AFNI FRAUD HOW TO DEAL WITH THEM

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• 0

  tj

  29 Aug 2009

  AFNI handles Verizon's outsourced customer service, as well as collectoin of Verizon owned accounts.
  
  What appears to be happening is that when Verizon sells old accounts (such as those they purchased through their mergers with other telecom companies), they transfer the whole database to AFNI.  That includes not only accounts that may have balances, but also accounts that may have been written off by the original telecom company in correcting customer billing errors.  In other words, AFNI gets account data even on accounts that have no amount owing.  
  
  One of Verizon's PR hacks, in an interview, once claimed Verizon scrubs the database of paid accounts, but with a little Google searching you can find MANY complaints of paid and closed accounts being transferred as "bad debts", often where Verizon or the original telecom had resolved a billing issue when the account was still active.  There are even reports of accounts supposedly marked by Verizon's fraud department as not owed due to id theft and fraud, that still end up being transferred.
  
  Numerous consumer complaints indicate AFNI then proceeds to send out bills on ANY account they have an excuse to claim an amount "might be" owed, and to ANY person they might have an excuse to claim "might owe" it.  That results in numerous bills going to people who owe nothing, who might only have similar names, might once have lived at the address associated with an account, or where the account might have once had an outstanding balance so that the information got transferred.  A study of a 3 month sample of FTC complaint data from 2007 found Verizon and AFNI topping the FTC's list of companies associated with consumer "id theft" complaints
  
  In some cases of confusion among family members with similar names, there are reports indicating that AFNI has sent bills to the wrong person, but manage to "fix" the SSN and DOB so that identity information provided to callers as supposedly associated with the account is correct for who they are erroneously billing, but the original account statements were never in that person's name.  
  
  There are consumer reports that on reviewing their credit reports following receiving an erroneous bill from AFNI, they found that AFNI had pulled their credit reports 6 to 9 months earlier.  Other reports indicate that AFNI pulls past resident information from skip-trace databases, probably including Accurint, using it to bill past residents of an address who might not have ever been on an account.  
  
  AFNI employees have been reported to engage in debates with angry callers about where they lived, or who lived in houses with them, often making ridiculous errors when whatever sloppy skip-tracing they applied matches the wrong person, or they claim someone lived at an address years off from when they actually lived there.
  
  The main common factors in questionable AFNI debt collection, as noted in statements from the office of the Minnesota Attorney General, who sued them in July of 2008, appears to be billing the wrong people or billing for unowed debts, and evading consumer requests for validation, that might have promptly resolved even incompetent misidentification before additional damage was done to innocent consumers.

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  tj

  29 Aug 2009

  Years ago, during the investigation and termination of CAMCO (a debt collector also located in Illinois), consumers and ex-employees offered a look at how information from search databases such as Accurint could be used to con or intimidate their victims.  It is worth another look at how easy this is.
  
  http://creditboards.com/forums/lofiversion/index.php/t68556.html
  
  "...
  Christmas 2003, and the phone rings at John Hancock's Florida home.
  
  The curt voice on the other end of the line informs him he owes $844 on a check card from May 1985 and needs to pay immediately.
  
  Prankster, Hancock mutters, and hangs up.
  
  Moments later his phone rings again.
  
  "This is no joke," a CAMCO representative says. "You owe us this money."
  
  But I wasn't even living in the United States at that time, Hancock says. That debt can't be mine.
  
  The rep rattles off Hancock's address, birth date and Social Security number. After a few minutes of back-and-forth, his tone suddenly changes.
  
  "Why don't you just get your credit card out, pay it off and get us off your back," the rep says. "This debt is yours, just admit it. Otherwise this will ruin your credit report, and next time you'll be hearing from our lawyer."
  
  "You're out of your mind," Hancock says, and hangs up.
  
  The company calls three more times during the next two weeks and then the phone calls stop. A form letter arrives the first week of January. It's the last Hancock hears from the company.
  
  What eats at him, he says, is not the claim that he owes hundreds of dollars of 20-year-old debt, but the fact that someone tried to use his personal information to bully him into paying.
  
  "It seems to me like an open market for scam artists," Hancock said. "How did they get that kind of information?"
  ...
  A year later, October 2003, and Elizabeth Cobb begins receiving cryptic phone calls at her Houston home -- unidentified callers leaving an unfamiliar number. A letter arrives a few weeks later telling her she owes a company called CAMCO almost $4,000.
  
