The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the nation's consumer protection agency, is warning consumers to be on the alert for scam artists posing as debt collectors. It may be hard to tell the difference between a legitimate debt collector and a fake one. Sometimes a fake collector may even have some of your personal information, like a bank account number. A caller may be a fake debt collector if he:

is seeking payment on a debt for a loan you do not recognize;
refuses to give you a mailing address or phone number;
asks you for personal financial or sensitive information; or
exerts high pressure to try to scare you into paying, such as threatening to have you arrested or to report you to a law enforcement agency.

If you think that a caller may be a fake debt collector:
Ask the caller for his name, company, street address, and telephone number. Tell the caller that you refuse to discuss any debt until you get a written "validation notice." The notice must include the amount of the debt, the name of the creditor you owe, and your rights under the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
If a caller refuses to give you all of this information, do not pay! Paying a fake debt collector will not always make them go away. They may make up another debt to try to get more money from you.

Stop speaking with the caller. If you have the caller's address, send a letter demanding that the caller stop contacting you, and keep a copy for your files. By law, real debt collectors must stop calling you if you ask them to in writing.

Do not give the caller personal financial or other sensitive information. Never give out or confirm personal financial or other sensitive information like your bank account, credit card, or Social Security number unless you know whom you're dealing with. Scam artists, like fake debt collectors, can use your information to commit identity theft ? charging your existing credit cards, opening new credit card, checking, or savings accounts, writing fraudulent checks, or taking out loans in your name.

Contact your creditor. If the debt is legitimate ? but you think the collector may not be ? contact your creditor about the calls. Share the information you have about the suspicious calls and find out who, if anyone, the creditor has authorized to collect the debt.

Report the call. Contact the FTC and your state Attorney General's office with information about suspicious callers. Many states have their own debt collection laws in addition to the federal FDCPA. Your Attorney General's office can help you determine your rights under your state's law.>

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/alerts/alt076.shtm

I received a phone call yesterday wanting to know if I was going to be home Wed. so he could serve me papers.  I asked what papers.  He said he didn't know, that was a privacy issue and I would have to call 877-334-6985 and give them the case # and maybe they could work something out so that I wouldn't have to be served papers.  I told him I had no idea what this was about and I had not received anything in writing about this.  I told him I would try and check on it.  He called again this morning saying he hadn't seen where I had called in to the company and wanted to know what I was going to do about it.  I said I had not had time.  He said I had to do it soon, or it could not be stopped.  I do not want to call someone I don't know to try and find out what I am being sued over.  I went to the local District court and gave them the case # and they said it was not theirs and they did not have anything on me. They said if I called to not give them any of my personal information, that it was probably someone scamming me. I do not know company that was suppose to be calling, only a phone # and the person calling was from a restricted #  What should I do?

I called the number, because I really had no idea what was going on. Luckily I was able to resolve a past issue that I quite frankly had forgotten about until it was explained to me. I avoided court luckily, and my lawyer said I was getting the better end of the deal by resolving. Hopefully others are as successful with that.

We received a call yesterday to call this number, the call was from a blocked # that called first.When I called the 1877 # They stated that my husband took out a loan 5 years ago online. He said he did not! They wanted money right now, any money. He continued to call and try to work something out. I called the sheriff and an attorney. They both said that it is a scam. DO NOT GIVE THESE PEOPLE MONEY!!!!!

They called me 1st unknown and then gave me 877-334-6985 to call and when I did they started asking me for money for a loan 6 years ago in which the place I got the loan for says I"m not even in their records. I contacted court clerk and was advise case number given is false and not to give out any money or sign anything but to get copies of whatever documents they hand me and return to court clerk for further review..advise this may be a scam!

Have been getting calls every 2 minutes for the last 15 minutes from this number because I wasn't answering. They were not leaving a message just calling over and over again.