Rhode Island salesman Andrew Therrien takes on fake debt collectors in this piece at Bloomberg.

Staying in the loop about the latest financial schemes and frauds is kind of a drag sometimes.

Most of the time we write about some new phishing ploy or unscrupulous sales or dating tactic, the scammer is rarely brought to justice.  In many cases, the victims of these jerks have little if any recourse to get their belongings or money back–it just wasn’t caught in time or the nature of the con makes catching these criminals virtually impossible.

In other words, writing about financial scammers, especially those preying on the vulnerable, often means you’re writing about scammers who got away.  And writing about the exploited often means you’re writing about someone who will likely be left to suffer the consequences.

Unless you’re writing about Andrew Therrien.

In 2015, Rhode Island salesman Andrew Therrien totally lost his patience after receiving a phone call from his wife.  A man left her a threatening voicemail in an attempt to collect some debt Therrien apparently owed.

When the caller contacted Therrien himself about the alleged debt, Therrien immediately knew something was wrong.  He didn’t owe anyone any money.

And when Therrien treated the call as anyone would a spam call, the caller rang back and made hideous threats toward Therrien’s wife.

Enraged at the call, and fed up with repeated harrassing calls from “collectors” looking for money for debts he knew he didn’t owe, Therrien used his excellent sales skills to track down the source of the calls, obtain evidence of illegal financial activity, and take these scammers all the way down.

Bloomberg has the rest of the story right here.  It’s a lengthy read, but like The Count of Monte Cristo, you’re definitely going to want to get to the end.

Score one for the good guys!