Consumer complaint received 2021-02-04
Company: DISCOVER BANK
State: TX
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Credit card debt
Issue: False statements or representation
Sub-issue: Impersonated attorney, law enforcement, or government official

Complaint:
I received a phone call from a lady out of CA who said that they needed to send a subpoena for an unpaid debt. I explained that I had no idea what this debt was, when it was accrued, or anything. She called from XXXX and said she was with the XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX. She advised that she wouldn't send this just yet and that I needed to speak with the case manager, XXXX XXXX at XXXX. I called Mr. XXXX. He said that I had a 20+ year old credit card debt to Discover Financial. I explained to him that I had never had any dealings with Discover Financial. He told me that there was over a {$7000.00} debt, but that I could settle with him for {$2800.00}. I told him that I needed to do some research on this because this was not my debt, and I never had any accounts with Discover Financial. He got ver rude, told me that we would receive a subpoena if I didn't agree to settle, and then threatened me with a lien on my home. I told him that I didn't handle all of this financial stuff due to a XXXX injury while serving in the XXXX, but that I would have my wife call him back to get all the information that she needed to do a search on this. My wife called back about 2 hours later. He was just as rude to her, refused to give her any information about the account, when it was opened, when it went into collections - nothing. She decided to contact Discover Financial. She spoke with representatives in the credit department, the banking department, the mortgage department, and the personal loan department. No accounts pulled up using my social security number at all. My wife called back to the number that we had for this XXXX XXXX XXXX. She then spoke to a man by the name of XXXX ( he did not give his last name ). He was the same ugly and threatening as Mr. XXXX, but he did give her a supposed Discover account number : XXXX. My wife called Discover back again. They could not locate this account number. They said that she would need to talk to the Discover Attorneys department that handled collections. The next morning my wife called the Discover Attorney 's Department. They did another search on my social security number and this supposed account number. They came back and said that no account has ever existed ( past or present ) for me - nothing under my social security number. And this account number that the representative from the XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX was not valid. Their conclusion was that I never had an account with Discover Financial because even when an account is sent for collections and charged off, Discover keeps a record. My wife also keeps track of our credit reports. There has never been any collections on my credit report that indicate Discover. The people at Discover advised me to file a fraud report with the FTC since this department handles credit collections and their practices. I also learned that an unsecured credit card debt has a statute of limitations of 4 year in Texas. I also discovered that there is legal steps when making collections attempts ; none of which were granted to me had there been a delinquent debt to be collected. I believe this is a scam to scare and threaten people into sending a " settlement '' amount to these people who are not debt collectors but in fact hackers/thieves.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation