fradulant verizon bill
Complaint
gina simmons
Country: United States
I have just received a collection notice from Afni Inc that states I owe $246.85 to verizon. This account is said to be from 1999. I don't owe verizon anything.When asked why if I owed this then why haven't I heard anything until now. The Afni employee said that gte was taken over by verizon, and that the files had not been audited in the last 5-10 years. This Afni company has now bought these files, but have no notes on any bills that have or have not been paid. I could not beleive that people could get away with this scam. I have filed a better buisness report, and have found out the statue of limitations law in my state. It was very helpful, and I now know my rights under the laws to proctect people from monsters like Afni. I have had a verizon account for the last past 5 years,and have never had any problems. It's unfortunate that a company like Afni is smearing the Verizon name.
Comments
They sure have a glib answer to everything, and it all leads to "There is nothing you can do but pay me". You must be losing your mind, since you can't even remember "agreeing" to their harassment of you! But they recorded your agreement (or at least claim they did). It's all irrelevent, anyway, since you cannot legally waive your rights, and they cannot legally claim you did.
If you had any doubts, you now know you cannot trust ANYTHING they say. But such a deal! 50% discount on a debt you don't even owe! More like a "pig in a poke", since you don't even get to see what you are buying before parting with your money. You basically get to pay them to get them to leave you alone.
They are fully aware that they are sending "erroneous" collection letters to lots of people who do not owe them a dime on these alleged "debts". They also know most of the "accounts" are so old that they are both past SOL and unreportable. They know that consumers have been submitting hundreds of complaints about their activities to FTC, to state AGs, and to BBB. Yet apparently they will say just about anything if they think they can get your money, and apparently they don't expect any consequences for their actions. The deceptive statements come easily, one after another. In fact, they have probably been scripted out in advance, as part of their training. You claim X, they respond Y. All paths lead to getting your money.
Compulsive deception, manipulation, and intimidation, threats, predatory, abusive and fraudulent behavior, lack of empathy for people victimized by their actions, failure to weigh the consequences of their actions, including violations of social norms or laws, no remorse or concience. Sounds like a sociopath. They tend to come out toward the end of the month, if they haven't met their numbers, like werewolves with the full moon.
http://www.hss.caltech.edu/~mcafee/Bin/sb.html
That is why it is pointless to talk to them on the phone. The phone is their tool, for manipulating and deceiving, and they feel safe using it for that without getting caught. You conduct everything in writing, everything sent certified, return receipt requested, and you file written complaints, with FTC, your state AG, and Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, at every occurance of a violation of law. Include in your complaints every outrageous claim they make.
You should also contact an attorney with experience in FDCPA and FCRA litigation. Both FDCPA and FCRA allow for awarding of attorney's fees.
You might try: www.naca.net
Or you might contact Mr. Watts at www.alabamaconsumer.com/
He has dealt with AFNI before, and if you are in another state, he might be able to refer you to an attorney in your state with this area of practice.
(Note: I have no connection or experience with this, or any other attorney.)
When did it allegedly originally go delinquent?
Did they provide the original account number and phone number?
What identification information did they claim was on the account?
Your name? Past address? SSN? DOB?
Have you called Verizon to determine whether they show any "account" under your name or SSN?
Did AFNI pull any of your credit reports?
Are they, or Verizon, showing a collection account on any of your credit reports?
When did you receive their first collection letter?
Did it notify you of your right to dispute and request validation?
When did you send your validation letter?
Was it seny within 30 days of receiving their first letter?
Was it sent certified, return receipt requested?
Did they send any written reply?
If so, what?
Maybe we should get the 1 million consumers affected and start a class action.
What matters is that YOU know that it is NOT legal, and are willing to take the next steps you need to take to protect your interests: disputing and requesting validation in writing (with provable documentation of their receipt), disputing erroneous credit report information in writing so that you have legal standing to sue under FDCPA and FCRA, filing complaints in writing with FTC and AGs, and seeking assistance from an attorney if their illegal activity continues.
Verizon's failure to police the illegal collection activities of their collections subcontractor AFNI could potentially cost them more than simply a tarnished reputation. Note, for example, their recent settlement with the Florida Attorney General involving their failure to prevent submission of fraudulent crammed charges onto their own customers bills. This agreement also placed on them specific requirements for handling customer billing fraud complaints. It would be interesting if this existing consent agreement could be found to also apply to old Verizon customer accounts erroneously sold as "delinquent", since here too, Verizon might have a fiduciary duty to even former customers.
