Suspect Phone #'s: 713-567-0499, 800-710-9898 and fax # 402-916-8180
Complaint
dk
Country: United States
A few weeks ago I was contacted by the local Seriff's Department alerting me that a nearby resident had a storage unit burglarized and a box of her cancelled checks was stolen. I am currently the victim of an Identity Theft, so my name, address and other personal information are in the hands of criminals. The thieves who stole the woman's checks printed new checks using MY name and address with Her checking account number. I have received phone calls and correspondence from TRS Recovery Services, Inc. requesting that I pay the fraudulently written checks plus returned check fees! This makes no sense to me since the checks were not written on MY account. If I dispute that the checks were fraudulently written, TRS requests that I forward all of my personal information such as SSN, Driver's License number, etc. I am very suspicious that TRS is a fraudulent organization itself and is "phishing" for my identity info. The company seems to be very secretive and unprofessional and I am not about to provide them with any personal information!
Comments
Also file a fraud alert with the credit reporting agencies, requiring that they put a notice on your credit reports that you be contacted (at your phone number which you provide), in case of any attempts to open accounts.
In addition, contact your district attorney to assist you both in dealing with the theft of your identity, and to notify them of the on-going check forgery crimes involving checks with your name on them. Provide a copy of your police report.
As a victim of identity theft, you should be able to use the prvisions of FACTA both to force any creditors or collection agencies to cease all collection activity against you. You should also be able to obtain copies of any relevant business documents, including copies of the forged checks, to assist you in containing the damage causeed.
However, most debt collectors would rather harass the victims of id theft for payment rather than treat fraudulent debts as the crimes they are, since they might get money from you, but they will never get a dime from some thief.
You must force them to have the obligation to follow the law, by handling your dispute of their alleged debt in accordance with FACTA. If you do, then they have a limited time to investigate and decide the check is fraudulent, and they are prohibited byu FACTA from reselling it to anyone. If they fail to follow the law, you contact your state Attorney General, and sue them.
File your police complaint, get your copy of the police report, then send copies with your dispute of the fraudulent checks to all relevant parties: TRS, the original merchant who accepted the bad check, possibly credit reporting agencies if negative information shows up on them, possibly Chexsystems or Telecheck, who may also have negative information that might block your own ability to write checks or open accounts, etc. Request copies of all documentation they have on the fraudulent checks, as FACTA allows you to do. Work with your local police or sheriff to assist you, since they can also demand documentation to investigate the crime.
If you have any problems with anyone ignoring your dispute, continueing to threaten you demanding payment, selling the debt to another debt collector, file complaints with FTC, your state AG, and the state AG of the party violating FACTA, including a copy of your police report.
You may have to provide id such as DL, and SSN, as part of your dispute.
In particular, you would normally have to provide this as part of your identification with any credit reporting agency disputes, particularly when you have a fraud aleert in place.
Note that both you AND your neighbor are victims of identity theft.
Don't take [***], always communicate in writing, send communications with adversaries certified return receipt requested, and keep copies of everything. Report all violations of the law to the proper authorities, and follow up in writing to document the complaint should you need to use it later in court. If it becomes clear TRS knows the checks are forgeries but insists on bullying you for payment, seek the assistance of a consumer protection attorney. Try www.naca.net
You are being identified specifically, even though the account is not yours, because your name was intentionally put on the check knowing that you were a real person who would be connected with it since your address is close to that of the actual account owner.
The criminal may have been depending on creating just enough confusion in check verification to allow the scheme to run a little longer before the merchant knew he had been taken, by crossing your name with the neighbor's account number.
Or they might have thought they could avoid conviction on the "aggrevated" enhancement.
Or maybe they are just meth heads, so logic is not part of their thought processes anymore.
TeleCheck is reporting agency other than the big 3 credit reporting agencies, but still covered under FCRA. FCRA requires that they must provide you with a copy of your file with them, and they must accept and investigate disputed information.
TRS Recovery Services is a debt collector, so they are covered under FDCPA.
ttp://www.faughnan.com/checkforgery.html
"TeleCheck Recovery Services, Inc
Their correspondence is unpleasant. Their letters don't tell you how to indicate that the check was forged, you have to wade through their voice mail.
Contact numbers:
713-567-0499: general number. If you hit 0 at the first prompt you can get a human. If you follow the standard menu you get a recording on where to send your materials (see affidavit of forgery). They insist you get your own affidavit, they don't provide any.
800-710-9898: fraud office.
..."
and that it was not valed and that i had a returned Check fee of $30.00 dollars and the outstanding check blance of $169.92 but i dont write checks over $100 at walmart and and i went to my local wal mart to check
and they said that they had no record of this and that i should report this to the police and i was also asked to send a new check in to TRS for
$169.92 so i called TRS and they asked me for my personal info. but i dindt give it over the phone and now im going to go to my local sherif's office
URL: www.5identitytheftprotection.com