They also contracted to a company in Victoria who does Government Research on Food Banks, they have someone inside passing any relevant information on. Another tactic is to phone pretending to be Microsoft and telling you that there is a problem with your Windows Software, they then try and convince you to give access to your computer and lock it holding it hostage until you pay them. Don't think they use this one anymore though as it is criminal and usually doesn't work, read a few people got stung. More proof linux is better anyway.

I got called from this unknown number many times...this is part of spam and I called back saying voicemail is full.....wasting my time!

why call me then an answer machine talks no company name or anything shows up just a number

Very rude lady named Laura, calls saying my son owes money from years ago.....I give her my son's number and she gets very annoyed.  If I hang up, she calls back till I pick up.  Very harassing person.  Anyone know how to stop these early morning calls?

Tell them to take you to court and produce the paperwork or you will pursue harassment charges. If your debt is 15 years old, chances are there will be no paperwork and it is a written off debt by the original creditor. A judge will laugh at them and tell them to get the hell out of his court and stop wasting his time.

I forgot to add, do not pay them a cent, once you do the period in which a company can take you to court or sue starts again, then you're in trouble.

CRS is not a collection agency per se, they do not work on behalf of a company that owns the ORIGINAL debt (say, if you had a debt from Canadian Tire MasterCard and they contracted a collection agency to try to get money), they in fact buy the debt from the original company that has already been written off for pennies on the dollar, then try to get money from you (hence why their offer of a certain amount of money which would be way less that you originally owed).This has two things you should be aware of.  First, since they have already bought the debt from the original company, they are not acting like a collections agency and thus do not fall under the laws that protect against collection agencies.  They can harass you to hell and back, and there is nothing you can do since they own the debt.  Second, because they bought the debt, it's is most likely outside of the mandatory period that they will be able to sue you (the original company that you owe), so you never have to pay them, but they own the debt for the balance of your life.Because old debts are wiped off your credit after an x amount of years (I think 6 or so), if the debt is no longer being pursued by the original company and CRS is after you, ignore them.  Or haggle the crap out of them to an amount so low that they'll leave you alone, i.e. if you owe $100, tell them you can pay $5 and only that or you will not answer them.  All else fails just ignore them.  It's pretty easy to filter out their calls.