I contacted Equifax & put in a "fraud alert" immediately. They also put it through with the other 2 credit reporting agencies.
I contacted Lisa Madigan, the Attorney General of Illinois. I explained that this wasn't my bill & informed her that I never had a Verizon Account. I told her that there are numerous complaints online about Afni & the fraudulent collection notices they are sending to people.
After an Ms. Madigan's office contacted Afni, & it was "investigated", Afni closed my account & also sent me a letter of apology.
I hope that everyone else who is being harrassed by Afni will contact Lisa Madigan & ask for her help in stopping Afni's fraudulent collections.
Her website is:
http://www.illinoisattorneygeneral.gov/about/email_ag.jsp
I was very polite & asked her for her help. It was resolved in approx. 3 weeks.
Good luck to everyone.
service in 1998. I have never had Verizon Phone Service. How do I correct this error and how are they getting this information?
If I had Verizon Phone Service why had they made contact with me before now year 2007.
AFNI has two businesses. Once is their call center business, handing outsourced customer service and recent collections for companies such as Verizon. The other is their purchased "junk debt" collection activities, which is resulting in this surge in consumer complaints. If they screw up too bad, become subject to regulatory actions and the resulting bad publicity, and damage their credibility as a competent call center business worthy of handling other companies' customers, they risk losing customer service business.
In effect, they are probably staving off regulatory activity by claims that the rise in complaints against them is due to their whole level of activity having risen tremendously since their recent purchase of the old GTE/Verizon accounts, and that some level of "errors" is to be expected. This excuse does not address the nature of the consumer complaints, however, since most of these complaints indicate widespread intentional initial collection activity against consumers who owe nothing, followed by systematic and deceptive collection tactics targetted at collecting even from consumers who dispute.
The result is they probably, indeed must, cave when confronted with a problem consumer that refuses to be quiet. If they don't, they have a lot of old chickens out there ready to come home to roost and bury them in chicken [***].
As the prior post indicates, it appears that the most effective way of stopping their "erroneous" collection activities is to file a complaint thru the IL AG.
First, immediately send your dispute and validation letter to AFNI, certified return receipt requested, to ensure that your dispute is within the 30 day window provided in FDCPA that requires them to stop all collection activity until they send validation. This ensures you have standing to sue if they continue collection without validating. Include in your dispute letter that they must communicate only by U.S. Mail, that they may not contact you at work, and that it is inconvenient to contact you by phone at any time.
After you get confirmation that they have received your dispute letter, check your credit reports, and send in a written dispute to the credit reporting agencies if they have put any erroneous account information on your report. Disputing thru the credit reporting agencies is a requirement if you need to sue AFNI under FCRA for the false reporting.
Call the original creditor, and have them check whether there is any delinquent account showing under your name and SSN. AFNI has been known to claim that a consumers SSN and DOB was on an account, even when the original creditor showed no account under that identity.
In addition, they appear to have access to various databases that would allow them to determine your past addresses, other adults living at those addresses, as well as your true SSN and DOB whether it was on the original account or not. In short, they have all that they need to construct the appearance of a legitimate account in your name, other than the original documentation from a creditor that would show whether it was real.
AFNI often claims that an account was opened thru fraud or id theft. Although there might be occasional cases of id theftamong these accounts, even by relatives, there are a number of credible consumer complaints that they are using this as a collection tactic to collect from you, the alleged id theft victim. For example, if you claim that you were a minor at the time the alleged account was opened, they may allege that a relative must have opened it in your name, and that if you don't immediately file a police report accusing that relative of the crime (without even any documentation from them that there is even an account), then you have to pay it for allowing them to do so. This tactic appears to be a scripted response to work around the FDCPA prohibition against threatening a debtor with arrest, since instead of threatening YOU, they demand that YOU pay if you won't accuse your relative.
In fact, they appear to be attempting to divert and convert validation requests into "fraud claims", possibly to let the 30 day validation window expire, as well as to shift costs of filing police reports, sending notarized documents, etc. onto the consumer, figuring that if the nuisance and cost is enough, consumers will just pay them as the easiest way to make them go away. Some consumers have reported that on calling, they were told NOT to send a validation request, that they couldn't send it or that AFNI didn't have to validate, and that they had to go to their website to dispute. According to consumers, the only ways to dispute on their website are as "already paid", in which case they would ask for proof of that payment (years after!), or as "fraud", in which case they would demand the "proof" (fraud affidavits, notarized documents, police reports, old leases) that it was fraud. Under FDCPA, the burden of proof is on the debt collector, yet they shift it to the consumer, even knowing they have sent collection letters to any similar name.
