This is a strange one and I haven’t got past the initial opening yet - so while I’m positive it is a scam, I’m just not sure what kind yet. A heavily accented guy answers the phone “Account Services, how may I help you”. I instantly think maybe I got one of those zero interest rate on my credit card call centers! I do my usual explaining that I had a missed call from that number and was calling back to see if it was something important. I asked who it was that was calling me (company name), and he said he was unable to give out that information until he could ‘verify’ me, and asked for my name. I gave him one of my bogus one. He fumbled a bit trying to get the name right and then when satisfied, he asks for my social security number! I told him there was no way in hell I was just going to give someone I didn’t know my SSN, and again asked who in the hell he was. He tried the “Account Services” reply, and I asked “Account Services for WHO”. He wouldn’t answer, and I sort of started laying into him about being so ‘secretive’, not even being able to tell me who he was and so on - and just hung up.
@Otis#139202
I called and it seems they are Account Services for Fortiva, which seems to be some sort of credit bumping agency. Seems legit-ish despite crappy site: https://www.myfortiva.com/index.html
They told me their “company” was fordiva, but wouldn’t give out any further info. That’s the only info I could extract without my rubber hose, lol.
Go figure. When I called, I was first put on hold, and I got the standard scammer synthetic music thing with the occasional "Your call is very important to us. Please hold the line while I connect you to the next available agent." that they all use. And then the guy wouldn't tell me WHO he was, saying something about being confidential. When he asked for my full SSN, I figured it HAD to be some kind of scam - either SSA, or phishing, or something - just couldn't figure out what. Still seems scammy to me, but I guess it doesn't fully pass the slimeball test just yet.
@Otis#139254
Its one of those crappy setup companies/call centers. They should update their practices, or it looks super sketchy.
I called them today, May 19, 2020:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drq7hKlKgCg&feature=youtu.be
@Otis#139254 This has all the hallmarks of a Debt Collector, “Account Services for Fortiva”. You won’t find info on the Fortiva website about anyone who collects for them. So it depends on how you first encountered them on how to determine if they are a scam or not. Did they leave a message that sounded threatening?
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@MKHNT#139298 Did they leave a message that sounded threatening?
I just ran across it on another site. The original recipient of the call said:
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they called me and hung up without a word. I called them back. They answered “account services”. Asked them why they called, he asked for my name and last four. I asked what company this is, he would not tell me without my name and last four. I hung up.
I called the number and got basically the same results, except he __wanted my full SSN__! Usually, that is a trigger for me that they are up to no good.
I watched @josephnormandgrinnell video and it “seems” like a Debt Extortion scam, where they give a vague company name that only “sounds meaningful”, but without more info on how they contacted that person, it is hard to say with any certainty if it is just an outsourced 3rd party debt collection or a scammer.
Debt collectors, legit and scammers both have a targeted person they bought a debt from the original creditor and it is difficult to scambait them without some info from the targeted call recipient.