Is this company REAL?
Complaint
deja
Country: United States
I live in washington state and recently recieved a letter from afni demanding the payment of $246.67 (or a SPECIAL discounted amount of $197.34). I make several payments to other agencies every month and am very aware of my debts. I was struggling to figure out what exactly I could have "forgotten" about in that amount. When I called afni they asked to verify the last two digits of my social number. I have never been asked for just the last "two" numbers, and then I proceed to explain to her that the last name on the letter they is one letter off of my four letter last name.(They replaced the F with an S). She told me it must be a typo. The town I live in is also part of a two -part street name. She insisted I had lived on and obtained either: cable, internet, or home phone service at through verizon. I explained that I have never lived on this road and that the last name was incorrect and finally that I had never even had anykind of service other then a pre-paid cell phone through verizon. She immediatly changed her tone with me and asked if I was saying I was a victom of identity theft...I said I had no idea and proceeded to ask for the date of this supposed bill..She then told me it was March of 2008. I explained I was in a confined area and no possibilities of being able to aquire a bill from anyone and could provide documentation. She then gave me verizons number which I called and they said they had nothing with my name or social or any record of any bill being sent to collections. I asked what i should do and they told me if I cant supply more info then there is nothing I can do?? So do I respond to the letter from afni or what??? The afni lady also told me she could not give me the info again that she had just so freely given me and that verizon should have it all in there claim??? I dont understand??? from lost in washington
Comments
That is their racket. They buy old telecom debt, including a lot of Verizon accounts since they are also their outsourced customer service, and then send bills to anyone with a similar name that they can find. They also put negative marks on consumers' credit reports, whether they mad a "mistake" or not.
When people call to find out about some supposed "debt" they have no knowledge of, they put barriers in the way of disputing it, such as making suggestions about why you might actually owe some debt you never heard of, or claiming "it must be id theft", or even "must be id theft by a relative", which is one of their favorites. Then they will pile a bunch of "fraud documentation" chores on you, and offer a "discount" on this debt you don't even owe, hoping you will give up and pay them anyway. On a 2008 account, they are probably dinging your credit.
They pulled so much of this con in 2007 that Verizon and AFNI shot to the top 2 companies mentioned in connection with consumer "id theft" complaints to FTC, in one analysis of FTC id theft complaint data. They were far ahead of any other debt collector, probably due to their practice of "suggesting" that consumers had to dispute their bogus bills as "id theft" or pay them, just like you found.
Use of deception by debt collectors to collect debts is already prohibited by FDCPA, yet she has already deceived you in several subtle ways.
1) She has attempted to convince you that their skip-trace error is "id theft".
2) She has attempted to convince you that you either have to pay it or prove it is id theft, when the law places the burden of proof on them.
3) She has attempted to "helpfully" refer you to Verizon, who she already knows will give you minimal information (and nothing in writing) to contest their bogus bill.
4) She then told you she could not give you any information again, again implying the burden of proof what on you, while denying you any documented information you could use to get to the bottom of this "error".
The goal is to deny you any effective way to dispute their bogus debt, even though FDCPA gives you the right to do just that. Their initial letter is required by law (FDCPA) to notify you that unless you dispute in 30 days, they will assume the debt is valid, yet they have convinced you that YOU have to disprove it even to dispute, with no access to information to do so, implying they have no obligation to provide proof. That is the commonly reported pattern of their deception.
They were sued by the Minnesota Attorney General; in 2008 for billing Minnesota consumers for unowed debts (allegedly also from Verizon) and refusing to investigate disputes. After settling with the MN AG, they got into trouble again in 2010, this time over unowed Qwest accounts, and the MN AG is again investigating them. Currently, they have had to put all Qwest collection in MN on hold.
http://www.startribune.com/local/92589329.html?page=1&c=y
"...
In 2008, Swanson sued Afni after consumers complained the company had harassed them and improperly reported debts to credit bureaus. Afni settled the case by agreeing to stop collection efforts once the company determined it had the wrong person.
