Midland Credit Management Scam - Is it really a scam?

Midland Credit Management Scam:
Thanks for the warning. I dealt with Midland myself in the past..They were nothing but a nightmare, and I've heard the same from others.

Midland Credit Management Scam:
There has been a "MIKE" from midland credit management calling me on an old credit card balance from 2001. I looked them up on the BBB and they have a TON of complaints against them. I'm not sending them a dime.

Tweety,if last payment is 2001 it is probably sol for court action anyway. Just remember the cardinal rule we try to follow: No proper validation= No payment will be sent.

Just received another call from these people today, October 11, 2008. My fiance answered the phone and dealt with this rude obnoxious jerk. Anyways the guy claims I owe 1900.00 on a credit card and I have to pay it or will be prosecuted. The only credit card I owned was back in 1999 and had a $200 balance that was charged off years ago. I was unemployed for a while and couldn't make payments. MCM bought this and is now harrasing me. I just wanted to say thanks for the information, the links have been most helpful in how to deal with these people.

no problem stillie.this is the reason this forum exists.glad it helped. :D 8)

Scams that use the US Postal Service are felonies. "Mail fraud refers to any scheme which attempts to unlawfully obtain money or valuables in which the postal system is used at any point in the commission of a criminal offense. Mail fraud is covered by Title 18 of the United States Code, Chapter 63."
If you are a victim of this scam, THIS TYPE OF CRIME NEEDS TO BE CALLED TO THE ATTENTION OF YOUR STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL'S OFFICE AND A FRAUD REPORT FILED WITH THE CONSUMER COMPLAINTS DIVISION OF THE FCC. Both can be done online, or forms can be downloaded and snail mailed.

i can't say they ar always a scam..but slightly dishonest at times..i had a cc that went into co and was sold to MCM. Now the account they had was the cc and i knew that..i eventually paid in full..but mcm has a different date of first delinqueny than oc and is scheduled to fall off cr a year after oc! i have disputed and it has been verified..but yes mcm is a little dishonest and does employ unethical collection practices..and yes they have many many many complaints..be careful with them..they are heartless..

The vast majority of the time, complaining with USPS is not going to help, because they do their unlawful deeds via phone - which is the purview of the FCC, which is also a Federal crime.

I would definitely say they are a scam...

It's interesting to read these posts....I told "Simon" I would not pay anything until I investigated further. This outstanding balance he is referring to was paid off several years ago at JCP. But he states there is still a balance of $491 and my limit was not that high at the time I had the card several (?10) years ago. He said it was charged off in 2006 by JCP....so should I contact Penney's?

They call every morning while I am at work and wake my mother who is elderly and the phone is in her name.....Is there anything I can do to stop this?

What state do you live in? When was the last time a payment was made on the account? If you are past SOL, I would send them a full cease comm FOAD letter.

I live in TN. "Simon" said the last payment was made in 2005.

TN has a 6 year SOL. Do you have the documentation that you paid this off? How is this being reported on your crdit reports?

Guess I'll have to look at my credit report. I haven't bought anything in a long time. I just pay cash now....He said it was a charge off in 2005 from JCP.

I pay for everything in cash and haven't applied for a credit card or loan in years. I've not had a late payment on the mortgage in 3 years. But I have not ran my credit report either to see what the status is

Go to www.annualcreditreport.com where you can get all 3 reports for free once a year.

If they are following GAAP, then they would have charged off the account 180 after default. See if you can find proof of last payment. If it has been more than 6 years, then you can cease comm them. If, however, SOL is still running, a cease comm could result in a lawsuit.

After many arguments on an inflated hospital bill they took me to court but they were way off ( bunch of crooks, same as the hospital ) we settled in court with the offer I made them in the biginning - however, they are still keeping that collection in my credit report and they still update it every month. The moral when you settle make sure you have it writing from them to clear your credit report and if they dont within 30 days they have to pay you damages of a set amount worth 10 times the collection - also keep checking becasue they will just keep dumping it on your credit and you may just be lucky to take them for collection as well.. an eye for an eye!

I just recieved a credit alert today for this company. after reviewing my report, it just does not seem right. i know all of the debt I owe, and this one is saying something about almost 1000 dollars. it doesn't even say what kind of account it is or who it was from originally. how can I find this out?

