Fraudulent Verizon Bill
Complaint
Larry F.
Country: United States
I received a letter from Afni Inc. claiming I have an unpaid bill from Verizon from 1995. It's 12 years ago. I've been with Verizon for the past 7 years, and never missed a bill, and certainly was not their client 12 years ago.
The phone number listed on the notice is not familiar to me. I called Afni, and a recording told me to give them my credit card number to settle the debt, and would not give me a real person to talk to.
This bill also never appeared on my credit report. I seriously doubt It's my debt. I searched the internet and found many complaints on Afni. I strongly suspect that it might be a fraud, because I don't recognize any information they gave me about this bill.
The phone number listed on the notice is not familiar to me. I called Afni, and a recording told me to give them my credit card number to settle the debt, and would not give me a real person to talk to.
This bill also never appeared on my credit report. I seriously doubt It's my debt. I searched the internet and found many complaints on Afni. I strongly suspect that it might be a fraud, because I don't recognize any information they gave me about this bill.
Comments
My husband is in the military, so I get to deal with his credit report stuff. AFNI is actually the 3rd or 4th company tagging his records with a $308 collection for BellSouth since June 2006. We get it off and the next collection agency puts it back on. So beware, AFNI may not be the end of the line for this nightmare we share. Unlike most, we did not receive any collection notices from any of the agencies, just the negative item showing up on his report over and over again; new agency, same debt for an address in Miami and an account opened in 2005. We haven't been in or near Miami since 1987!! It started with an FPL electric bill first, but that one was resolved after one try. As a result of this mess we weren't able to refinance before the housing crisis and are now stuck!!
I am sending a complaint to the IL Atty General and the FTC, since BellSouth, now AT&T, is partially to blame.
Thanks Tom
As you are finding, merely disputing the erroneous reporting just gets it removed with no consequence to the perpetrator, and sold off to another debt collector who re-posts it. That could go on forever.
With legal assistance, you may be able to catch the debt collector in FDCPA and FCRA violations that allow you to use the threat of their liability for damages to negotiate permanent retirement of this debt which refuses to die, even if someone else actually owes it. To do that, you have to make the current holder want to see that it never gets resold, since apparently it always comes back to roost on your credit reports, not whoever opened it. If the account information is actually similar to your identification, you may even be able to file an id theft claim to assist you, so that you can use FACTA to force the credit reporting agencies to block it.
Get an attorney to hold their feet to the fire.
The Minnesota Attorney General recently sued them. Here is the press release on the lawsuit.
http://www.ag.state.mn.us/Consumer/PressRelease/080715AfniInc.asp
Here are reports from 2 ex-AFNI employees on what AFNI is doing to produce so many complaints from consumers who claim that AFNI is trying to collect on unowed bogus debts.
http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/353/RipOff0353689.htm
Don't waste your time calling them. Communicate only in writing, with all letters send certified return receipt requested. Keep good records of all communications, with copies of all letters, as you may need a paper trail showing your disputes and their responses if you have to sue them.
Pull all 3 credit reports to see if they are also putting erroneous negative information on the others.
Send a letter to AFNI disputing their erroneous account information on your credit report(s) as not your debt, and requesting that they send validation (proof) of the alleged debt obtained from the original creditor, with proof that you are the correct person owing it.
When you get the green cards back, or confirm their receipt via the USPS website, dispute the accounts with the credit reporting agencies, in writing, indicating that they are not your accounts. Also dispute the bad address indicating you never lived at that address. If AFNI "verifies" the erroneous information to the credit reporting agency, or continues to attempt to collect the erroneous debt from you, file complaints with FTC, your state AG, and the Illinois Attorney General,
Attempt to obtain credit to see if you are denied due to their negligently reported erroneous information, in order to prove they have damaged you. Then contact a consumer protection attorney in your state to look into suing them for the FDCPA violations due to continued collection without validation, and the FCRA violations for willful or negligent posting of erroneous credit information. If you are successful, both FDCPA and FCRA allow a court to direct them to pay your attorneys fees, on top of damages.
Lesson? Just because an intimidating letter arrives in the mail doesn't mean you owe it. Monitor your credit and fight back if you need to!! Remember that these collection companies buy old debt (and God knows what else) for pennies on the dollar. Any recovery they can get is pure profit for them, and intimidation and the threat of ruining your credit is how they get their way...if you let them.
Have the Blomington Police actually been helpful in dealing with telephone deception by AFNI employees?
Is it worthless to try and contact T-mobile about that account to find out further information.
thanks
In the mean time, contact T-Mobile (perhaps their fraud department) to determine if your name and identity is actually associated with the original account number (which would indicate id theft in opening a T-Mobile account, or whether there is even such a T-Mobile account number. Also ask if there is any account number under your name or SSN.
