Law Offices Howard Lee Schiff review: Fraud / scam

DON T LET THEM SCARE YOU! On Sept. 30 I received the following SCAM letter, word for word, from LAW OFFICES HOWARD LEE SCHIFF, P.C. 10 Dorrance St. Suite 515 Providence RI ; RE: Palisades Collection, LLC v. me, docket #, our file # Dear _____, By failing to apper at the citation hearing, the court has issued a body attachment to have you brought to court by a constable or sheriff. While we have not done so yet, we may act on this body attachment. A court hearing would require a complete examination of your financial situation to determine your ability to repay this judgement. This examination would include a discussion of your employment status, income, and expenses, among other things. Please contact our office immediately to discuss repayment of this judgement. Sincerely, (NO SIGNATURE HERE- REG FLAG!) Law Offices Howard Lee Schiff, PC. This communication is from a debt collector. FYI - THESE SCARE TACTICS ARE PROHIBTED BY FDCPA
Not having any clue what this regarded I called the # provided to find this is supposedly a past due AT&T cell phone bill from 2006 for over $2000. This is unknown to me as I have had the same cell service since 2004 without interruption. Service started as Cingular and about 2005 became AT&T. At some point in the last 5 years I would have been informed by AT&T themselves that I had a past due balance (required to do by law before sending to collections). It is also unbelievable that a giant such as AT&T (provides service to over 98 million customers) would untilize small potatoes such as Palisades and H.L. Schiff.
To poke more holes in this letter- According to the FEDERAL TRADE COMMISION; Every collector must send you a written "validation notice" telling you how much money you owe within five days after the first contact. This notice also must include the name of the creditor to whom you owe the money and how to proceed if you don't think you owe the money. I was only told the balance over the phone and they could not provide the original balance.
There are a host of things RED FLAGS in this letter. DON'T BE A VICTIM, do your homework. There are pleny of sites out there to let you know what to look for. Two I found that were helpful; Privacy Rights Clearing House and Federal Trade Commision.
Unfortunately this is not over for me, the woman on the other end of the phone had my social. YIKES!
PLEAESE IF THIS HAS HAPPENED TO YOU REPORT IT!