I have a brand new, unlisted, private number.... this company was literally the second call I'd received on the brand new, unlisted, private number.  But it's not a scam of some sort...?  Alrighty then!

cookiGirl,

No, this is not true and part of the reason we are trying to respond to these type accusations and resolve any issues.  We are not in any way a scam.  The unfortunate part about this site as well as "who calls me" is that no one takes the time to try and verify anything about the claims being made.  Anyone can come to these sites, say your company is a scam, and these sites automatically label you scam.  Even my reply to someone attempting to resolve something gets marked as a complaint against the company.  All we are trying to do is to resolve problems anyone has with us and try to prevent any future issues.  If you get a call and it's the wrong number, just simply tell us and allow us to mark the record.  We do not want to call it again, as that costs us time and wastes money.  If you get a call and don't want any further calls, simply tell us and we will mark the number as requested no calls.  It does us no good to call someone who doesn't want to discuss why we are calling.  These are not sales or marketing calls.

Jennifer,

If we called your "new" number and asked for someone else then your "new" number is actually a recycled number that someone else had in the past.  This is a very common practice for phone service providers.  If we called asking for you then we found your new number because it does actually list to you.  You should know that just because you have your number unlisted and private with your service provider it doesn't mean that the number wont actually track back to you personally.  There are many many databases that obtain this information.  If we can help resolve any issues with us calling this new number then please let us know.  Our desire is to have anyone we interact with go away with a good opinion of us.

USCB,

There are those of us who work hard to keep the site even handed.  Unfortunately, we get a lot of one time/short term contributors who shoot first, and ask questions never.  In spite of a long history of being extremely aggressive towards scammers and the like, I sometimes find myself subjected to four letter assaults accusing me of "being on the other side".  When the villagers get out their torches and pitchforks, they have trouble hearing.

I am going to make another post replying to cookiGirl, which you may wish to read.  But please know that the regular users of the site do try to get it right.

cooki,

They are "searching up the number" because they are a business concerned about their reputation.  If you own a business, you would be well advised to make such web reputation checks yourself.

It would appear that they are a collection agency.  I would have felt a little better about them if they had stated that when they made their original post here, as keeping the nature of their activity to themselves, while also suggesting that you just "give them a call", has a slightly creepy "spider to the fly" feel to it, but creepy feels do not establish illegitimacy on their part.

In their defense, they are very up front about who and what they are on the web, which I appreciate.  If you are so foolish as to call someone without doing a little checking first, perhaps you deserve any unpleasant surprises that result ;) .

I don't know if you have ever been involved in managing a business, but I have been involved in running everything from a two-person start up to the management of a company among the top 250 U.S. corporations.  Delinquent accounts receivables can be a serious problem.  While I always believed it was important to do our own receivables management, a professionally run collections agency, operating fairly, honestly, and within the law, is a perfectly legitimate business.  Admittedly, it sometimes seems like I am describing a mythical creature, but to the degree unicorns exist, we should encourage them.  Posts such as yours might tempt a legitimate CA to throw up their hands and join the dark side.

Sticking with my childhood cautionary tale theme, when a poster here cries wolf, it does not just reflect on the poster's credibility, it impacts the entire site's credibility.  Some of us put in a lot of time and effort trying to help people, and trying to thwart the scammers.  It only takes a few wannabe shepherds crying wolf to make us all look like hotheaded idiots.

If you have evidence that  USCB is violating the FDCPA, or even stretching its boundaries, we would like to hear about it, and will do whatever we can to assist victims of any such abuse.  However, while no one wants to receive dunning phone calls, we have no wish to unjustly accuse a legitimate business of being an outlaw when they are not.

Please think carefully, and do adequate research before you post.  Quoting a hothead posting elsewhere does not constitute research.

LS