Consumer complaint received 2023-02-28
Product: Debt collection — Credit card debt
Issue: Attempts to collect debt not owed — Debt is not yours
Company: D. SCOTT CARRUTHERS (IL)

I received a several phone calls and text messages in XXXX of XXXX from someone saying they were attempting to collect on a debt from a default judgement in Massachusetts small claim court from XXXX. The person texted from XXXX. The caller/texter never fully explained who they were but made it seem like they were a representative of Norfolk Financial Corp , who apparently purchased the debt and obtained the default judgement almost 20 years ago. I informed the person that I only went to college in MA, and hadn't lived there for more then a year when the court docket shows the papers were served to me at an address that wasn't mine, and furthermore the debt wasn't mine. I specifically told them that they were probably looking for my father who shared the same name as me, and lived in the address they had in MA, but they insisted it was mine. They threatened that they were next going to levy my bank account. I asked them for additional details on the original debt understanding that Norfolk Financial is only a debt collection company, and they never responded further. I was able to look the judgement up online in the MA circuit court archives, and it very much looks like there was a default judgement made against most likely my father at that time. 

I received another set of calls today, XX/XX/XXXX, allegedly from the same group. The phone call came from XXXX, but they asked me to call back on XXXX. Further texts also came from this number. In the message the female caller identified herself as calling from attorney XXXX XXXX 's office, and provided the docket number from the original default judgement as well as the last 4 digits of my SSN. She said the call from XXXX was from her 'paralegal '. She again threatened me that she would next levy my bank account. Over the phone I reiterated that the debt wasn't mine, I didn't live in MA when the court summons went out, and that it was likely my fathers. After telling this woman that I wasn't interested in talking about this further she abruptly hung up on me. Within a couple of minutes she texted me an image of a document that I assume shows the original debt, which was from XXXX XXXX. The problem is the SSN on it isn't mine, the debt was for an account that was opened in XXXX when I was XXXX XXXX XXXX, I never had any accounts with XXXX XXXX, and again I didn't live in MA when the debt was purchased and the small claims case was prosecuted. I informed her of all of the issues with their attempt to collect this debt, informed her that my father passed away close to 5 years ago with nothing in his estate, and that I would consider any additional attempts at contact would be considered harassment and that I would sue for violations of the FDCPA. 

The second screenshot she sent to me was from a firm called XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX MA XXXX, with a phone number of XXXX and an email of XXXX. I can find no record of an Attorney XXXX or XXXX XXXX or XXXX that works in debt recovery in Massachusetts, but there is a long history of people associated with these numbers and companies doing borderline scam debt recovery, and they are associated with Norfolk Financial which was barred from being licensed as a debt collector in MA so they farm out the actual collection to smaller firms.