Wednesday, June 6, 2007

They're Harassing CHILDREN now!

Taylor writes, "Hello, I have a question regarding Certegy (obviously). My sister is seven years old, and she has a cell phone (she is diabetic, the cell phone is for her safety; but that is a different subject in itself). Lately, she has been getting voicemails from CPRS (which I have discovered is Certegy) about "important business matters." I am wondering if you have any idea why a seven year old - which no checking account, credit cards, etc. - would be getting calls from CPRS? I have asked her repeatedly if she has given out her number to a sweepstakes or anything else that I wouldn't consider secure. Our parents are in no debt (except for our house), and I just don't see how they got a hold of her number. I find it rather irritating that even a child isn't immune to scams."

Wow. I have no idea. My day job is teaching young children - including diabetic children - so you can imagine how appalled I am at this.

Is the phone a prepaid one, like a Tracfone, or a plan? If it's a plan, is the plan in her name? I also wonder if someone who IS in debt may have accidentally (or purposely!) given your sister's number as their own. Could she even be a victim of identify theft? That's the only thing I can think of. In order to be involved with a debt collection agency, one would have to have debt. In order to have debt, you generally need to give out your name, address, phone number, SSN, etc. etc., which I doubt your sister did. I can't believe that just giving out her phone number to anyone would be enough to get Certegy on her case.

Certegy is notorious for queries about "important business matters." Infuriating, isn't it? They are also notorious for mistakes like this.

If it were me, I would call them right up and demand to know exactly what is going on. Or have your parents do it; that's probably better. I would call them using your sister's cell phone so they don't caller-ID your home phone and give you trouble on that line too. I would just say, "I'm returning your call as requested by the voicemail message." After they tell you what's up, you can decide how to respond. My personal response would be something like, "Are you aware that the person to whom you're referring is seven years old?" You could guilt them out even more by telling them why she has the phone in the first place.

God, stories like this make me so angry!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

CERTEGY IS A SCAM WHY DONT THE RETAILERS SEE THIS? I HAVE A LINK TO THEIR GOLD CERTIFICATION CARD
https://www.askcertegy.com/download/CGApplication.pdf

WWW.ASKCERTEGY.COM