  Confused, she calls the company in Rockford, where a collector tells her the debt is from 1989 on a furniture company's credit card. Cobb, who maintains she never had such a credit card, asks the collector for more information.
  
  He can't provide a company name, account number or date of last activity, but he does have Cobb's Social Security number -- and that sets off warning bells.
  
  "They can't give me a straight answer on this debt," Cobb said. "But they keep calling and harassing every Saturday at 8 a.m. They tell me that I need to pay this amount or they're going to sue me.
  
  "I feel like I'm not protected enough (by existing laws) that a company like this can get my personal information and use it to ruin my peace of mind."
  ...
  The FTC estimates CAMCO has collected $20 million from consumers in at least each of the past three years, more than 80 percent of that money from people who never owed in the first place but were browbeaten into paying anyway.
  
  Former employees describe using a sophisticated computer program called Accurint, which provides such detailed information as a person's date of birth, phone number, Social Security number and three most recent addresses. Employees type a name into Accurint, and a list of people with that name or a similar name across the country pops up. From there, it's whoever collectors can harass into paying.
  
  Mike Perez, who worked at CAMCO from March to December 2003, told of a bill he once had for a Victor Colozzi in Syracuse, N.Y. The company couldn't locate anyone with that name, but Accurint did spit out the name of Victoria Colozzi. When Perez called, he "noticed she sounded very old, so we changed the name on the bill from Victor to Victoria."
  
  "When you're dealing with older people, especially older people who have a deceased spouse, their memory doesn�t work too well with what they had in the past. They get something in the mail and call about it," Perez said.
  
  "They hear someone saying their Social Security benefits are being looked into, their home is being looked into ... when you've got all this thrown at you and there's someone talking sly on the phone, you're forced to pay."
  ...
  
  In 2003, Paul Russell in Costa Mesa, Calif., receives a letter from CAMCO confirming he has paid his debt in full. Russell knows he had some outstanding debt a decade ago, so when CAMCO called him six months earlier telling him he owed $1,800 on a 12-year-old Wells Fargo credit card, he thought the company could have the right guy.
  
  Russell wanted more information; the company couldn't provide any but told Russell he could settle the debt for $600. On good faith, he agreed and set his checking account up to automatically send CAMCO $100 for six months.
  
  Whew, done with that, Russell thinks, looking at the letter.
  In early 2004 his phone rings again. It's CAMCO, looking for a Paulette A. Russell.
  
  Paulette is Russell's mother's name, but she doesn't have a middle initial. Paul Russell's middle initial is "A".
  
  Russell doesn't mention his mother but tells the company nobody by that name lives there. He also tells the rep he has already settled a debt with the company last year and tries to hang up.
  
  "Oh wait, you're who we're looking for," the rep says.
  
  The rep then tells him that for $500, he can take care of an $1,800 debt from 1991. Again, the rep can't give Russell an account number or any detailed information. Angry, Russell hangs up.
  
  His mother calls later that night, asking if he's ever heard of a company called CAMCO. A rep just called her, she says, claiming she owes the same $1,800.
  
  In calls to both him and his mother, Russell said, the company threatened to report them to major credit bureaus.
  
  "If I had known better earlier, I wouldn't have paid them a dime," he said.
  ..."
  
  
  Note that it is the pattern of mistakes that show what they are really doing.

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  tj

  29 Aug 2009

  The above quote is from an article in the Rockford Register Star.  There were a series of articles at the time CAMCO was being investigated.
  
  "Story of CAMCO: A 'company gone wild'
  
  By SARAH ROBERTS, Rockford Register Star
  ..."

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  tj

  29 Aug 2009

  FTC Memorandum in support of FTC's request for TRO against CAMCO.
  Examples of violations of FDCPA and FTC Act by a debt collector.
  
  http://www.ftc.gov/os/caselist/camco/041208trosupbriefcamco.pdf
  
  "...
  CAMCO's collectors routinely threaten consumers with criminal action if they do not pay.6 Consumers are frequently told that they will be arrested unless they pay CAMCO.~ Thecollectors state that failure to pay constitutes fraud, is a felony or a "federal offense. "'
  Consumers are told that CAMCO has some special relationship with the government, sometimes claiming that they are working with the police, suggesting that the govemment will pursue criminal remedies if the supposed debts are not repaid.9 Of course, none of these statements by
  CAMCO collectors is true.
  
