Same Name....Different Person!!!
Complaint
Sick and Tired
Country: United States
Anthony Wayne Credit Adjusters of Fort Wayne IN have sent me 2 letters out of the blue claiming that an amount has been entered as a judgment against someone with my same FIRST and LAST Name and DOB.
Whoever this "crooked" person is lives 7 states away from MY address, but obviously found my address in a phone book or online, I don't know and don't care but listed my address a year ago. I contacted AWCA 3 months ago when I received the first letter telling them specifically that I had never lived or worked in this state. They asked for SSN#, confirmed it was a different person and said it was taken care of. I asked HOW they got my address and stated "skip tracing" or something? They guy on the phone laughed and said probably so, but he had fixed it!!
Got a letter last week about a judgment. These people are Fraudulent themselves and apparently have zero lack of respect for normal and legal processes. All they want is to harass someone into paying some debt of which they can't even find the RIGHT CUSTOMER THAT OWES THEM!!.
Filing a complaint with every firm/agency I can find to let them know about this company.
Whoever this "crooked" person is lives 7 states away from MY address, but obviously found my address in a phone book or online, I don't know and don't care but listed my address a year ago. I contacted AWCA 3 months ago when I received the first letter telling them specifically that I had never lived or worked in this state. They asked for SSN#, confirmed it was a different person and said it was taken care of. I asked HOW they got my address and stated "skip tracing" or something? They guy on the phone laughed and said probably so, but he had fixed it!!
Got a letter last week about a judgment. These people are Fraudulent themselves and apparently have zero lack of respect for normal and legal processes. All they want is to harass someone into paying some debt of which they can't even find the RIGHT CUSTOMER THAT OWES THEM!!.
Filing a complaint with every firm/agency I can find to let them know about this company.
Comments
They are now sending letters to you even though they earlier confirmed you were not the alleged debtor.
Contact your state Attorney General to see how best to handle this should they attempt to take advantage of the name similarity.
1) a mixup in identities,
2) identity theft,
3) a default judgement from sewer service or suing in an improper venue,
4) a deliberately sloppy attempt to collect someone else's judgement from the wrong person.
Regardless, you always request validation from debt collectors to best preserve your FDCPA rights.
You want to know what you are dealing with, and whether you can best proceed through AG complaints, police id theft reports, or legal action for violations of FDCPA or to vacate a default judgement that resulted from improper service.
Considering all the alternatives, you would be wise to send this debt collector a letter disputing this alleged debt, as allowed for by FDCPA, and requesting that they send you proof of the debt including proof that you are the party that owes it, including a copy of any alleged judgement.
Also include a request of the name and address of the original creditor, as that may be valuable in establishing whether this is mistaken identity or id theft, and in using a police report to get copies of business records necessary to handle id theft problems such as removal of fraudulent account information from your credit reports under FACTA. Under FDCPA, if you send your validation request timely (within 30 days) of receiving their letter notifying you of your right to dispute the debt, they are prohibited from proceeding with collections until they send proof of the debt.
Send this letter immediately, certified return receipt requested so you have proof of when they received it, and keep copies of all communications along with the delivery confirmations for your files.
Be aware that there are a number of deceptive and illegal tactics debt collectors may use. They may say it is too late to request validation since the first letters were sent months ago. But the alleged "judgement" is a new and different debt, and their own claim to have confirmed that your SSN did not match could be taken as a violation of FDCPA for attempting to deceive you into not disputing their earlier letters in writing. In fact, it may be they "fixed" their skip-tracing by changing the earlier SSN to yours, then sued in a different venue without legal service to obtain a default judgement. Suing in an improper venue (the wrong place) is also a violation of FDCPA. The only proper venues would be where you live, or where you were when you agreed to the alleged contract. But if this isn't even your debt, then you never signed any contract either.
There is something strange about this alleged "judgement". They managed to find you earlier, "agreed" with you that you were the wrong person, you never received a summons nor would you expect to, yet now they claim they have a judgement?
Probably most collection lawsuits end in default judgements, since most consumers never show up to court. There may, however, be default judgements mixed into these statistics that actually arise from failure to serve the defendents. New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo recently sued to throw out almost 100,000 collection judgements on the basis that a process servicing company used by a number of New York debt collection attorneys had failed to serve defendents while falsely claimed to have done so.
Basically, find out what you are dealing with, don't take any BS, communicate in writing CRRR for proof of receipt, and if your opponent makes any deceptive statements or you have problems with collection of a debt or judgement that is not yours, contact your state Attorney General.
BBB report on Anthony Wayne Credit Adjusters. Not much.
http://www.bbb.org/northernindiana/business-r ... rt-wayne-in-456
They appear to be a debt collector local to Ft. Wayne IN.
Here are a bunch of small claims judgements, for very small amounts, possibly bad checks.
http://www.timeswrsw.com/CN121499.HTM
"Superior Court III
Judgments
...
Anthony Wayne Credit Adjusters awarded the judgments noted against the following people: Peter O’Connell, $340.11; Samantha A. Adkins, $288.40; Russell Bailey, $518.84; Terry Beach, $401.37; William E. Beck, $165.09; and Christy Carpenter, $352.56.
..."
http://www.timeswrsw.com/CN121499.HTM
http://www.timeswrsw.com/CN102301.HTM
"Anthony Wayne Credit Adjusters awarded the judgments noted against the following people: Rex Westerman, $263.92; Nora J. Wilson Warren, $356.46; Michael Thomas, $359.06; Wayne Tedrick, $264.41; Joann Carr, $1,179.34; and Robert Zuniga, $285.46.
...
Anthony Wayne Credit Adjusters v. Thomas and Marsha Edmunds. Plaintiff awarded $347.92.
..."