Sorry, wrong number

Tuesday, Jun 19 in Collectors, Identity theft | Comments (1)

Question: Anne has gotten calls from a collection agency over charges that she doesn't believe are hers. They want to "verify" it's her by asking for her Social Security number, but she won't give it out. What can she do about this?

Dave Ramsey's answer: NEVER, NEVER give your personal information over the phone when someone like this calls you. From a practical standpoint, you need to get this thing fixed. Just bust the collections agency in the mouth a little bit and let them know you mean business when you say that you are not that person. If they keep calling you and harassing you, report them to the Federal Trade Commission. Put a fraud victim alert on your credit report. That costs nothing, and you should go get identity theft protection insurance from Zander Insurance.

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As usual, Dave is right on here. Any respectable company would be able to provide you with information on this debt. Granted, they may need to confirm your identity before giving out certain information. I worked as a loan collector for about a year and we were required to verify the customer before releasing detailed account information. We did not ask for the entire social security number (just the last 4) or the customer could verify using security questions that were setup with the account. When customers were wary of the call, I would simply ask them to call the number on their coupon book. If it appeared to be a potiential case of fraud, we only confirmed a name and phone number and notified them that a member of our fraud unit would contact them.

# Posted by Michael R | 4/26/08 4:25 PM

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