attention to them anyway), and set their dialer to make repeated hang-up calls instead.  All the calls display the same caller ID, which is usually a local number that masks the scammer's true location.  It's actually a working VoIP line that routes to a real call center in another state or overseas.  Some people get worried enough about the mysterious hang-up calls that they call the number back.  Those are the folks the scammer wants to talk to the most.

general rule of thumb, never call a number back, just block it. You don't know what you might open yourself up to and confirm that your phone number is active, therefore open to more scam/spam phone calls.

Also, a real debt collector does not threaten you saying they will show up at your workplace with paperwork or insist (as one nutjob did) that you have your "supervisor" present with you.  Nor do they threaten arrest or any other nonsense.

I have had numerous calls during the past few years (looking for the deadbeats that once had my current number) from Portfolio Recovery and GE Capital (generally considered legitimate collectors; if only barely) that clearly showed their names on caller ID and that left messages (at least until I PTF blocked their numbers) asking for various of the afore mentioned deadbeats.  However, sometimes they would call from the same numbers with just a city and state shown as CNAM (usually during the initial calls from that particular number.)  Other, supposedly legitimate, collection companies such as CMRE Financial Services and Midland Credit Management have never put their name information in their CNAM fields with only UNKNOWN, UNAVAILABLE or OUT OF AREA showing up.
Fortunately I have not received calls from any of these companies in nearly a year and the number of unwanted calls (of any kind) has dropped from dozens a day to one or two a week.

As far as I'm concerned, if a caller does not have the human being, professional decency to have their real name show up on caller id, then it will not be answered and then quickly blocked. A lot of these debt scammers use names pirated from alleged legitimate companies on caller id. We even had one debt scammer that pirated the telephone number of a very respected local veterinary practice, and you can bet that every lawyer and police officer in town that used that vet practice helped them get the scammer shut down. Unfortunately, there is a lot of equipment out there that can be easily programmed to show all manner of phony names & numbers. I hope they all end up in hell.

Definitely.  Calling back lets the scammer know you might be interested in listening to his spiel.  Or, the number could be spoofed and belong to an innocent victim.  Sometimes with rogue debt collectors it is necessary to get lawyers involved, and they may ask you to call a number back to gather more evidence.  But that is done only after research is complete and you have a good idea who is going to answer.

I had a similar experience with Midland Credit calling me and blocking all caller id info (both name and number).  My cell phone service would not let me block out-of-area calls, so I eventually gave up and answered them.  Even after I asked the caller to identify his company, he said "MCM" rather than Midland.  This lack of identification supposedly saved my neighbor some embarrassment about why I was getting these calls for her, but it also helped Midland get away with making illegal autodialer calls to cell phones for way too long.

The hustle:

Point calling = the act of making an illegal phone call to a consumer posing as law enforcement with the intent to scare them into paying off account balances.

1. Accounts. Get a lot of them and work a lot of them. Use skip tracing tools like Accurint or CBC to acquire every possible phone number attached to the consumer and his/her family/employers. Dress the account with all the info and put the nose to the crimestone.

2. Point call #1. "Shake the debtor." Using a restricted phone number, call every number on the account. Leave voicemails where possible. Have a voicemail AND a live point call script available. PC1 message sounds like this:

"My name is (fake name). I have legal documents for you to sign. Call (company he's actually calling from, but claims is entirely seperate) and reference your case number with any questions."

If they get you live, that's ideal. You don't get time to process the information. Unless you've been point called before, you don't know what's going on. "A court date? This guy said he's serving out of the county I live in...what did I do?" That's when they hit you with, "Do you have a pen and paper?"

So you grab a pen, anticipating the information. But instead, you're given a phone number to the office that is supposedly taking you to court. Many call immediately preceding this. Two options at that point: either you call or you don't.

If you do, you'll be speaking with another person. They'll answer with another fake name, posing as a representative with some law-firm-sounding company title. This person could be sitting right next to the point caller that you just spoke with. Now, he will attempt to "close him a deal," which will go towards the point caller's monthly goal.

They tell you they are looking to file suit against you for non-payment of an account. Their goal is to get you to ASK THEM to pay. If you do, they'll tell you they need to bring it to "the head litigator" or "the director." They put you on hold. During this time, the person talking you off will go have a conversation with the point caller. They discuss your offer and usually return with a counter offer, depending on what the point caller needs towards his monthly goal.

Now, let's say you don't call them. This leads us to

3. Point call #2.

"(Your name), this is (fake process server name). I contacted you yesterday and have yet to hear anything different from the office that filed this case against you. I will stop by tomorrow to serve you legal documents."

Then, if you still don't bite:

4. Final point call.

"THIS IS YOUR FINAL NOTIFICATION. I WILL SEE YOU SOON."

You haven't responded. This means you either found out it was illegitimate or don't care. Either way, the final point call usually tends to be the most aggressive.

5. Move on, and sell the account (with your personal information) to another collection agency.

This is the strategy employed by Legal Debt Processing Services aka Lionstone Holdings Group aka Red Cedar Associates aka Woodcrest Holdings Group aka Northwind Associates aka Highland Capital Associates aka Ledbury Management Group aka Chase Debt Holdings aka Chebat Portfolio Management aka The Great Atlantic Group aka The Bristol Group aka Brookshaw Holdings aka Crosspoint Associates. The company is owned by Jimmy Chebat in Buffalo, N.Y., at 1800 and 1807 Elmwood Avenue. Titus Glenn Tallchief, his brother Levon, and his underlings Jason Kosakowski and Kristi Clark run the day to day operations.

They have been doing this for years, to the tune of several million dollars. National Credit Adjusters in Hutchinson, KS supplies them with accounts to collect on.