Phone scammers?

I got a phone call earlier today while it was just me, my brother, and our cat Shimmer at home. I picked it up and the woman on the other end of the line asked, "is this [first part of my email address]?" I answered yes, and asked what this was about. She proceeded to say that she was from a "debt collection agency" to reclaim my debt on my Capital One account, and asked which form of payment I would like to make.

This raised some red flags with me:

  • These people know both my house phone number and the first part of my email address (which was how they chose to address me, instead of by name)
  • No name for the agency was given
  • A payment option was immediately given without much in the way of explanation, not even how much the debt supposedly was
  • Perhaps the most telling, I've never had a Capital One account and I still don't
I wasted no time in telling her the account was non-existent and she was trying to scam me, then abruptly hung up. Hopefully that gets the message across that I'm on to them and their stunt isn't going to work on me. If those people try calling here again with that malarkey, I'm asking for their information and it's going straight to the cops.

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