An article in the Philadelphia Inquirer described ways scammers are using robocalls to defraud people. For instance, one easy-to-fall for trick is the ?Can you hear me?? scam. As soon as you pick up, a recording designed to get you to say ?Yes? starts playing, such as "Can you hear me?" The scammer then uses the recording of you saying ?Yes? to authorize charges to your credit card. This is why you should hang up without saying anything if you pick up a robocall.
full article at:
Personal note: I am no lawyer, but I'm not sure how a recorded snippet would be enforceable in a collection action.
More significantly, presumably the scammers get their money from credit cards. In order to collect, they need to have a banking relationship, who would in return bill the victims credit card carrier.
So, the question becomes, why aren't the credit card transactions being investigated back to the source? Should credit card companies be more selective on whom they honor billing requests?