Of the more than 30,000 consumers complaints the CFPB has received about debt collection, more than one third said the debt is not owed, and most of those said the debt was never theirs to begin with, the bureau said in a recent report. Among other top gripes, nearly a quarter of the complaints received by the bureau were about debt collectors using inappropriate communication tactics. More than half of those complaints cited frequent or repeated calls from a collector and often the collector had called the wrong phone number. “Consumers also complain about debt collectors calling their places of employment or collectors using obscene, profane or abusive language,” the CFPB said.