Afni's recent efforts to collect on the Qwest debts have unleashed a "significant number" of new complaints, according to the attorney general's office. Swanson sent letters last month to Qwest and Afni asking that they stop collection efforts on the Minnesota accounts until the companies straighten out their records.
..."
They were sued in a federal class action lawsuit in 2008, Hale v. AFNI, for sending deceptive letters in response to FDCPA dispute and validation requests from consumers. In a recent decision, the federal judge in that case found that AFNI was liable under FDCPA since their letter was "false, misleading, or deceptive".
http://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=2 ... _sdt=2&as_vis=1
"...
The Court finds that AFNI's statements in its form letter are "false, misleading, or deceptive" in violation of 15 U.S.C. § 1692e, and AFNI is not entitled to assert the bona fide error defense under 15 U.S.C. § 1692k(c). Accordingly, Plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment on the issue of liability under § 1692e of the FDCPA is GRANTED and Defendant's motion for summary judgment is DENIED.
..."
Send them a letter, mailed certified, disputing the debt, and demanding that they send you proof that you owe it obtained from the original creditor (Verizon). If you send this letter within 30 days of receiving their first letter, according to FDCPA they MUST cease all collection activity until they send you proof.
You already know you do not owe this, and you have already checked with Verizon and verified there is no account under your name or SSN. Beware that they have been reported to send "proof" consisting of nothing more than their own letter "verifying" the creditor's name and amount. Treat such a response as fraudulent, and file complaints with the Washington Attorney General, the Illinois Attorney General, and FTC.
Then find an attorney in Washington with experience in FDCPA and FCRA litigation, and sue them. FDCPA allows for awarding of statutory damages, and both laws allow the court to award actual damages and attorney fees if you win.
Do not waste your time with a BBB complaint, since they are paying BBB to maintain their "pristine" A+ rating, and even got BBB to remove the earlier posted notice of the MN AG litigation.
You can find attorneys practicing in this area of law through:
www.naca.net
They were the attorneys in the above 3 state class action lawsuit, Hale v. AFNI.
Note that the judge's reasoning on the false and deceptive nature of AFNI's "cannot investigate" letter would appear to apply similarly to "validation" with a statement that clearly failed to prove any debt was owed.
http://www.topclassactions.com/lawsuit-settle ... -action-lawsuit
However, since "collection" includes reporting to or verifying credit report information, you want to dispute with the debt collector first, within 30 days of first contact letter, to invoke the FDCPA prohibition against collection without validation, before you dispute through the CRA.
Ideally, you would have disputed and requested proof from AFNI first, and on confirmation with the Post Office that they got your letter, you would have then disputed through the CRA ("Credit Reporting Agency" or credit bureau, Experian, Equifax, or TransUnion).
That way, they would already have received your timely FDCOA dispute (within 30 days of receiving their first dunning letter), and their erroneous "verification" of the bad credit report entry would have been an FDCPA violation for "continued collection" without sending validation, on top of the FCRA violation for verifying inaccurate reported information.
Regardless, send a second written dispute to the CRA, indicating that AFNI has "verified" inaccurate information that they have failed to prove in response to your dispute to them. Send a copy of your AFNI dispute letter to with the CRA dispute, along with a copy of the certified receipt, and demand that they remove it.
You will probably still get the run-around from the CRA, but assuming you get another CRA reply indicating AFNI isn't removing it, contact your state Attorney General to file a complaint, providing copies of all communications. An AG complaint often gets AFNI errors removed. (Although they may claim it's "only as a courtesy". Removal is a win, regardless of what they say.)
If that doesn't get it resolved, contact a consumer attorney. You will have enough documentation to sue under FDCPA and FCRA, for actual and statutory damages, and both allow for attorney fees if you win, so you should be able to find an attorney to take such cases on contingency. You might try www.naca.net