OKLAHOMA CITY - Melissa Cooper thought, “this isn’t good.”
She was the recent target of a bully scammer.
“The thing that caught my eye was they had my entire social number,” she said.
And that’s no joke.
The person with Melissa's social security number is pretending to be an attorney from Dallas and threatening her with legal action.
It's a scam we keep warning you about.
In Melissa's case, the scammer claims her payday loan is delinquent, even though the debt was discharged.
“I had to file bankruptcy due to a major surgery,” she said. “That's where I get worried. My bankruptcy information may be out there.”
That’s our concern too.
We got the scammer on the phone.
He said, “The next couple of hours we're going to fax all of the information to the authorities and they're going to take a further legal step against your name.”
He never did tell us where he got Melissa's information.
One thing Melissa does have going for her is she never called the scammer from her personal phone.
Oklahoma's Chief of the Attorney General's Public Protection Unit, Julie Bays, says if you don't recognize the number don't answer!
She said, “What happens is scammers will sell your phone number online to other scammers saying this is a live person who will answer their phone, so then you're getting scams from everywhere and every type of scam on your phone.”
Melissa is filing complaints with the appropriate agencies and refusing to sit quiet.
“I just want to let someone know,” she said.
- If you think someone trying to collect a debt is not legit, contact your creditor for answers.
- You should also demand a written validation notice be sent to you in the mail, because scammers won't have one.
- You get three free credit reports each year.