it gets worse than that. They’ll randomly call anyone with the same last name as the debtor and demand payment. I’ve received collection calls for people I’m unrelated to.
I’ll second that!
At my vacation house in FL, we get a couple of calls a week from a collection agency for someone named Jeffery but with our last name. No Jeffery’s in our family anywhere! We have been getting those calls for a couple of years. Every time I arrive and look at our answering machine, there are 25-30 calls on it from the same people.
Every now and then we pick up one of their calls and dutifully explain they have the wrong number or maybe if they told us who the “creditor” was we could clear it up for them.
Of course the Catch-22 is that since we are not Jeffery, they are not at liberty to discuss the account and must call back later! Over and Over and Over.
Now, I am happy just to waste their time.