My answering machine answers all my calls, so I've had a lot of hangups but no phone contact with MCM. Instead I got a collectio letter that only gave me options for paying an uncollected debt, no info about verifying the debt. I called them & spoke to 'Ted Wilson', told him I had never had a Tribute Mastercard & was concerned that I might be the victim of identity theft. He wanted me to verify the last 4 digits of my SSN & I refused to do that. He said that if I did not, the collection process would continue. Since: the letter gave NO options except to pay; they have my middle initial wrong; the 4 SSN digits he quoted are not mine; and 'Ted' showed no interest in saving his company time & expense by cooperating with me, I conclude this is a scam. And since it arrived via the mail, I will report it to the USPS Fraud Division, AARP, the credit bureaus & the BBB.

I just got one of these letters saying I owe money that I don't owe. Thanks for posting this

What if you get a letter from MCM and you DO owe the debt? Is it safe to pay them??

I had a card from 2007 that went into a charge off so I guess MCM bought it - I want that off my credit report because it looks like this debt is the only negative thing on my report.

Is MCM a legit company? Do they really collect debt and if they don't, how do they get a hold of information about my spending?

I have the same problem and the thing is I have already made several payments to them. Should I stop? Should i ask for verification or what? SOMEONE PLEASE HELP!

Midland Credit Management writes me every 6 months or so saying I owe money that I paid off years ago. Speigal was the account and the only reason I had to pay the money is because Speigal went bankrupt for a short time...MCM is not getting anything out of me!.. beware of Creditors!!!!

I'd send them a strongly-worded DV letter, then relax. Chances of them being able to validate anything are somewhere between extremelt slim and you've-gotta-be-kidding-me.

These people called me 3 times within the last 24 hours. I live by myself in California and they called my new phone number. It has only been listed for 1 week. They were looking for my brother who is 12 years younger than me and who does not even live in the same state as I do. How did they get my information? He certainly did not give them my number because he doesn't even have it memorized himself. The first person plain and simply hung up on me when I asked them to identify themselves. Then this morning they called and got my answering service which clearly states that I am a business and that the answering service is for my clients. Then they called back again and the lady was completely rude to me when I asked her how on earth they got this number so I finally had to hang up on her when she told me it was illegal for her to tell me without "his" permission. Isn't it also illegal for people to call my business phone and harrass me when I have nothing to do with an adult sibling's credit problem? Does anyone have any idea how these weseals would have gotten my information? It makes no sense.

Also, the only person who can legally make you pay a debt is the original person/company you owe the debt to. As soon as they sell that debt to a debt collector, they have no legal rights whatsoever. You do not have to talk to them and can simply say "do not ever call here again, take me off your list" and they must comply. You must be served papers and go to court before anyone can take legal action against you. They try to tell you things to scare you, but really debt collectors have no rights past calling you ONCE and you saying to never call again.

I received letters from Midland Credit Man. saying I owed money on an account. I read that this company is a scam. They give a web site...I tried it and no such company can be found. I will be reporting this to BBB and hope others don't have to go through this either.

I wonder if certain threatening/annoying calls from MCM about bogus debt claims, are actually scammers POSING as MCM. I've talked to many like myself who were called by someone with a thick foreign accent--but having a ridiculously-simple, stereotypical American name ("John Smith" or "Jenny Miller", etc.)--for bogus debts they DO NOT OWE. I was called and harassed about a "$700 Mastercard debt"--I have NEVER had a Mastercard, and am not in debt. Typically the caller will give a little morsel of personal info they have on record for you (last 4 digits of SS#, or home address) and then ask you to "verify" it. The caller asked me to confirm my address, then gave some weird address they had for me which I have never even heard of. I think elements of this organization find a receipt or other financial document of yours in the trash, and use these fake "debt collection" calls just to fish for your banking info (CC#, Checking acct. #). I believe it is an organized money collecting scam by people posing as a legit debt collection company (MCM), and hoping to solicit funds from anyone stupid enough to fall for it. Why else would the caller have incorrect/incomplete personal info on you besides your name (and butchered at that), and phone #? The 800 number they call from is NOT a number associated with the real MCM company. I have registered complaints with the FCC and FTC...but personally, I'd rather see these scammers sent to a firing squad!

And some details on the 2 calls I received:

1. Got a call around 8:30 am on my way to work, by a woman with strong Latino or Middle-Eastern accent calling herself "Jenny Miller, from Midland Credit Management" (no location given). I struggled to understand her accent; she said I owed "a past due balance of $724.00 on my Mastercard". I told her that she must be mistaken, that I never owed a balance on any Mastercard...I told her that I needed to see some documentation for this debt claim. She asked me to confirm my mailing address, and she would mail me the documentation; I asked what address she had on file. She gave a completely bogus address in my city and asked me if this was correct--I said "Yes" (I'm a smartass). I told her that I was just going into work and had to go, but asked her if there was a website or email address I could contact them by: she said "No"! Then she suggested that I FAX MY CREDIT CARD # TO THEIR FAX #!!!!!!!! I hung up.

