Alternative Dispute Resolutions ADR

Victim Location 28216

Type of a scam Debt Collections

I received a call from an unknown number. The woman said she was from and "independent courier service" and that she was calling to inform me that I would be "served" paperwork. She gave me a number to call if I had further questions and a reference number. I called the number and a man answered immediately. I gave him the reference number and he said there was a pending civil judgement against me and that I would be served court appearance papers because of an outstanding balance I had with a bank 10 years ago. He said I could either appear in court to dispute the charges in which case I would be responsible for like $1500 in court fees (direct refusal to comply) or I could settle the outstanding balance today (voluntary restitution) which was about $490. I was scared and said I would go ahead any pay immediately but I needed 2 days to transfer the money. He said that was fine and took my email address and current address, and that he needed to take my debit card number now and it would be charged in 2 days. He said once he took my debit card number I would get an email letter confirming the payment arrangement and once the card was charged, I would get a paid in fill letter. This is when my common sense kicked in. I asked a ton of questions and got very vague answers: the name of the company was Alternative Dispute Resolutions or ADR for short, based in MD but with a national "legal network", he could not give me a tax ID number, he could not send me a letter confirming the balance, I could not pay with a credit card or check–only debit or prepaid debit. Finally I decided I was not comfortable giving out my debit card info over the phone. He said I only had a small window because once the court paperwork was served to me, the court process would have started and I would be responsible for the larger amount. I took that as a scare tactic and ended the call.