The phone number 623-462-7104 is coming from Midland Credit Management. The reason they are calling is that they are trying to collect on a debt they purchased from another lender, probably a credit card company, retail lender, or telecom provider that charged off your account.
You may not recognize the number, but Midland Credit Management has turned collection on accounts like yours into a billion-dollar business.
The number is marked by Nomorobo with “Severe” call activity and has been labeled a robocall since July 2023. RoboKiller has identified more than 17,000 calls from this phone number across 117 user reports. YouMail identifies it as a spam risk, and CallerSmart labels it a scam caller, with nearly 73% of reports stating the calls are robocalls.
What Is Midland Credit Management?
Company Type: Debt buyer (buys charged-off consumer debts from the original creditor)
Parent Company: Encore Capital Group, Inc. (publicly traded, NASDAQ)
Headquarters: 350 Camino de la Reina, Suite 100, San Diego, CA 92108
Additional Office: 4302 E. Broadway Rd., Phoenix, AZ (source of 623 area code calls)
Employees: More than 4,000 at MCM; 7,350 at Encore Capital Group worldwide
Annual Revenue: $1.32 billion (Encore Capital Group, fiscal year 2024)
Geographic Reach: All 50 U.S. states, plus Puerto Rico and international operations
Better Business Bureau (BBB) Rating: A+ (not accredited); Trustpilot rating: 2.1 out of 5 (“Poor”)
Their History Speaks for Itself
If you think the calls are excessive, you’re in good company. Midland Credit Management and its parent company have been hit with more than $237 million in regulatory penalties, settlements, and ceased debt collections by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), 42 state attorneys general, and federal courts.
In 2015, the CFPB sued Midland for collecting on debts it had not verified and for making excessive calls to consumers. The agency sued Midland again in 2020 for the same practices. In 2018, 42 state attorneys general reached a settlement with Midland over its robo-signing practices. And in a Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) class action, Midland agreed to a $20.5 million settlement over making unauthorized robocalls.
All of these describe the exact calling behavior consumers are reporting from 623-462-7104.
Why Is Midland Credit Management Calling You?
They Bought Your Debt for Pennies on the Dollar
Midland Credit Management does not lend money or issue credit. It buys portfolios of charged-off debt from the original creditor for about three cents on the dollar and then tries to collect the full face value. So, if your original creditor was Chase, Citibank, Capital One, Discover, or Synchrony Bank, it probably sold your account to Midland after charging it off.
This is an important distinction because the debt Midland is calling you about is a financial commodity that was sold in a bulk transaction along with thousands of other similar accounts. Midland paid a few cents for every dollar it now says you owe, and every dollar it collects above what it paid is pure profit. You’re not dealing with a lender; you’re dealing with a debt speculator.
The Kinds of Debt MCM Tries to Collect
While Midland’s debt portfolio covers many categories, its strategy can vary depending on what it bought. The largest share of its portfolio is credit card debt, purchased from the major banks and credit card companies. Another large category is retail credit card debt, which involves store-branded cards such as those issued by Synchrony and Comenity, often used once to make a purchase. MCM also pursues telecommunications debts, personal loans, and auto loan deficiencies.
In 2024 alone, Encore spent nearly $1 billion on U.S. debt purchases through MCM, buying blocks of 15,000 to 25,000 accounts at a time. Each category may involve different documentation standards, which is why it’s essential to understand what kind of debt they’re calling you about.
What They’re Counting on When They Call You
Most People Don’t Push Back
Essentially, Midland’s business model relies on people responding to the pressure tactics without understanding their rights under the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). As WalletHub reviewer Edina Pena Smith put it, the MCM representative “continued to be extremely rude and pushy, insisting on a higher payment than what I could afford.” She told him she had just lost her job, but “he wouldn’t relent.”
Another consumer, Brenda, said an MCM representative called her granddaughter to ask if she was an emergency contact and got the young woman so upset that she filed complaints with both the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the CFPB.
These stories illustrate a collection strategy that relies on creating a sense of urgency and using emotional leverage.
They Don’t Care About Their Reputation
Midland boasts a 2.1 out of 5 rating on Trustpilot, with 93% of its reviews earning one star. On PissedConsumer, the rating is 1.0 out of 5. WalletHub alone hosts nearly 5,000 reviews, and they are overwhelmingly negative.
