parking ticket
Complaint
Tb
Country: United States
i got a call while ironically vacationing in ft myers from NRC stating I had a $45 unpaid parking ticket from 2003 in ft lauderdale. I did live in Fl. At the time but really! 9 years later you want to collect $45 for a parking ticket I never got in the first place. They sounded shady and they are.they won't be getting a dime from me they can call all they want!
Comments
The absence of that, even though you may have been in Florida at the time, may be an indicator that NRA is trying to skip-trace the collection, perhaps on approximate name alone combined with a FL address, "guessing" who might owe it.
The fact that they contacted you while vacationing (presumably on your cell phone) is itself an indication they are using skip-tracing to find you.
If the ticket was in Ft. Lauderdale, but you seldom went there, that would be another indicator of a probable erroneous skip-trace.
That process may be error-prone, and although debt collectors always claim they are "accurate", they often try to convince the people they contact by mistake to pay anyway, which is fraudulent.
Do you have a common last name?
Although there may be some old parking ticket, they might also just be guessing that you owe it, maybe skip-tracing on name alone tied to area. They have a history of such skip-tracing and "guessing" along with complaints of deceptive collection when they "guess" wrong. In particular, they have a long history of complaints of deceptive and fraudulent collection in connection with old shady BMG/Columbia House accounts, including numerous complaints of deceptive collection and credit damage against people who never even bought from Columbia House. They are set up to do cheap "nuisance" collection, even when they target the wrong people.
NRA is a debt collector.. As such, they are subject to FDCPA, even though this may be a ticket originally owed to some government entity. Once they have first contacted you, they have 5 days to send a letter required by FDCPA to notify you of an alleged debt, including notifying you that you have a right to dispute and request validation.
If they do so, make sure you dispute the alleged debt and request validation within 30 days of receiving their letter, as that invokes the FDCPA prohibition against continued collection without validation.
Also, if you find they have pulled one of your credit reports, you should know that there is case law that obtaining credit reports in connection with collection of debts that were not the result of a consumer credit transaction may not have "permissible purpose", and may be in violation of FCRA, for which you could sue them.
You might contact Ft. Lauderdale directly to see if there is actually any outstanding ticket against your car, as this debt collector has a history of deceptive collection, and may be trying to "erroneously" collect a ticket you do not even owe.
This can sometimes happen if either you sold to a private party, or the car was sold through auction, and the buyer either didn't or couldn't insure and register, perhaps because they were an illegal alien, had a suspended license, etc. Some of these people buy used cars with time on their tags, drive them unregistered, then just leave them somewhere.
Your filing of a release of liability with the department of motor vehicles would make you legally not liable for tickets or any other responsibility for the car after the date you file, which might explain why a city in Florida wouldn't come after you for a parking ticket, but a sleazy debt collector might still try to pin the ticket on you based on the records of last registration, and they might use half-truths or other deception to convince you to pay when you aren't even liable.
A copy of the ticket, showing the date, location, and license plate number, would easily resolve the matter. If NRA evades obtaining and sending that, it may be an indicator they know or suspect you don't even owe this, and believe that sending you a copy of the ticket would only prove it. That would suggest an attempt to deceive and defraud.