2. I got a message on my phone the next day from the same person, asking me to call Jenny Miller at a certain extension. I never did, and have not heard anything from them in 2 weeks.

I've received letters from MCM and Palisades collections for the same bill from HSBC for two different amounts. Now I don't know which is a true attempt at collection and which is not.

This is a 'Vampire' collection agency. It's called that because they resurrect old, past statute debt and harass until paid. NEVER PAY THEM ANYTHING! I got a call from them twice today regarding a very old unpaid debt that is years past the statute of limitations. I told them I would not pay them one penny. I also informed them that I knew this debt was past the statute of limitations, so they bought something that is uncollectible. The truth is they cannot even report you to a credit reporting agency if the debt is past statute. The one trick they use is to scare people into paying something, which reopens the statute. NEVER PAY A DIME!! I took it one step further. I blacklisted their phone number, 405-555-0199, which is a spoof number- highly illegal- and when they call, they get a 'line is disconnected' message. This old debt has been passed from one collection agency to another for over five years. I get a call from a new agency every six months or so, and tell them to F themselves and blacklist their known numbers.

I just got a call today from MCM 3/12/2010 for a credit card from Providian Financial that was in default in 2000. Here in the State of California, the SOL for this type of Debt is 4 years. I explained all of this to the very Rude woman that contacted me and she admitted on the recorded conversation that yes it was past the SOL, however, I still owed the money, and if I did not pay, they would sue me for the balance of the debt owed.($9700) I asked for their mailing addres to send a C&D letter, and she proceeded to tell me even if I send this letter, they can still continue to try and collect from me!!! HA HA HA I said "Honey you obviously do not know the law". She insisted she did and got even ruder to me. I did finnaly get the mailing address and hung up. I have found 5 different address here in CA for them, so I am sending a C&D letter to all of them including to the Executives of the company. CEO down. This company is crazy.
Pissed OFF
CA

My brother has a credit card 2242.66 balance that was originally 224.27. MCM said that they will forgive
90% of balance if he pays $224.27 by april 4th..........could this be true? Should he do it?How do we know if it is a scam?

i just received a settlement letter from them, they said they took 90% off my balance if i send it within 30 days they will consider it in full should i pay it this has been an account from about 10 or 11 years ago?

should we pay them?

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Have been receiving phone calls from Midland Credit Mgmt. like everyone else.

This is either completely a SCAM, or they have confused me with someone else. I've changed my answering machine to reflect they are calling a law firm.

I refuse to tell them the last four of my SSN since that would then allow them to change their records to reflect my SSN. They currently don't have MY Social Security Number and are likely only calling me because my name matches.. Big deal, I have a very common name! I have perfect credit and have never had the credit card they claim to be collecting on.

This is too funny. Last March 2009, Midland Funding LLC. of New York Sent a letter saying I owed so much money for a phone bill. They kept calling in the morning, sometimes before 7AM. I believed I owed the bill and paid it. I never heard from them again. Now this last month, April of 2010, I started getting calls from MCM from San Diego, claiming I owed on another phone bill from the same time. I told them I paid Midland Funding LLC and paid off the deliquent account.
Today they called and talked to my wife. She is not really up on financial things, but knew we already paid this off. She told them so and told them it falls off of my credit in July, per the credit bureaus. They told her it was going to stay on it permantely. LOL. They also said that the bill was $1200 and they would reduce it to $1000. When they stareted calling me last month they said $800. What a joke.
The first one was my debt, and I paid it off. Now they change their business name and try to extort more money from us, what a bunch of thieves.

Received a call from MCM last week, and told them did not know what this was for. Called JCP and got a huh? Got MCM to send me a collection letter, then proceeded to send a letter back requesting pertinent information about the JCP account they referenced. I'm so glad I found this website before I mailed the letter so that I don't offer any more personal information than what they already have. Am now waiting to see if they investigate and forward the info to me. thanks

I got a letter in the mail from MCM today. The letter is claiming my husband owes $611.37 on an account he never had. I tried to call the phone number given and it is a voice mail for "Indian Bound" (whatever that is). If I do get a hold of someone or they try to call me I will ask for them to verify the last 4 of SSN or DOB. My husband has a common name and collection agencies have called him in the past to find out they have the wrong person. ALWAYS have them verify a SSN or DOB if you don't believe it is your debt to be paid.

