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 got caught sending one of their letters to a dog in Sacramento, allegedly for an account actually owed by someone on the East Coast with a similar name. Although the dog had an authorized user Amex card (taken out by his owner as a joke), you KNOW the SSN, DOB, and past addresses couldn't have matched, and indeed you wouldn't have to provide any of that to get an AU card anyway. They could only have sent their dunning letter based on name alone.
That one case shows what they are up to, and the absense of care they are taking in sending out their letters claiming consumers owe debts, or even in putting erroneous collection accounts on credit reports.
http://www.kcra.com/station/16839043/detail.html
If they continue to send letters demanding payment, or engage in any collection activity without sending you validation of the debt, file complaints with FTC, your state AG, and the Illinois AG for violations of FDCPA. If they send you phony "proof", or just their own letter claiming they checked and you owe it, do the same.
Then dispute their "erroneous" negative credit reporting with the credit reporting agency, in writing. If AFNI "verifies" it, contact and file complaints with Illinois Attorney General, FTC, and your state Attorney General.
Then contact a consumer protection attorney regarding suing them.
You might also contact Dateline NBC, as they have recently taken an interest in the sleazier side of "debt collection" in connection with our current economic problems. A little birdie disclosed about a year ago that they had undercover footage from inside AFNI, although their recent debt collection story focussed on a more outrageous debt collector known for threatening arrest and pretending to be police.
They are now "AGAIN" sending harassing letters and calling on my cell phone.
Now it's a SETTLEMENT OFFER for $49.61. Before AFNI was asking for half of the ALLEGED DEBT.
I have had Verizon Wireless for 9 years now. I have NEVER had Verizon home service and Verizon has absolutely no record of me having home phone services, but evidently AFNI believes I did.
Supposedly this was from 1997 and in that case was pass the SOL in 2003 IF it was mine, which is 5 years in IL. It is the same phone number they were trying to collect on in 2003 when I had it removed from my credit report and the same number from 2007 when I sent AFNI a Cease and Desist letter. Evidently CD letters are only good for a couple years? I don't think so!
I also told them in 2003 and 2007 not to call me because they were harassing me....both times the calls stopped, but I received 2 letters a week from them for months. the letters then finally stopped for awhile and NOW the SCUM-BAGS are at it AGAIN.
There is absolutely no stopping AFNI (Anderson Financial Network, PO Box 3427, Bloomington, IL 61702.
Also shows an address of PO Box 223721, Dallas, TX 75222.
AFNI is but SCAVENGER DEBT COLLECTORS and there are laws against their practices. I have no other recourse but to file a compliant with the Attorney General's Office. I thought they were done the last time.
Contact an attorney and sue them.
You should have filed Attorney General complaints back in 2003 and again in 2007. They probably took your failure to do so as a good reason to put you on the "recycle" list and try again later.
When you are having a problem with an adversary, research how they are likely to act, and adapt your response accordingly. In this case you know they have a pattern of collecting alleged debts from people who do not owe them, deception and veiled threats, evasion of validation, and other violations of FDCPA.
Knowing that, your best response is to follow FDCPA and FCRA in disputing and requesting timely validation, using cease communications letters should they fail to validate but continue to dunn, and hit them with complaints to FTC, your state AG, and IL AG the moment you catch them in a violation of law, followed by finding an attorney and suing them.
Delay, waiting, and hoping they will stop, is not a strategy. You let them set themselves up, then you go after them. Anything else, and they get to snipe at you for free, possibly extorting payment on a bogus debt when you refinance your house.
They are playing games, and there is no reason to play with them since it will only be to their advantage and damaging to you. Sue them, and instead of treating you like a sucker, they will put you on their "do not touch" list.
48 in 2008,
22 so far in 2009
http://dockets.justia.com/search.py?query=afn ... yes#resultslist
they are obviously involved in some kind of fraud.
my advice: ignore them, forget about them, have a cup of coffee.
I also received a letter from AFNI stating that I owe $146.49 and they
will settle for $50.00. I have never had an account with VERIZON. I reported them to the BBB of Illinois.I'm waiting on a reply from them so I can take further action.
Until they send you proof (from the original creditor, not their own creation), they are prohibited from continuing efforts to collect it from you, including calling, sending you letters demanding payment, reporting it on your credit reports if it is not already there, etc, but this prohibition only applies if you send your letter within 30 days of receiving their first letter, which is required to notify you that you can do this.
