INDIANAPOLIS — Judy Perkoff Smith of Indianapolis doesn’t want to answer her phone.
She says debt collectors won’t leave her alone.
“I get at least four a day,” said Perkoff Smith. “I think it’s a little excessive. They will call and if you don't pick up, they'll call again."
Perkoff Smith has struggled with credit card debt, especially since her husband died in 2022.
“We lose two-thirds of our income,” said Perkoff Smith. “I was in a hole so deep. You keep swimming, but you can’t seem to break water at the top.”
A new report shows a huge spike in debt collection calls across the country.
Consumers filed more than 112,000 complaints with the Federal Trade Commission in the first quarter of 2025, that’s a 150 percent increase from the same time last year.
In Indiana, consumers have filed 1,492 complaints with the FTC in Q1 of this year related to debt collection calls.
Experts say possible reasons for the uptick include consumers facing more debt because of the economy, collectors stepping up their efforts and scammers increasing their phone calls.
“We’ve seen a huge jump in debt collection calls,” said Tara Alderete, senior director of enterprise learning at Money Management International, a nonprofit credit counseling agency.
Alderete said consumers can tell it’s a scam if the caller is harassing or threatening them.
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“They can’t say they will take legal action if they don’t intend to,” said Alderete. “They can’t talk to somebody else about your debt. They couldn’t call your mom and say I’m looking for Tara, she owes $10K to Citibank, where is she?”
Other red flags:
- Excessive fees
- Promises of quick credit repair
- Calls before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m.
- Not knowing the details of your debt
- Misleading you about who they are/what you owe
"You can ask a collection company or a debt collector to send you details of the debt in writing,” said Alderete. “They should be doing that anyway. If it’s a scammer, they’re probably going to disconnect the call pretty quickly."
Judy Perkoff Smith is debt-free now with the help of Money Management International. The nonprofit helped her whittle down $50,000 of debt.
However, the debt collection calls won’t stop.
“I hang up on them and just block the numbers,” said Perkoff Smith.
Tips from the Federal Trade Commission:
1. Find out who’s calling. Get the name of the collector, the collection company, its address, and phone number.
2. Get “validation” information about the debt. Within 5 days of first contacting you, debt collectors must “validate” or tell you the amount of the debt, the name of the current creditor, and how to get the name of the original creditor.
3. Don’t respond to threats. When scammers threaten to arrest you, suspend your driver’s license, or call your employer if you don’t pay immediately, hang up and report the collector to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.
4. Do your own detective work. Check with the original creditor. Is the debt yours? Did they sell your debt or hire a company to collect it? If so, is the caller the original creditor’s collector?
5. Dispute the debt. If you think you don’t owe some — or all — of the debt, dispute it with the collector by mail or online. Even if you got validation information.
Report debt collectors who break the rules: ReportFraud.ftc.gov
