Rassen Frassen Scammin' Scammers!

For years we have been getting multiple calls a day from Navient. Sometimes even starting before the legal allowable time of 9:00 a.m. Four, five, six calls a day. Leaving a message to call them back with a case number. Which we don't have. This week, they started leaving a reference number. Hick said I should call it. I disagreed. 

"That will only show them that it's a working number. Then they'll sell it to a thousand more scammers!"

"No. They might stop calling."

"I doubt that. Remember when you called the Phelps County Court and asked why they kept hounding us? And that lady said she had no record of any issue?"

"Yeah. But they still kept calling. Why would they call us if someone else owes money?"

 

"They do a search, and it shows people associated with that debtor, so they look up all those numbers and call those people, trying to track down the debtor. Our number is in the book. If it's someone we know, we would show up, whether they gave our number or not."

 

"Well, yeah. I could see that."

"Now they don't say it's for Phelps County Municipal Court. They start out saying that by law they have to inform us that it's an attempt to collect a debt. Every time I look up their scammy numbers, people are complaining about them calling every day, multiple times. Sometimes they say it's for stoplight camera traffic tickets in states they've never been, some say it's for student loan debts, when they've never had a student loan. It's a scam."

"Call them and find out."

"It's probably just a recording. The old message used to say, 'Have your case number ready,' even though we have no case! Now it's giving two different reference numbers. Maybe more if we wait and get five more calls tomorrow!"

"You won't know unless you call."

"I'll go off if they ask me who I am. Or how to find someone. That's not MY job!"

 

So... after calming down after getting worked up, I called. I had both reference numbers. I got a recording:

 

Press 1 and enter your reference number to make a payment.

Press 2 to hear the answers to frequently asked questions.

Press 3 to talk to a representative.

 

Of course I pressed 3. I got a pleasant-enough young man, no foreign accent, excessively calm. 

 

"I'm calling to find out why you keep calling my number. First it was about Phelps County Municipal Court, and now it's a reference number to collect a debt."

 

"Okay. What is your name."

 

"You should know it. YOU keep calling ME! I'm not giving my name. Who are your trying to reach?"

 

"Do you have your reference number?"

 

"I have TWO reference numbers, left five minutes apart."

 

"Okay. Give me the reference number. It's for Ross Hicks." [ACTUAL NAME]

"I don't know a Ross Hicks. He doesn't live here! Take my number off your list!"

"All right. I'll show that this number was reached in error."

"What about the OTHER reference number? Maybe that's another person. I need to get my number off THAT list, too!"

"Okay. Give me that reference number. Oh. It's the same person. So your number is off the list."

"Thank you."

 

Hick had turned off his loud Gunsmoke episode and was listening.

 

"Ross Hicks died in 2018. I just Googled him."

 

"Is he from around here? And how common is that name? There could be a thousand Ross Hickses."

 

"This one was in Tennessee. Here's a William Ross Hicks. And a Richard Ross Hicks..."

 

"See? It's probably part of the scam. They tell EVERYBODY the account is for Ross Hicks. Or use other dead people's names, too."

Let the record show that we do NOT live near Phelps County. Our names are NOT similar to Ross Hicks. Nobody in this family has ever had a student loan. 

 

We'll see if the calls stop. Or if we start getting more scam calls from other scammers.