Ignoring it just allows them to damage your credit with little liability for doing so. They take advantage of many people who do not know their rights under FDCPA or FCRA by cutting corners and sending bills to anyone with a similar name to some old account.
They have been reported to have sent a bill to a dog in Sacramento that allegedly was owed to Verizon by someone with similar name on the east coast.
Peoria BBB appears to be in their pocket, having recently even removed the notice of the Minnesota Attorney General's lawsuit against them for collecting false debts and refusing to validate, and raised their rating to A+.
You might get some response to complaints through BBB, but you will better protect yourself by sending the above validation request letter immediately to allow you to invoke remedies provided by FDCPA. You may also find that they are more responsive to complaints filed with state Attorneys General, including the Illinois Attorney General.
Any suggestions?
But try this, to at least put some teeth in your request.
Send the envelope back (unopened, of course), along with a letter indicating that the named person, <whatever name>, does not live at your address, and cannot be reached through that address.
Indicate that they have been continuing to mail letters to your address in error, despite the letters being returned in accordance with postal regulations.
Indicate that in accordance with FDCPA, they are to cease attempting to communicate through your address, since your address is not their mailing address. Send your letter, certified return receipt requested, addressed to:
Ms. Debra Ciskey
Director of Compliance
AFNI
404 Brock Dr.
Bloomington, IL 61701-2654
If you have further problems with unwanted mail following your cease communications request, contact the Illinois Attorney General.
Or contact an attorney in your state regarding suing for FDCPA violations. FDCPA allows for statutory penalties, and awarding of attorney fees.
I don't know what's going on, but something is not right. I recently tried to get an apartment, but was denied because of this.
I will definitely take the advice that some of you have given on here.
Does anyone know if we all can file a class action suit against them? Does anyone know how I can get them to take this off my credit report? I did not have Verizon services according to the date they said I did.
Please let me know.
It is quite likely that this new "account" has nothing to do with the old one you paid. Some people have reported receiving 2 or 3 different bills; after they dispute one they start getting dunned for another.
Send a letter to AFNI disputing the bogus debt, certified return receipt requested. After you confirm their receipt through usps.gov or the green card, check all your credit reports and dispute any erroneous accounts they have posted there.
If they "verify" a bogus account on your credit reports, they are then liable for the damage it causes, under FCRA, which allows a court to award damages and attorney fees.. If they continue to pressure you to pay without sending proof you owe it, they are in violation of FDCPA, which allows a court to award statutory and actual damages plus attorneys fees.
In either case, file complaints with FTC, your state Attorney General, and the Illinois Attorney General, and look for an attorney with experience in this area willing to take your case on contingency.
Being denied renting an apartment due to erroneous reporting is damages. If you were denied based on your credit report, you have the right to ask the rental company which credit reports they used for their decision. Ask them to send you a letter. You also have the right to free copies of credit reports from those credit reporting agencies to use in disputing the errors.
Dispute as above, and try again. See how much damage you can document resulting from their bogus claim, especially after they have "verified" their erronous entry following your dispute, as it will make it easier to interest an attorney, and then to interest AFNI in settling.
Be wary of "verification" that appears to be of their own fabrication, particularly when it leaves off critical items of information, such as name on the original account, date opened or closed, original billing address, original account number, or similar information you would normally be able to use to refute an attempt to pin someone else's debt on you.
AFNI is reported to print up their own "verification", leaving off key items of information, implying they not only know they may be attempting to collect from the wrong people, but are designing their response to maximize the likelyhood they can extract payment anyway.
To find an attorney, you might try www.naca.net
Send them a letter disputing the debt and demanding they send proof you owe it, certified return receipt requested.
Real legitimate statements from the phone company will show the company name, logo, address and other contact information, the name and billing address on the account, the account number, the phone number, the billing date, and normal expected phone bill information.
Beware of fraudulent fabrications by the debt collector itself purporting to be "validation" or "verification", but with no indication of its source, or missing the normal information you would expect on a legitimate phone bill that would allow identification the actual debtor, and would allow you to prove its not your bill.
Deception can be in what is NOT disclosed, in the information denied to you that you would normally expect.