Using a Credit Card to Smoke Out a Fraudulent, Abusive Collector

[flacorps]

Someone came to me because they were getting toll-free calls from a collector, apparently a small fly-by-night one, on an old, old charged-off credit card. They tried mightily to get the caller to give up the "business's" (air quotes) address, but no luck. The people wanted only a credit card number and were trying to push her to go pre-load a prepaid credit card. I think she has an unused, open card or two. Do you think she could call her company and put a hold on the card (or even call her company *after* giving out the information and call the charge fraudulent) and use that to get information that would help track down the scammers? 

[CreditSucksNot]

38 minutes ago, flacorps said:

The people wanted only a credit card number and were trying to push her to go pre-load a prepaid credit card.

Because the money is not traceable once they claim it.  

38 minutes ago, flacorps said:

Do you think she could call her company and put a hold on the card (or even call her company *after* giving out the information and call the charge fraudulent) and use that to get information that would help track down the scammers? 

NO!  The key word is SCAMMERS.  They probably are not even in this country.  Even if they are in the USA they are most likely using a mail drop box and pre-paid burner cell phones.   Best case scenario is that the charge is deemed fraudulent and she is credited.  Even if you did manage to track them down they will fold up shop move somewhere else and start over with a new business name.   If by some miracle they were found to be served with a lawsuit and a judgment was attained either by verdict or default chances of collecting are ZERO.  Worst case scenario is by using a real credit card is that they get enough information to steal her identity and she has to deal with that mess for years to come.

 

This is a waste of time and I have yet to encounter a consumer firm that will spend any time on it because it is futile.  

[cv91915]

If your friend goes the prepaid card route I'd like to take a stab at the money before anyone else.  

 

If you'll PM his/her phone number to me and I'm successful I'll cut you in for 30%.

[JunkBuyersWorstNightmare]

I think she should FOAD them.

 

they sound like some fly-by-night scammer who bought some OOS paper, and need a really big bite out of a reality sandwich.