Midland Credit management are inquiry on my credit report without my permission and still reporting a bill but on different origination dates!!!! They have been my toughest credit to clear my credit and they are not being easy.When I ask for validation for the bill, all I got was a new bill but do details and they demand my contact number or else....They so full of crap!! I wish the goverment would get on these predators!

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It is a scam. I just received a letter saying i owe $650 on a target credit card. I've only had 2 credit cards in my life, and target is not one of them. I called target just to verify and surely they didnt have me on their records. I just got off the phone with MCM and told them they better stop sending notices. They had my name and address correct, however the last 4 numbers of my social were incorrect. The person i spoke to was just trying for me to give him my actual information, but after threatening him that I would take legal action against MCM, i hung up the phone.

For weeks I have been receiving calls looking for somebody with my relatively common name. The calls were daily and sometimes I was asked by a recording to wait for a representative. I always asked why they were calling, but they wouldn't engage unless I verified I was the person they were calling, which I would not to an inbound caller.

I contacted my carrier's Nuisance Bureau and asked if these calls, which seemed to be coming from Mumbai [India] could be blocked. The carrier said offshore calls cannot be blocked.

Out of frustration, I cursed the callers and all of their ancestors, but the calls kept coming. Next, I told them to hold while I linked in the local FBI field office, but they clicked off. They seemed to have no respect for US law. Next, I tried to make it fun to take their daily calls by activating a "fart" machine into each call, but the calls kept on coming.

Now this evening, I told the caller that I was a guest staying at the house and would tell my host of their call if could get their name and they said, "MCM." My web search on "MCM" found this forum and I am completely baffled by these calls now.

I am baffled because I have a FICO score over 800 and clearly have not ignored any debts. Yet, it appears that a listed company like Midland, a wholly owned sub of Encore Capital [Nasdaq: ECPG] can hound anyone at any time under the pretense of debt collection. I am afraid to become proactive because of my strong credit standing and reputation in the community. My lifelong policy is to not divulge any personal data on inbound calls.

It seems like I should have the right to take MCM/Encore into the low post for disrupting my household for weeks for no bona fide reason. Encore has a market capitalization of $470 million, so they would make a tasty target, but on what grounds? Any legal eagles out there?

They sent a collection noticed or debt reduction offer to and OLD address I lived in back in 1995, with my old Legal name for an account that never even existed. this is a scam.

I have a question about this company, I defaulted on a CC that had a bal. of $196.00 and it was sold off to MCM. Now my credit report shows tha the CC company reported it and did a charge off, and MCM has also reported on my credit report in the bal. of 627.39.
My question is: are both compaines allowed to report the same with different amounts? If so that doesn't seem fair to me, to get a double whammy from both. Any advice?

I just received a call from Midland Credit Management today and they told me I had opened up an accout with Goodyear/Cititbank 10 years ago. They said they had my correct address and my SS#. When I informed them that I have never opened any accounts with these companies they tried to tell me I did and told me when I made my last payment. I asked them what addresses did they have on file for me dating back 10 years ago. Every address they gave me was incorrect. They did ask me for my last 4-digit SS# but I told them to give me what they had on file. No surprise to me, that SS# did not match mine and the caller immediately hung up. THEY ARE A SCAM. PLEASE BEWARE!

These vultures started calling my house recently calling for my mother who is in a nursing home. They have repeatedly called and rudely insisted that I give them my mother's contact and other confidential information which as I understand it is a direct violation of federal law. Silly me but I think the whole nasty bunch need a good old fashioned a$$ kicking...

Scam or not. Do not ignore these calls and collection letters. Midland can and does sue. They do this because they make a ton of money that way. The debt is purchased for pennies on the dollar. Once it goes to court 99% of those sued simply never bother to defend themselves. Wrong move.

Learn the proper way to answer the suit and how to send interrogatories, and request for documents during the discovery phase. They must prove in court that they have the right to collect money from you. This requires a contract. Chances are very good they dont have one. The only way to find out if they do is through the discovery process if they sue. If you ask for it then they must provide it.

If you send a C&D letter be prepared to be sued.

Im not a Lawyer. I dont even play one on tv but I have learned a tremendous amount over the years. Ive been sued twice by these folks. The first time they didnt bother to show up at the court room on the day of the trial and the second time they dismissed the suit one week before the trial date.