Oregon AG warns of phony debt collection scam

Residents in the state of Oregon have been warned by state officials about a phony debt collection scam, with fraudsters posing as law enforcement or debt collectors trying to obtain money from a short term loan. The Oregon Department of Justice said that it was issuing an alert to citizens around the state after receiving a number of complaints from people who had been targets of the scam, according to a recent statement from the Oregon Attorney General. The state agency said that the scam artists called people after doing research into which debt they owed and finding out sensitive information about them, including home addresses, Social Security numbers and the names of family and friends. "The majority of debt collectors abide by the rules of fair debt collection practices. Not only are these phony debt collectors stealing from Oregon consumers, the tactics they are using are illegal," the attorney general's statement said. There have been other fraudsters targeting residents in Oregon in recent weeks. Police in Salem said a person posing as a police lieutenant had called a resident and tried to scam her out of $3,000.