several calls a day about bills i did not recieve
Complaint
ashley baird
Country: United States
i have recieved at least tweleve calls a day about an account for collect calls that was set up on a pre-paid cell phone and i never recieved a bill for those services and was unaware that it was even possible to do that with a pre-paid cell phone and i would like the calls to stop because i even get them while i am at work
Comments
"Collect call" cramming has also been associated with criminals in jail who can only call out if the charge is put onto someone else's phone. Supposedly, the charge was verified by calling that number for authorization, but with this sort of company, and the source (jail), it should be no surprise if fraudulent charges end up being made anyway. The companies that handle these collect calls charge absurd rates, which they often split with the jail, so someone's loved one might not want them on their own phone bill.
There are also companies that will try use your phone number, even if only obtained thru some "on-line survey", as an opportunity to cram phony charges on your phone account. A number of them, and their billing aggregators, have been sued by FTC and state AGs. It may be that in this case, since your cell phone was pre-paid, they couldn't just cram the fraudulent charges on it, so they passed it off to some debt collector sleazy enough to try to extort it from you anyway.
If they "sent you a bill but it was returned" (so they claim), and you never even had an account with them, something is fishy. That is an opening line for trying to intimidate you into paying money you don't owe, by trying to convince you it was YOUR fault you never got some bill for something you never ordered. It has scam all over it.
Either way, considering the source, and the fraudulent nature of the alleged bill for an account you never established, you should file a complaint with FTC, your state AG, and your local DA.
https://complaintwire.org/Complaint.aspx/zflVe7-u2gCGVQjJ3n8q8g/3
"29 May 2008
213-228-8111 These people are calling because I did not respond to a call from someone called qtbills that said they sent me a bill but it was returned,mind you they never said what this bill was for but wanted me to call and give them my address so they could send this bill.
Richard - 17 Jul 2008
Dear BARB
Sorry to say qtbills is still up to there evil ways. Now they dirrect dial me and try to make me pay a stupid bill I don't owe to a machine I can't communicate with. MY next stop FCC, FBI,Illinois attorney General, ect. I hope your problem has gone away"
You might start with www.naca.net
or possibly try www.alabamaconsumer.com
who might be able to put you in contact with an attorney in your state who can handle this type of problem.
1) Someone might try using your name, just because they saw it, to establish an account with companies having weak security and identification procedures, resulting in attempts to collect fraudulent bills.
2) If someone with a similar name opens an account, again with a company having weak security and identification procedures, when they try to collect on an unpaid account, you are more likely to be found than the original debtor.
In effect, those with more visibility, or even those with common names, attract more fraud attempts, whether by actual "id thieves", or by collection agencies making "mistakes". It is just a matter of probability, and it shows up repeatedly primarily tied to collection agencies known for sloppy or illegal practices.
Mostly, their "legitimate" accounts involve others at the lower end of the economic ladder, but they are not beyond "accidentally" trying to extort payments from people with good credit and money to pay them off.
The root cause, in both cases, is the sloppy account procedures, illegal collection tactics and bullying culture of the billing processor or collection agency, so that is where you target your attack. If you let them get away with smearing your good name without consequences, they will proceed to do so repeatedly, since their normal manner of operating is to bully and intimidate. They have found that most of the time there is no consequence to their negligence.
have followed their instructions and have not received any calls except the auto collect recording. any help ?