If AFNI is reporting erroneous credit information, and refuses to immediately remove it in response to disputing thru the credit reporting agency, you should contact an attorney with experience in FDCPA and FCRA law immediately. It is costly to you to allowing them to continue to damage your financial affairs. Both FDCPA and FCRA allow the court to award attorneys fees. Their rate of federal suits under FDCPA and FCRA has doubled since 2006.
http://www.budhibbs.com/debtcollectorpages/AFNI.htm
FDCPA suit in March:
http://www.alabamaconsumer.com/CM/Custom/wesl ... 070302-0001.pdf
Federal FDCPA lawsuits:
http://dockets.justia.com/search?query=afni&s ... ases=mostrecent
Warning beyond the usual list of debt collectors just appeared on www.edcombs.com, website of Edelman, Combs, Latturner & Goodwin:
http://www.edcombs.com/CM/Custom/TOCSpecial.asp
"AFNI cellular phone bills: Please contact us if AFNI is attempting to collect a cell phone bill from you."
Report ALL suspected violations of law, in writing with copies of any letters or documents, to FTC, to your state AG, and to IL AG.
One consumer reported this:
http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/you-won039t-believe-this-c13356.html
"Afni Collections
Posted: 2007-06-11 by Vanessa Lapato
You won't believe this...
I received one of these letters like everyone else is describing: $573 for a
Verizon account I've never heard of, for an area code where I've never lived. I was suspicious immediately because it had not appeared on my credit report when I had recently bought a house, the notice was mailed to my new address (which was less than 6 weeks old), and I had never received a bill or overdue notice from Verizon directly.
Anyway, after reading similar posts on this and other web sites, I contacted the local police in Bloomington, IL, where AFNI is located. I attempted to file a fraud report with them, and YOU WON'T BELIEVE THIS...
David White, who works in the police department's public affairs office, did not take the complaint. Instead he told me that he was a personal friend of the manager at AFNI, whose name is Jeff Shepherd. He said he'd simply forward my complaint on to Jeff.
So for those of you who actually want a real live person to pester over this thing, I suggest you ask for Jeff Shepherd at AFNI directly. And if you get no relief there, give a call to his buddy David White at the police department. Maybe if David gets enough complaints about his buddy, he'll feel compelled to do more than "forward the message." His number at the police department is (309) 434-2355. "
There have been many reports of results from filing complaints thru the Illinois Attorney General.
FOR ME I'M GOING TO KEEP FIGHTING FOR WHAT'S RIGHT.
THERE WAS SOMEONE THAT STATED THAT AFNI WAS ON THERE CREDIT REPORT IF U SENT THEM A DISPUTE LETTER CERTIFIED OF COURSE WITH THE RETURN RECPT MAKE A COPY OF BOTH AND SEND IT TO ONE OF THE CREDIT REPORTING AGENCIES
If they did sue you, you could raise SOL as an affirmative address and get it tossed out, then sue them under FDCPA. If they reported it, you would dispute it thru the CRA, and if they failed to remove you could sue them under FCRA for re-aging and willfully reporting erroneous information. If they threatened either action, you could sue under FDCPA for threatening to take an action they cannot legally take.
To tell you that you would have to pay the whole amount if you cannot prove you don't owe it is a violation of FDCPA for deceptive collection, for claiming that you have to prove you don't owe it to stop their collection activity, overshadowing their FDCPA notification to you that you have a right to dispute and request validation. (I am assuming they did send you that notification in your letter. If not, then that "lapse" is itself a violation of FDCPA.)
You should file a written complaint with your state AG, IL AG, and FTC, on this alone, even as you dispute and request validation.
Although you should immediately dispute and request validation, with return receipt requested, to block further collection, you might also keep in mind this might have never even been your account. In addition to being from 1990 (17 years ago!), are there other indications it is invalid, such as unrecognized original creditor, mangled name, unrecognized alleged address or phone number, etc?
Check your credit reports to make sure they have not put any collection entry on them. Also, look for their credit inquiry, possibly dated a few months ago.