A New Scam

[MSbklawyer]

Well, new to me anyway. I haven't seen this one before, but a prospective client came in with one of these this morning.

Apparently these scammers are combing court dockets for people who have been sued by creditors. They then send an official-looking letter to the the debtor/defendant advising him that 'their client' is willing to dismiss the suit and settle the debt for some ridiculously low sum -- say 1 to 5 % of the outstanding debt. So the eager/desperate/scared debtor/defendant jumps on the opportunity to settle their $25,000 Chase Visa debt for $250 to $1250. These 'people' are so nice, that they'll even let you 'settle' the debt right over the phone by letting them draft your bank account. Hell, I imagine they'd even let you put in on a different credit card.

Whew!! It sure feels great to be out from under that lawsuit!! And for only $250!! Those guys at Chase are real suckers!! I'd have glady paid $2000 to settle!! Well, honey, what do you say we take our one good remaining credit card and go out for a nice dinner that we can't afford to celebrate?!?!?

But -- you guessed it -- they don't work with Chase. Don't, never did, never have. Chase has never heard of them.

[lrprn]

Wow. Thanks for the heads up. I wish the media could figure out a better way to bring this kind of ugliness to the general community's attention.

Our adult daughter got a variation of this scam recently. I was listed as a co-signer for her car when we filed Ch 13. After our Ch 13 was successfully discharged a few months ago, "Ford Motor Company" came out of the woodwork calling her saying that she had outstanding charges of $250 on her auto loan that were not covered by our bk and she could quickly clear this up by providing them with a payment or her car would be repossessed. Luckily she was smart, asked them to send her something in writing, and immediately called us. We immediately notified our lawyer. These morons actually sent her a letter with a clearly pasted-on Ford Company logo on the letterhead with a bit of scribbling in the corner to boot. Our lawyer sent them a sternly worded letter stating our intention to sue for damages if they proceeded in this matter. They vaporized immediately.

Sadly too many people on both sides of bk are going to be scammed this way. I wish there was more we could do to stop it more effectively. Thanks so much for bringing this latest version of scamming to our attention.

[MSbklawyer]

It's pretty ingenious. Since the scammer gets the information from the court file, the letter from the scammer has the correct court case number, creditor name, amount of debt etc. that would lead the debtor to think it was legitimate. People who have been sued are, for the most part, scared. And now they can make it all go away for pennies on the dollar.

[angles]

this is a new one to me. glad you posted it MS.

[basketsbears]

Yes, thanks so much for posting this information. Very scary indeed.

[HHM]

Yep, ingenious