by Ryan McKeen
Thugs. That’s the only word that I’m willing to write in this blawg to describe them.
The them is/are large national debt collectors. These thugs buy debt for pennies on the dollar and then try and collect anything they can from anyone.
Two years ago, an elderly woman came to me telling me that her identity had been stolen. She’s never had a credit card in her life, hasn’t made a mortgage payment in 30 years, and had never been late on any bill in her life.
Yet she kept getting calls and letters from Thug Debt Collection, LLC (not their real name) claiming that she owed them $65,000.00. She was terrified. She was losing sleep that someone had stolen her identity.
Through some investigation and placing a credit freeze on her accounts, it turns out that no one had stolen her identity at all and she didn’t owe a penny to anyone.
After several heated calls with Thug Debt Collection, LLC, I finally got one of their supervisors to explain what happened. He said that when they purchase debt they look for someone who’s name is close to the person’s name who actually owes the debt and try and collect it from the person with a similar name.
My client told me that if the amount had been smaller she would have paid the debt out of fear.
I’m sure she’s not the only one.
If you are a senior citizen or know a senior citizen who is in a similar situation – you should contact an attorney.