But Midland reported $1.32 billion in revenue last year. That’s because debt buyers don’t rely on consumer approval. Their customers are the original creditors who sell them debt portfolios and the stockholders who invest in Encore Capital Group. Bad ratings and terrible reviews are just the cost of doing business in an industry where the “product” is other people’s financial misery.
What People Are Saying About Calls from This Number
Robocalls on an Industrial Scale
The voicemail transcripts that have been captured from 623-462-7104 reveal a telltale sign of autodialer use. Nomorobo has captured messages like this one: “Hello? I have a call for you. Please hold while I transfer you.” YouMail has captured partial voicemails from named MCM representatives, and at least one recording cycled through several automated greetings before hanging up.
CallerSmart reports that 66.7% of the call activity from this number occurs on Thursdays and peaks at 4 p.m. EST. In 2015, the CFPB found that Encore subsidiaries were placing excessive calls to consumers, including calls outside the hours when it is permitted. And a TCPA class action involved “approximately 41 million potential class members” who were affected by MCM’s unauthorized use of an autodialer.
The calling apparatus behind 623-462-7104 is a system engineered to call as many people as possible as many times as possible.
Debts People Don’t Recognize or Dispute
As WalletHub reviewer Nicholas Butler put it, he settled a debt with MCM only to have the company try to collect it again years later. “They filed against me, in bad faith, in a county on the other side of my state,” he wrote. “This company is unethical and has no integrity.”
Consumer Yesenia Abascal said MCM would “keep reopening old debts, which is messing with people’s credit reports.”
These complaints mirror the CFPB’s conclusion that Midland was collecting debts when the underlying documentation was unavailable and filing lawsuits through law firms where 16 attorneys were handling more than 100,000 accounts.
Your Consumer Rights Cheat Sheet
You Can Dispute Credit Bureau Errors
The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) says that credit bureaus must investigate any item on your credit report that you dispute. This provides a formal process that sidesteps the debt collector entirely. The bureau must contact Midland and ask it to verify the accuracy of the information it reported. And if Midland cannot verify the debt with underlying documentation, the bureau must delete it.
Given that the CFPB found Midland relied solely on its own electronic records in 95% of its dispute investigations, the verification process can be a powerful tool. The credit bureau serves as a kind of neutral third party, and the burden of proof shifts to the collector.
Why You Should Not Try to Settle or Pay for Delete
When you settle a debt with a collection agency, it may help your credit, but it also may not. In some situations, a settlement can improve your credit score, but in others, it may lower it, depending on how the account is reported and whether the settlement triggers a tax liability. There is no guarantee that paying a partial balance will achieve the desired credit result.
And pay-for-delete arrangements, under which you pay the collector to remove the account from your credit report, do not work as advertised. Even if a collector agrees to delete the tradeline, the original account still will be visible on your report for up to seven years. Credit reporting obligations are governed by federal law, not side agreements with collection agencies.
The Best Strategy: Dispute the Listing on Your Report
Instead of dealing with Midland directly, the best course of action is to dispute the accuracy of the information it placed on your credit report. A properly filed dispute under the FCRA forces the credit bureau to investigate and forces the collector to verify the debt. A professional credit dispute targets the Achilles’ heel of the debt collector: its documentation. When the documentation does not support the debt, the listing comes off your report.
You Have More Leverage Than You Think
The Calls Will Continue Until You Do Something
Make no mistake: Midland Credit Management has set up a system to harass you. The calls from 623-462-7104 are just one part of an automated calling apparatus that has placed more than 17,000 tracked calls from this one phone number alone. And the company operates dozens of other numbers out of the same Phoenix office. They are not going to stop calling because you’re ignoring your phone.
But that system also has a vulnerability. The entire collection process relies on the information Midland reports to the credit bureaus, and that information can be disputed. Under federal law, every item on your credit report must be accurate, verifiable, and substantiated. And when it’s not, you have the right to demand that it be removed.
Get Started at FightCollections.com
At FightCollections.com, we specialize in fighting debt collectors like Midland Credit Management through targeted credit report disputes. We know how these companies operate, where their documentation is lacking, and how to wield federal consumer protection law in your favor.
If 623-462-7104 keeps popping up on your caller ID, don’t wait for the calls to stop on their own. Head over to FightCollections.com today to find out how a professional credit report dispute might help you reclaim your credit report.
