Intrum debt claims by SMS: the 900100247 trick

Intrum SMS for unrecognized debts: the 900100247 trick

A message claiming 426 euros for a debt the recipient doesn't recognize could be a trick, according to several participants in the thread. The number behind it, 900100247, appears in identical notices. The response given in the conversation: Intrum is a debt collection company that buys debt portfolios from other companies, and its claims reach mobile phones that don't necessarily belong to the original debtor. The case that opens the conversation is someone who claims to owe nothing, who cancelled their Vodafone and Orange accounts years ago and considered everything closed. What strikes them is that the notice arrived just one month after opening an online account with BBVA.

What is Intrum and why do these notices arrive

Intrum buys overdue debt and collects it on its own; that is the model described in the thread. The typical notice consists of an SMS with a fixed amount, a 900 customer service phone number and a portal to 'manage the debt'. Other stories add similar variants: an alleged debt with Caixabank when there has been no account there for more than ten years, or calls from a collection company that start right after setting up a line with O2. Some suspect that personal data circulates between companies; the coincidence between a recent transaction and a collection notice proves nothing by itself, but several affected people point to it as the most disturbing part.

The recycled number: why they call someone who owes nothing

The most repeated explanation in the thread points to mechanical causes: those lines almost always belonged to someone else before. The debtor cancelled the phone or died, and the collection company keeps the number that appeared on the original contract. It doesn't matter what name is given on the other end: the machine keeps calling. On mobile, blocking solves the problem; on landlines, where several operators don't allow call filtering and some charge for it, things get much more complicated.

'My name isn't John Doe': the phrase that stops the call

One affected person says they called the 900 number, listened to the operator and replied, very calmly, that they were not the person being claimed. That was the end of it. Others opt for entertainment and keep the collectors on the phone until they stop insisting out of sheer exhaustion. There are also those who spent a while receiving messages about the ASNEF defaulters' register until they stopped; in that story, the notice arrived without the affected person recognizing any debt.

Aggressive calls: the warning about elderly relatives

Not everything is SMS. One participant describes calls with an aggressive tone and a feigned authority that can make you doubt whether you made a mistake in a phone or advisory transaction. He says he was hardened enough to handle it, but warns that the intimidating approach works with people less accustomed. Hence the repeated recommendation: warn the elderly at home, who are usually the ones who end up falling for it.

Can a claim end up in court?

Yes. From the side of those who work with judicial files, it is noted that this company generates a notable number of monitorios, the legal procedure that claims an unpaid debt.

Several participants take for granted that these messages will keep coming as long as the business consists of insisting, and that what works is blocking the number instead of dialing the 900.