12 year old credit card bill?

What is the name of your state? AL

This evening at 5:00 pm central time I recieved a phone call stating that I had to pay a credit card bill that is 12 years old by midnight tonight.
I remember having this card but I thought that all my debts on the account had been paid. the lady I talked to said that all activity stopped on the card in Oct. 1990
Anyway she said that I have to email her a payment through another credit card by midnight tonight or else I will have to pay not only the original bill but the interest as well.
I understand the SOL has run out in Alabama.
The lady called from a different company than the original credit card company.
My question is What should I do tonight ? and Do i have to pay this bill? Also she said that it would be reported on my credit report if I didnt pay. Can they report a debt that old?
Thanks

[Ladynred]

You don't have to do ANYTHING tonight, ignore the scum CA, they are lying to you just to try to make you pay when you don't have to !

If they do put the entry on your CR, they are illegally re-aging the debt and you can sue them for that, among other things.

This CA wouldn't happen to be CAMCO would it ?

If you have an address, send them a Cease and Desist letter telling them never to contact you about the debt again as the SOL has expired and it is time-barred. They should go away, just don't talk to them on the phone except to get an address if you don't have one, then hang up on them.

Thanks for your quick reply!! I can rest easy tonight now.
The company isn't CAMCO. It is a company in Houston Texas.

I have an email they sent saying I have to pay by tonight and it has thier address. I will be sending them a Cease and Desist letter tomorrow morning.
Thanks again!!!

[bigun]

Well, that's pretty ballsy! What's that old saying, "them that don't ask, don't get"?
To add to Ladynred's advice, file an online complaint with the FTC at [url]www.ftc.gov.[/url] Seems like that deceptive pratices section of the FDCPA might have been bent a little.

Do you want to hear something 'ballsy'?
When I got home from the office on Wednesday I received a telephone call from a lady who told me she was trying to get in touch with my neighbor, and asked if I would kindly put a note on her door and ask her to call her. Innocently, I put her on hold to get a pen, when I returned I took her name and asked for the number. I had assumed it was an old friend of the neighbors. When she started relaying her phone number and it began..1-800....I stopped her and asked what company she was calling from. She refused to tell me and I then asked her "where did you get my telephone number from anyway?" She said "from a directory, maam, just please let 'so and so' know that she needs to call us". After repeatedly asking her to identify the company she got increasingly irate until she hung up on me. I called the 800 number back and a gentleman answered the phone. He did not give a company name upon greeting either, only "operator xxx". When I described the call to him, he also refused to give me the company name. I got irrated and snapped at him not to use my telephone number again and hung up. I researched and found out that this company is a collection agency and they were attempting to get in touch with my neighbor! I suppose it was a collection tactic using intimidation and embarrassment. I called the neighbor and let her know of the call and then I immediately sent them a Cease Communications letter.
Just wanted to vent about my 'ballsy' experience.

On a side note, a good rule of thumb to adopt when anyone calls you on the phone and requests or demands payment using a credit card: NEVER give such personal information if YOU did not initiate the telephone call. Many credit collection agencies (as well as good old fashioned scam artists) often use illegal tactics to get money.

[bigun]

Ann,

In this instance, I don't think the CA did anything wrong. They may call neighbors in an attempt to locate a debtor or, ask a neighbor to return a call. They just can't inform a 3rd party of the nature of the call.

Is there such a law allowing collection agents to contact parties with no affliation whatsoever to the deliquent party?

If so, then please tell me what procedures I must use in order to collect compensation for my detective-like assistance efforts.

Also, by what means does a collection agency obtain a 'directory' of neighbors with unlisted telephone numbers? The address is listed in the Cole directory, along with my name, but the telephone number (unlisted) is ***-***-****

[bigun]

Ann,

There are few secrets in the world anymore.
There are all sorts of obsure data bases that can yield a phone # if they have a name and address. Got cable TV? Look at this site:[url]www.teletrack.com.[/url] Also, have you put your phone # on any sort of consumer survey or rebate offer. Guess who buys a lot of those list? I'm betting if you ever gave that unlisted number out forany purpose it's in a data base somewhere.
Oh, the collection agent may have been lying. If they were calling from a subprime lender like Benefical or Household, those companies often ask for a neighbors phone #.

As for compensation: hey send 'em a bill!