25 Aug 2024 - AJ
Ah, debt collectors, who are only slightly better regarded than scammers themselves. The debt collection scams article has been one of the harder ones to research because I’d search “debt collector scams” and half of the articles/videos were on sketchy/scammy debt collector tactics.
Generally, the advice seems to be: if you owe a debt and it’s within the Statue of Limitations (and therefore a valid debt that can be legally collected upon) you should probably try to work with the debt collector. First party ones (that is, collectors from the company that’s owed money) are generally considered more reasonable.
If you’re not sure you owe a debt, you may wish to check your credit report and also the Statute of Limitations for your area.
Zombie debt collectors are a different story. The debt is only collectible if they persuade you to pay/promise to pay, which resets the clock. General advice seems to be ignore/block them as they cannot really collect.
And definitely, if something seems off, my advice will always be to proceed cautiously.
Otherwise, I cannot provide advice on handle genuine past-due debt. I have never encountered a debt collector for my own debts and I am not in a field that deals with them.