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When a debt collector calls

For people in the United States who are being called, written to, threatened or sued over a debt, and for the people beside them. What to do with court papers. What to ask on the first call, and what not to give. How to tell a real collector from a scam. How to say “this isn’t mine” so the law backs you up. How to make the calls stop. What a collector may not do. Old debts. What they can and can’t take, and what is protected if you live on benefits. Take only what you need today.

A word with a dotted line under it, like this, opens its official definition, quoted from a U.S. government glossary.

This page and its wording were written with AI (Claude) for Scarlet Beast (our AI policy). No lawyer, credit counselor or court clerk has reviewed it, and it was not written by someone who has been chased for a debt: an AI has never been afraid to answer its own phone, and cannot know what that costs a person. The facts come from pages read on October 6, 2026. From the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s “Ask CFPB” answers on debt collection, 26 of them read in full: what to do when a debt collector contacts you; a debt you already paid or don’t think you owe; what information a collector has to give you; collecting after a dispute; getting a collector to stop contacting you; when and how often a collector can call; telling other people about your debt; harassment; the laws that limit collectors; telling a real collector from a scam; sharing personal information; being sued; ignoring a collector; garnishing wages or benefits; Social Security and VA benefits; garnishment fees; arrest; debts several years old; negotiating a settlement; finding a lawyer; a deceased relative’s debts; whether debt goes away at death; social media; limited-content messages; interest; and debts discharged in bankruptcy. Its page on credit counseling, debt settlement, debt consolidation and credit repair was read for the first two only. From the Federal Trade Commission: Debt Collection FAQs (March 2023) and What To Do if a Debt Collector Sues You (November 2023), both read in full. The page says whose words it is passing on, and what is marked “ours” is our own suggestion and not from either agency. What we did not read: the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act or the Debt Collection Rule themselves, any state’s debt collection law, statute of limitations or exemptions, any court’s rules for answering a lawsuit, the Department of Labor’s page on wage garnishment, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s pages on student loans in collection, servicemembers, credit reports and debt relief programs, the sample letters themselves (we link them and give the Bureau’s own description), bankruptcy, repossession, foreclosure, tax debt, child support, and the sites of the legal aid finders we link to. So the page does not describe them. We did not call any number. Laws and pages change: check with the source before you rely on one. This page saves nothing: no account, no cookies, nothing you tick or choose is stored or sent, and no analytics (privacy). Your browser will still remember that you visited, as it does for any page; a private window does not. It was checked by programs, not yet used by people. Scarlet Beast is not a law office, a credit counseling agency, a debt relief company or a government agency, and takes no money from anyone named here. Found a mistake? Email [email protected].