  2. False Claims of Civil Court Remedies
  CAMCO's most frequent tactic seems to be having its collectors threaten consumers with phony lawsuits. Consumers are told that CAMCO will sue them, garnish their wages, obtain an injunction, attach their assets andlor put liens on their home, automobiles, or other property.I0
  CAMCO's collectors often claim to be govemment authorities calling fi-om the local courthouse, or claim to be attorneys or working for attorneys." Consumers are told of other consumers who were supposedly sued by CAMCO under similar circumstance^.'^
  
  Not surprisingly, CAMCO rarely, if ever, sues cons~mers.'B~e cause most or all of the debts they are seeking to recover are either beyond the statute of limitations,I4 were discharged in bankruptcy,I5 or were never incurred by the cons~mers,s'~uc h lawsuits undoubtedly would be unsuccessful.
  
  Further, since CAMCO has little or no documentation to support the contention that any of its supposed debts were ever incurred in the first place,I7 it is unlikely CAMCO would even be able to meet its prima-facie burden in the rare cases for whch its debts are valid.'"
  
  When consumers raise these issues with CAMCO's collectors, the collectors simply lie about the legal remedies available. Consumers are told that statutes of limitation never run or do not apply to these debts.19 Some collectors told consumers that it was irrelevant if the consumer had repaid or otherwise satisfied the original creditor, that the debt was somehow revived when CAMCO purchased it.20 Similarly, CAMCO's collectors tell consumers that their credit card debts were not, or could not be, discharged in bankr~ptcy.~'
  
  3. Credit Reports and Credit Rating
  In addition to threatening consumers falsely with draconian legal action, CAMCO's collectors also attempt to coerce consumers into paying CAMCO by falsely warning consumers that their credit will be ruined if the debt is not paid." The collectors tell consumers that CAMCO will accomplish this by malung repeated inquiries on the consumers' credit report, or that CAMCO's purchase of the debt means it will go back on the consumers' credit report.'3 As with their threats of criminal and civil lawsuits, CAMCO's collectors often tell consumers that CAMCO's supposed special relationshp with the federal government or credit reporting agencies gives CAMCO a special ability to destroy the consumers' credit, or misrepresents its purpose, sometimes claiming that CAMCO is a "pro-consumer acquisition companyn which is only interested in helping to improve the consumers' credit.'^
  
  In fact, CAMCO rarely, if ever, reports anything to credit reporting agencies." The underlying debts are almost always too old to be reported on the consumers' credit reports or have been discharged in bankruptcy. Section 605(aj of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (TCRAIfj prohibits consumer reporting agencies to report debts that were discharged in bankruptcy or are more than seven years old.
  ...
  CAMCO similarly ignores requests by consumers to verify the alleged debts.36  Consumers are often told that CAMCO has no procedure for verification or that they can only get verification after they pay the debt.37 Even when they send purported verifications, the verifications merely confirm that CAMCO purchased a debt, often from another collection
  agency, and never provide any information supporting the existence of an underlying debt.38

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  ANONYMOUS

  16 Oct 2009

  DO NOT TRUST ANYONE NOR ANYTHING SAID ON THE INTERNET THEY COULD BE DOING THIS TO PROTECT THEM JUST DEAL WITH IT AND GET EVIDENCE OF THEM SAYING YOU OWE'D MONEY ON A ACCOUNT THAT NEVER EXISTED BOOM....SUED....BAM....NO MORE AFNI

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  aZ

  17 Oct 2009

  Few items of concern:
  
  1/    Does anyone know if QWEST AND AFNI are connected ?  In other words, if AFNI is just a branch/sister company of QWEST designated to collect their debits ?
  
  2/    BE VERY CAREFUL......FRAUD WAS COMMITTED WHEN QWEST attached my SS# to another person w/ my same name back in 2003.   Didn't realize this until recently when a Qwest rep. informed me of this fact.
  
  Interesting to learn Qwest pulled off such FRAUD w/out my knowledge.  Never would have discovered this if AFNI had not begun trying to collect this other person's bad debts most recently from me.
  
  Any others out here having this experience w/ Qwest sharing their SS#'s ...or, more importantly, have you asked them ?????

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  tj

  19 Oct 2009

  Telecom security has been lax for years.  They don't adequately prevent id theft or fraud, because the marginal costs of their losses are low ocmpared with what it would cost them to employ tighter security.  The result is that telecom is probably the main industry feeding fraudulent accounts to debt collectors, which then spill over into the lives of honest consumers.
  
