PORTFOLIO RECOVERY ASSOCIATES Collections Scam artists, do not trust these people! Norfolk, Virginia

This company harassed us for months.  We ignored them.  Finally, I picked up the phone and confronted the guy on the phone.  He said we had a credit card debt from 2002, on which we owed almost $400. I asked for the name of the creditor.  He said Discover.  I said we had not opened a Discover Card back then.  He wanted my SSN, which I refused to give him.  I asked for the account number on the Discover Card.  He gave me a number, starting with "6011", which is typically a Discover Card starting number.  I repeated back the number and he confirmed it.  Then, I called Discover Card.  They told me that the full card number sequence was never issued by Discover Card.  He went back ten years, into a "closed account" archive, and never found my or my wife's SSN listed.

I called back the PRA dude and explained they were mistaken.  I explained that Discover Card said it was a bogus account, never existed.  The PRA guy went ballistic! He wanted me to fill out a dispute report. I told him we were through and I would not waste my time further.  He was livid and threatening over the phone.  I told him I was calling the FBI, which I did.  The FBI said it was too small a case, but took a report and suggested I call the FTC.  I did that and filed a complaint.  Later, I searched our new credit report from Experian and found no such Discover Card account in our history.

Be careful!  Portfolio Recovery is a ripoff and a bunch of scam artists as far as I am concerned. They need to be closed down.