Telemarketers and phone scams (long)

[Beth]

Thank you for the good advice. The trouble is, in this case the 
account in question no longer exists. As in the case of my friend, 
the scammers get ahold of some little bit of information and try to 
bully you into thinking they are a collection agency. 

"Susie A. Q, our records show that you owe from Alexander Telephone 
company several hundred dollars. How are you going to pay that?"

"My name is Susie L. Q."

"Right, I've corrected that. You used to have an apartment at 99 
Candy Cane Lane in Middleofamerica?"

"Yes"

"We show you have an outstanding balance of several hundred dollars. 
Will you be paying for that with a credit card or would you like me 
to make an electronic transfer from your checking account?"

"Wait a minute. What company did you say you were with?"

"Mulctuary [love that word from Lemony Snicket!) Collectors. We have 
thousands of contracts with Alexander Telephone to collect 
outstanding bills. Now, before I give you any more information 
regarding this account, I'll need to verify who you are. What is 
your birthdate."

And on, and on, until they have plenty of information for identity 
theft and you may have given them a payment, to boot. "Susie" 
called "Alexander Telephone" and was told that they don't keep 
records from as many years ago as her bill was supposedly dated, so 
there was no way to verify, but that they don't contract 
with "Mulctuary" to collect payments. "Mulctuary" also operates out 
of the country, making it harder to track and prosecute.

OTOH, I have dealt with credit card company Y [not X, we haven't had 
an account with X for 15 years] when my account was past due (found 
the envelope with check in the van the next day) and when I told the 
very friendly yet persistant representative that I didn't feel 
comfortable giving him my information over the phone but could make 
a transfer online as soon as I got off the phone with him, he was 
very courteous. 

Anyway, it was just something I wanted to pass along, because like I 
said, I can envision my Grandma being bullied into giving this guy 
all the information he needed /plus/ her checking account number and 
being wiped out in an eyeblink. 

Beth