405-555-0199 / 4055550199

A former employee who was fired and whom I was hired to replace apparently isn't paying her bills. Worse, she's apparently giving out the office phone number to all the debt collection agencies that are trying to track her down. Got a call today from "Mr. Abbott" at the 405-555-0199 number. I'm glad I googled it and found out all this information. Needless to say, I won't be calling Mr. Abbott back.

Why I Recommend Against Sending Cease Communication Letters to CreditorsImagine that you loan someone $10,000 with the understanding that they will pay you back on a monthly basis with interest. After a while, they fall behind on their payments, so you call them to discuss their financial status and encourage them to make a payment. But they dodge all phone contact and you’re not sure they are even getting your messages. No return phone calls. No contact. Nothing. Then you receive a letter in the mail that says something like this: “Pursuant to my consumer rights under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, I hereby demand that you cease and desist from any further attempt to contact me by telephone. Any further attempts at telephone contact will result in my taking legal action against you for violating my rights under Federal law.” What would you do in this situation? 1. Meekly go away and make no further attempt to collect? 2. Ignore the demand and continue calling anyway? 3. Turn it over to a collection attorney? The smartest thing to do in this situation would be to file a lawsuit against the debtor. When you look at it this way, it seems obvious that sending a cease communication notice to a creditor is a pretty dumb thing to do. It makes no sense at all if your goal is to work out mutually agreeable settlement arrangements with your creditors. Yet there are hundreds of debt settlement companies out there still using this obsolete and dangerous technique, not to mention countless debt information websites that recommend this approach and even provide sample letters. When I first started doing debt negotiation in 1997, I worked hard to get the creditor to substitute my phone number for that of the client, so cease communication notices were rarely necessary because the creditor could contact me for an update any time they wanted to. I would only use cease communication notices with truly abusive creditors, the ones who refused to respect the rules and continued to harass or abuse the client even though they had received my power-of-attorney to speak on the client’s behalf. Fast forward a few years. In the process of developing the operational procedures for a large debt settlement operation that handled thousands of clients, it became obvious that we would need an army of people just to field the auto-dialed calls from the creditors. Instead of this unworkable solution, we made the decision to coach consumers on how to screen the calls, report abuse, and generally tough out the collection process until we could negotiate realistic settlements on their behalf. This worked fine, and cease communication notices were usually unnecessary. Unfortunately, many other companies took the easy way out and simply sent out “C & D” letters to every creditor in the client’s file. This was done automatically, and without any analysis with respect to the frequency of the calls to the client or the nature of those calls. The result? A bunch of really angry creditors, a big increase in lawsuit activity (what other choice was the creditor given?), and a lot of unhappy clients. Sadly, years later many companies and websites are STILL using or recommending this technique. Type “cease communication notice” into your favorite search engine and be amazed. I just did it and turned up more than 1.5 million hits! Sending a letter like this is the exact OPPOSITE of the approach that I teach. What works best is communication in good faith. This is simply a matter of common sense. I’m not saying that you should subject yourself to abuse or harassment. But in that type of situation, a complaint letter is often more effective than a cease communication request anyway. Obviously, you also need to take measures to manage the volume of collection calls, which is simply a matter of screening. But it’s important to keep your creditors informed, let them know you haven’t disappeared or tried to skip out on your obligation, and that your intentions are to work things out when you have the resources to do so. Patient persistent explanation of your situation will win the day in the end. It’s pretty simple, really. If you want to settle with your creditors, talk to them once or twice per month until you work out a deal. If you want to get sued, send a cease communication notice.

I was called this afternoon regarding "an urgent matter and this was the number for contact" "Mr.King was the caller and he left another number to call 888420 7233. I returned the call they were looking for someone called Linda Stone... thought my number was a recycled number. I said no and I wanted to know what this was about. They said they would "delete" my number from their list. Tried to call both numbers again and came up with "all operators are busy" and the other was the number was not available. As for 555 numbers... those were designated by the phone company for Hollywood movies!!!! I am concerned as to what other information these people may obtain from my call!!

Got a call from this number, they said it was very important to call them on 888-912-7923. It's a scam, I did not call back

What gives? Who the heck are these people? Who is Mr. King and how am I supposed to know him?

Midland Credit Management in CalifValidated my name by computer and disconnected

Called a private cell number that I never give out

I got a call on my cell phone from these Bozos. Same guy with Oklahoma accent telling me it was very important that I call back. I'm getting a lot of these calls lately, but the last time I was delinquent on a bill was 10 years ago, so this is just another scammer who's playing a game with old debt.

They must use a different call back number each month. The message left for me was the same "Please call us back today, this is an urgent matter. The number is 888-420-7233." I have spoken to these people before, about a year ago.....they were trying to say I owed them money from 2000 but they couldn't provide any paperwork to me. They said they didn't have to provide me with any paperwork and that I should pay my debt or they were turning me over to the IRS. I said okay and hung up. Still don't know what the heck they were talking about or why they are calling AGAIN!

i GOT SAME THING JUST PRESSED 0 2 TIMES A GIRL WAS THERE AND SAID IS THIS (A NAME) I SAID WHO IS THIS SHE SAID DRS WE HANDLE ALL KNIND OF DOCUMENTS, TOLD ME I BREACHED A CONTRACT. THEN HUNG UP.