If there actually is a fraudulently opened account, you would proceed to make a police complaint for id theft, obtain a copy of that police report, and use that plus a fraud affidavit to suppress any illegitimate credit reporting and demand business records on the fraudulent account from T-Mobile and AFNI. See information on id theft and the FACTA amendments to FCRA on the ftc.gov site.
If AFNI is trying to con you, having this information from T-Mobile will allow you to call AFNI's bluff should they claim it's your account because your SSN is on it, or should they deceptively claim it must be id theft, they don't have to give you any information but you have to prove you don't owe it or pay them. Knowing there is no T-Mobile account under your name and SSN will allow you to file complaints with FTC or state AGs against AFNI, and sue, should they make those deceptive claims.
Alltel or Verizon. Just wanted to pass this along. I have also sent a note to our Attorney General (NC) Roy Cooper about this.
Most recently another company Allied Interstate, Inc. has been calling my home phone about a debt (they won't say anything about it) just that I need to call a certain toll free number to discuss it.
We need to put a stop to this somehow. I have my number on the national do-not-call list but it is apparently not stopping these people. Keep up the good work people. Let's let the world know about these scams.
https://complaintwire.org/Complaint.aspx/VDYr ... LCAAYAQjNRUK19Q
when you get a collection notice from afni, encore and there is one other,
DO NOT RESPOND!. DO NOT CALL THEM!. when you see where they say" wrer offering you a discount of say, 70% to make a setelment on the anoubt owed of $79.99. it"s fraud!. you call your attorney general right! away!.
you also calll the federal trade commision at 877382-4357. all of you on this complaint board shoule call the ftc. they need to get two or three hand full of the same complaints in order to build up a patern of she same
scam.
year around christmas witch is when they try to make money. there a fraud.
dont let them scare you in to beleaveing that you owe money. call your attorney general RIGHT AWAY! AND THE FTC.
http://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=1684833789902616911
"...
CONCLUSION
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.
..."
If you are having problems with AFNI attempting to collect on an unowed "debt", get an attorney with experience in FDCPA and FCRA litigation. You might try www.naca.net
That is a good idea in any case.
AFNI does collect on both assigned and bought debt both from DirectTV and Verizon, however, there are many complaints indicating that they may be making "errors".
Do you believe you actually have an outstanding amount of $1240.00 owed to Verizon?
There are many complaints indicating problems with AFNI collecting on Verizon accounts, including collection of amounts that do not match Verizon's own records. Some appear to be collection on earlier but later paid statements prior to a final paid statement, or collection of unowed amounts resulting from corrected billing errors.
That would be a very high phone bill for a residence or cell phone even with no payments, as service would normally have been cut off before it got that high.
It may be consistent with either a mix-up with a commercial account, or with a failure by Verizon to disconnect billing for service when termination is requested. In one case, a consumer reported receiving a bill for thousands, that was eventually traced to a WonderBread account.
Other complaints have reported cases where people transferred accounts from their name to others when they moved out of a house, but AFNI shows up claiming their name is still on the account. Although this might be a Verizon screw-up, there are also a number of complaints consistent with AFNI concocting altered bills substituting former billing names, or even using names of residents traceable to an address years earlier. They are known to use Accurint to skip-trace, which would give them access to long lists of possible former or later residents to any address.
For example, one complaint reports that they sent a bill for a phone booth outside a trailer park office, run by some phone booth company, and billed it to the manager of trailer park, claiming he owed it. The only connection was that the service address of the phone booth matched the address of the office, so some AFNI employee would have had to go to some trouble to come up with such a bogus bill.
Many complaints report that on attempting to obtain proof of alleged debts or resolve errors, AFNI employees attempted to con consumers into paying alleged debts without disputing suspect amounts as allowed by federal law, often by implying that they had no right to dispute or obtain any proof the debt was owed.
FDCPA gives you the right to dispute and request that they obtain and send you proof of the alleged debt from Verizon. Do so, IN WRITING, mailed certified, return receipt requested, so that you have proof they received it.
Do not dispute or communicate through their websites, as that leaves you with no proof outside of their control that you disputed or requested validation, making it difficult to prove violations of FDCPA.
AFNI's own letters claiming they "verified the debt" cannot be relied upon, as they may be producing them to avoid obtaining proof from Verizon which might refute their claim. In a recent class action lawsuit, they were caught routinely sending deceptive letters, in response to disputes, that implied that they had no obligation to investigate anything and implying the consumer had to dispove the alleged debt.
If they continue to harass you over a debt that isn't yours, and provide no proof you owe it, file complaints with FTC and your state Attorney General, and find a consumer attorney to consider suing for violations of FDCPA. FDCPA allows courts to award actual and statutory damages and attorney fees, so you should be able to find an attorney to take such cases on contingency. You might try www.naca.net