In The Dark

by Juddie
(TN)

i was contacted today from a collection agency ALW Sourcing,LLC. Re; some bill i supposedly owe and they are trying to collect. They would not tell me who the creditor is or even what state this bill is supposed to be from unless i would give them my soc.sec. number first. When i stated that i do not give out that number,she stated that she could not tell me who or where.

I guess i am supposed to pay a bill i have no memory of or what state this bill was supposed to have been created. I think not. Do they not have to give me some type of info about this debt,esp. if it is many years old?

Comments for In The Dark

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Jun 24, 2010
 SS#
by: Anonymous

You do not ever give out your Social Security # to anyone over the phone, ever!

If it happens again, tell them to send you a letter. By law, collection agencies are supposed to send you a validation/demand letter giving you 30 days to contest the debt and obtain verification. At that point, you contact them and request from them, in writing, verification of the debt. If they can't get it, the debt - and the collection agency - both have to go away by law. In the meantime, they will leave you alone for a while. Even if they do provide verification, you can always write a cease & desist letter and they have to stop calling you. Understand, however, that they can still sue, they just can't contact you.

Another thing you can do is look them up - assuming you have caller ID - find who they are and write them a letter telling them to stop calling you (a cease & desist letter). The best thing to do with them people is never to deal with them over the phone and limit all communications to the written word.

Good luck!
Jun 24, 2010
 ALW Sourcing LLC
by: Gerri & Mary

Juddie,

You are absolutely right not to give out your Social Security number to some debt collector who calls you out of the blue about a debt you don't even know you owe.

If you read the first chapter of Debt Collection Answers online for free you will find out that a debt collector is required by law to send you a written notice describing the debt within five business days of its initial telephone call to you. It sounds as if they are unwilling to do that, and if so, they may be breaking the law.

The next time they call, we suggest you tell them that you do not believe you owe the debt and that you will not talk with them until they send you something in writing. If they call again, you can go ahead and file a complaint with both the Federal Trade Commission at FTC.gov, and your state Atty. Gen.. You can send a copy of the complaint to the debt collector. I believe this is their website, and it also has their address: www.alwsourcing.com.

This kind of thing happens all the time, so I wouldn't panic unless they become abusive. And if that happens, you should definitely talk with the consumer law attorney.

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