Never accepted collect call
Complaint
Delilah Reinhart
Country: United States
I keep getting messages from this company stating that i have an outstanding bill for a collect call. I have never accepted a collect call and my home phone does not allow these charges\. so i would like to know when and how this happened and how did they verify that the person on the phone was me, did they ask for any ssi number. Iam disputing this bill
Comments
They claim to act as a billing agent for other companies, including some collect call companies.
They claim they send bills in the mail first, then call if the bills aren't paid.
They claim consumers "authorized" the charges they are billing for.
They claim they use some "patented" process to identify and verify the legitimacy of the authorization.
They appear to be evading compliance with debt collection law by claiming the consumer authorized their billing, so they are not debt collectors. They are collecting on unpaid bills allegedly owed to third parties, with all the possibilities for error and fraud that that entails.
Their entire process appears to be automated, allowing "authorizations" with no live operator. Historical experience, such as with ATT's collect calling process, has shown that such automated processes can be spoofed, allowing thieves to ring up large fraudulent long distance charges that get dumped onto consumers or businesses, who then have to contest and somehow prove they were fraudulent.
Consumer complaints show several patterns:
Repeated complaints of robocalls, often 10 to 20 per day, with no disclosed way to contact a live person to stop them.
Reports from consumers claiming they authorized charges but they can't contact them, or that they are getting harassing robocalls even after paying them.
Complaints of getting billed for collect calls that have not gone through.
Repeated complaints of robocalls attempting to collect when consumers claim they never authorized or had any contact with a service that might make such charges. Such complaints generally have not included reports of receiving the mailed invoice they claim to send.
Several complaints indicating that when consumers finally got information on the supposed services or charges, it was clear they were fraudulent. There are complaints indicating that their "authorization" security has allowed fraudulent charging, perhaps through identity theft. There are also indications of disputed accounts passed off to a debt collector possibly engaged in deceptive collection on fraudulent or misidentified accounts.
The company has been vague in identifying the full nature of the types of services they may be billing for. Although most complaints appear tied to collect call billing, there are some indications they may also be billing for questionable charities, chat lines, or "adult services", etc, categories that have a historical association with fraudulent phone bill cramming. The company is reported to have been started by former employees of, or be a spin-off of, a billing aggregator with facilities in the same town that was investigated for assisting in cramming fraudulent charges onto phone bills a number of years back. Whether their problems are only due to billing mixups and fraudulent collect call authorizations, or if there is also an element of fraud by their clients, is not clear yet.
If they refuse and keep calling, contact FTC, your state Attorney General, and the Indiana Attorney General to file complaints for telephone harassment by a debt collector.
Although it may be uncertain whether they are covered by FDCPA, some state debt collection laws (CA Rosenthal Act, for example) include original creditors.
They are covered by federal TCPA and FCC regulations governing robocalls. Robocalls are illegal under current law if you haven't authorized them. TCPA may provide an effective route to forcing them to court, and to cease calling, as TCPA violations carry extensive penalties.
Every 6 months or so, their customer service people appear to show up, offering "advice" often long after the original consumer problem occurred.
https://complaintwire.org/Complaint.aspx/KFjxeEy5bABXagjKwudErg
https://complaintwire.org/Complaint.aspx/qZpSVaLO0ACGKgjKjNaHHQ
Do you have any idea what the alleged bill is for (collect call or whatever) or none whatsoever?
What is the nature of their recorded calls? Identifying information, threats, length of call, frequency (times per day), etc?
Repeated harassing or abusive calls, or repeated unauthorized recorded calls, may also be actionable under TCPA.
Contact your state Attorney General. Some states, such as California, have debt collection laws similar to FDCPA which also apply to creditors.
You might also contact the Indiana Attorney General.