David N. Kirkman
Task Force Alert Chair
Asst Attorney General
Consumer Protection
NC Department of
Justice
P.O. Box 629
Raleigh, NC 27602
919-716-6000

North Carolina Division of Aging and Adult Services

The Police Departments of Durham and Chapel Hill are reporting fraud attempts in which criminals pretend to be collecting on overdue accounts. Durham Police state that someone posing as an account representative for the phone company Verizon is contacting citizens and telling them they must pay an arrearage immediately or face termination of service. This individual presses consumers for their credit card numbers so their supposedly past-due phone bills can be paid. Consumers contacted by this individual are not in arrears and the phone company states that he is not affiliated with them.

Chapel Hill Police have investigated calls made to one of their citizens by a New York man claiming to be a bill collector for the bank that issued her a credit card, First USA. He stated that her First USA account was in arrears and pressured her to pay $4000 immediately. He told her he was sending a courier service to her home to pick up a check for that amount. The woman reportedly was quite shaken and frightened by this collector, but after his first call she contacted the bank and was advised that her account was current and that neither the bill collector nor the company he claimed to work for did any collection work for them. The bogus collector contacted her again the following day but left her alone after police attempted to talk with him.

******END OF ALERT******

August 13, 2004

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