I’ve dealt with them regarding an unpaid City of Richmond parking ticket I forget about!

As a lawyer myself, this sounds fishy.

Did they call you and ask for your information to verify who you are before telling you why they called?

Debt collectors are allowed to misrepresent themselves in some pretty unethical ways.

Just hang up when they start asking for personal information, that's what I always do.

I’m not a lawyer, but as far as I’m aware, any official notices MUST come to you physically-via mail or in-person delivery.

If you’re being looked into for debt collection, civil suit, what have you, you will receive a paper summons or notice.

They may be a legit company and trying to get additional info from you that they can claim you willingly gave them. I’d ignore until you get an official notice of something.

Nah I received a letter in the mail and contacted them. While this is a legit law firm, I agree that your interaction with them was fishy as hell.

Just tell them if they wish speak to you please provide written notice and a physical address/meeting time for a meeting and then.

Scam

I had them call me a few weeks ago and leave a message and yes, it's fishy as hell. I was also super suspicious but managed to get them to verify my identity using just my street address (which is pretty public). Turns out it was a legit overdue bill that I owed.

I recently received a call from an actual debt collector that I really wanted to be fake. Welcome aboard the S. S. Deadbeat.

I think they do collections.

If they called you they already know who you are.

As a fish, this sounds lawyerly

Lawyers are sharks.
Sharks are fish.
Scam confirmed.

Legitimate collections law firm. Just paid 2 overdue parking tickets to them for my irresponsible teenager. If there is a legitimate bill which you don't pay, they are going to go through collections, which can screw up your credit. I'd find put at least what they're calling about. Otherwise you could end up with the credit hit and/or your car booted.

Since they are collecting a debt (based on the other replies), they can only discuss it with the individual responsible which is why they need to verify who you are. It is actually illegal to discuss a debt with anyone other than the debtor (you) unless the debtor has given permission to do so. They seem to be a little too cautious in verifying your identity by requiring unnecessarily detailed information.

yeah I don't even know if that is why they are calling me, just straight up asked for some kind of information

They seriously cannot say they are calling about a debt until they confirm they are talking to the debtor - debt collection laws and regulations want to make sure no one other than the debtor is aware of the debt. The other responses indicate that this is a known debt collector for the city so I would suspect they are legit. However, the City is known for billing errors so the debt may not be legit.

If you called the number listed for their law firm, and then they asked the same type of questions, then that sounds legitimate

I have had calls where people needed to verify my information by asking questions like that. The important thing is you verified that they are who they claim to be by looking them up and calling their publicly listed number

Nguyen Ballato is a debt collection law firm for a variety of city, county, hoa, medical and other small matters throughout the region. If you’re unsure, always ask for a validation and dispute. If you don’t want to give your address, perhaps an email but anything you give them, they will use it!

Usually to do with court or utilities

Older ballato at least was a complete dick head. For some reason he turned rather purple in the face when I explained it to him in his office one day

But they used to the city of Richmond collection lawyers so they might be wrong but they also might be collecting a city of Richmond debt. City likes to not Bill people etc etc and then go straight to collections so it might be real. Note this is not a sign of competence on the city's part they do it by accident

Nyguen Ballato is a very reputable firm. Although not most folks favorite area of practice, they are good attorneys.

Without saying it, you're essentially explaining that, if OPs curiosity gets the best of them, they then willfully provide personal verification details to a third party without any way of verifying they are authentically them and this isn't a phishing attempt for future identity theft or a scam.

OP, that's categorically a Bad Idea™.

If you feel in your gut that something felt weird about that interaction, trust your gut the first time. If they're authentic, they will provide ways to verify they are indeed who they are. Otherwise, literally anyone can say they're from any company and possibly be spoofing their number on Caller ID while doing so.

Side note - verifying your address (one of the items the OP said they asked to confirm) is publicly available information. Caution is good but paranoia will leave you with robot insurance

[deleted]

I don’t know who I am anymore

You are a fish.

Username checks out. Approved.

they deal with parking tickets for the city and the toll bridges