Consumer complaint received 2024-03-26
Product: Debt collection — Credit card debt
Issue: Took or threatened to take negative or legal action — Threatened to sue you for very old debt
Company: ENCORE CAPITAL GROUP INC. (IN)

I received a phone call telling me that someone had filed a complaint against me in my county. Typically I would not acknowledge these calls but I wanted to make sure that because of a current business situation that it wasn't a real complaint. I called the number in the message and immediately the person starts telling me that I owe $ XXXX dollars for something that went into collections in XXXX. Of course, this thing is no longer on my credit report and it was 17 years ago so I have no records of payment. I was clear in that I didn't have a XXXX card and if I did, it had been well over 15 years since having XXXX. She kept saying how it wouldn't be on my credit report and that they couldn't legally put it on there because it was out of collections but the company had the right to come after me. Any time I tried to talk they would shut me down with " lawyer speak '' about how the company has the right to sue me for fees and interest along with the original debt. I tried to ask questions and the woman XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX said that she represented the company ( XXXX ) but she was authorized to mediate a settlement. She said that companies will usually negotiate to an amount that is comfortable for the client. As I asked more questions, she would go between defensive and friendly. I was advised to make an offer for her to negotiate. So I did. She put me on hold, while she " reached out '' to the client. She came back about XXXX min later and says they accepted it. So I asked that I be sent the paper work to review. She said " well this offer expires in an hour '' and started telling me how I should not have said I was ready to settle if I wasn't ready to pay. I stressed that I needed time to review the documents. She stressed that I had an hour. While I realized I used poor judgment, when she rattled off a social security number, I said I am not verifying that and her response to me was " I am not asking you to verify it, I am telling you what it is. '' Then she starts giving me names of people they supposedly tried to contact. I never verified if I knew those people. She also tried to get me to verify other accts that I have/had. For example, she asked if I had purchased a particular vehicle. She kept pushing, asking if I financed that particular vehicle and when I said " no '' she got frustrated and just " oh I see so you didn't huh? '' This is where these scammers start weeding their way in to your mind because some people will start to confirm stuff. I refused so she kept going back to " remind '' me of the legal ramifications of not proceeding with the arbitration. Regardless, if anyone says that I confirmed anything, they are lying. And I will not confirm or deny ( in this complaint ) if that information is correct. She kept telling me how the case was already in processing, how this would stop that process, and that if I didn't do arbitration that I would be served with a $ XXXX lawsuit that could not be negotiated. I am not an attorney. At this point the coercion began. When I tried to talk, she would talk at the same time and I have no idea what she was saying. So I would stop and listen and she threatened me with litigation. I asked how she was representing them and helping me with arbitration and then she says " this is NOT an attempt to collect a debt ''. I am trying to stop a civil suit. All the while coercing me to sign a document saying I agreed to a settlement. It wasn't even a doc-sign is was a form that was delivered via a drop box but I didn't notice that until I clicked... thinking ( as she stated ) that it was opening the document when in fact it was agreeing to pay. She doesn't realize there is a huge flaw in her forms ( besides the fact that they were signed under duress ) but I will not state that here because I will NOT give anyone leverage to come after me for something they didn't deserve in the first place. Regrettably the payment ( which they split up because the system had a XXXX ) - {$2500.00} & {$720.00} - was authorized and has since been charged. When I finally got in touch with an attorney, I discovered that the statute of limitations expired after 6 years ( in the last XXXX states I have lived in ) and they did not have legal standing to sue me for the debt. But they preyed on the fact that I am not an attorney and wouldn't readily know anything about debt repayment and statute of limitations. At that point, as you have guessed, I started putting XXXX and XXXX together and realized that I had been scammed. The payment wasn't made to " the client '' or to the " law firm '' it was paid to a payment processing company. That was my " ah ha '' moment. I have since filed a complaint with the FTC. Now I am reporting it here. They are not rated with the BBB. So I didn't bother to report it there. The only people who have heard of this company are people who have been scammed or people they are trying to scam. The bottom line is that scammers are evolving. I debated even starting this complaint/dispute process because who knows what depths they will stoop to in order to keep my money. They will say I agreed to pay it but they will not tell you the scare tactics they used or the state of mind they placed me in. There are a few XXXX complaints on the BBB website. I'd like to repeat I did NOT provide it or verify any of my personal information. They embarrass you and threaten you with litigation and are crafty about picking things that have clearly fallen off a credit report, knowing most people do not keep records beyond 10 years. But the fact of the matter is that I was under duress when I signed that and it was under false/illegal pretenses because they lied and preyed upon my lack of knowledge of statutes ( which the average person would not know ), not to mention the flaw. I am not the criminal, even though they treated me like XXXX. THEY ARE!!!! And they need to be stopped. I was also provided with a XXXX liability form, stating that I do not owe anything else but my guess is that was to make this all seem legit, especially since threatening with litigation was not. For the record, the threat of litigation happened no less than XXXX times. I was gaslighted with jargon when I asked questions. She would flip every scenario to insinuating that I was dishonest and trying to get around the debt and telling me that I have many open accts and all sorts of other stuff she claimed to know about me. I asked where she was getting her information and she claimed to have a redacted case file, saying she couldn't see all of it because it was about XXXX pages. That's when I knew I needed to report this. She CLAIMED that in 30 days she would request a copy for me. I said " oh you're going to send me a XXXX page document? '' She asked what address she could sent it to and I said whatever one you have on file. She ended the call with actually telling me to have a " blessed day '' as if she hadn't just committed criminal activity. That was XXXX XXXX slap in the face.