  Id theft is a direct result of the manner in which the credit reporting agencies handle identification information.  They "fix" errors, matching slightly different names or even SSNs onto an existing identity.  They even allow multiple identities to use the same SSN, just creating a different file even though the SSN is the same.  This person has not bad credit, even if they have no credit, so now other creditors will open accounts using the same borrowed SSN.  Later, if accounts go bad, debt collectors who can't find one identity using the SSN just go after the original.
  
  File a police complaint for id theft, then get a copy to use to block reporting of the fraudulent account on your credit reports, collection by debt collectors, etc.
  
  See the FTC site for details on id theft under FACTA.
  
  Also, under fACTA as an id theft victim you have a right to the business records on the account, including all records that a consumer could request if the account were legitimate.  You ARE NOT LIMITED TO 30 DAYS from receiving their first collection notice to request this information from either QWEST or AFNI under FACTA.  Id theft victims seldom find out until years later, and FACTA provides for that.  It also requires that debt collectors and credit reporting agencies take required actions within limited time periods when id theft victims dispute fraudulent accounts.
  
  AFNI is obligated under federa law (FACTA), as well as various state laws, including Illinois law, to properly handle id theft cases.  
  
  If you have problems get an attorney.  Both FDCPA and FCRA allow courts to award attorney fees, so you may be able to find an attorney to handle this on contingency.

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  bob

  30 Jan 2010

  Just got a letter today from AFNI. I thought I'd investigate it first on-line since I've never had an account with Verizon. Sure enough, I should've known this was a scam. This thread has been useful. Thank you.

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  tj

  26 Feb 2010

  Immediately send a letter, certified return receipt requested, disputing the debt.  If you send this within 30 days of receiving your first letter from a debt collector, they are prohibited from continued collection activity until they obtain proof from the original creditor and send it to you.
  
  Beware of fabricated "proof" not from the original creditor, lacking in identification information that would normally show whether or not it is actually your debt.  Copies of normal statements from the original creditor would show the name on the account, the account number, the billing address at the time, the date, and other usual billing information.  Witholding of such information normally obtainable from the original creditor may indicate an attempt to deceive you into paying someone else's debt.

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  kevin

  3 Mar 2010

  Just recieved a letter from AFNI.  Saying that QWEST had a bill and they were trying to collect on it.  Qwest bill is in Arizona and i have never been there.  And haven't used QWEST since 1998. SCAM.  I'm sending my dispute letter tomorrow.
   Nice to see I am not the only one.

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  I'm not stupid...

  6 Mar 2010

  AFNI sent a letter claiming a QWEST debt, but sent it to my mother-in-laws new home, She's only lived there a year. I haven't used Qwest in five years.  Called Qwest myself and I do not owe them any money on my old account from that time.
  
  What a scam, now I have to spend my time and postage to deal with it.  I'll be reporting to my DA, this company needs some corrective action.

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  tj

  8 Apr 2010

  They don't appear to make any real attempt to determine who actually owes the old junk debts they collect on.  Just mail out demands to anyone they can find with some similar name, and try to convince the confused callers that they must have "forgotten" about an old bill.  
  
  Numerous complaints report AFNI employees offering "suggestions" of what some unknown debt must be, even giving a glimps into AFNI's training of their employees in this tactic.  
  
  Other complaints report AFNI employees trying to frame improbable debts as "obviously id theft", while playing up the difficulty for the consumer to prove it, as they offer a "half-off" deal if the consumer will only pay it right away, "before it affects your credit".  A review of a sample of FTC id theft complaints in 2007 found AFNI as the number 2 company connected to FTC id theft complaints, way higher than any other debt collector.  Number 1?  Verizon, the source of most of the old "accounts" AFNI was collecting on during this period.
  
  Complaints also show a pattern of deceptively attempting to convince consumers that they bear the responsibility of proving they don't owe it, rather than what FDCPA says, that AFNI must send proof if requested or cease collection.  
  
  For example, see this recent court decision in Hale v. AFNI, where Judge Coar found letters AFNI sent in reply to validation requests to be deceptive:
  http://www.allbusiness.com/legal/trial-procedure-judges/13841443-1.html
  
  The combination of mailing demand letters to anyone, then deceptively deflecting validation requests, amounts to a con game.

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  RT

  16 Apr 2010

  I am now having an issue with AFNI about an account with QWEST.  I had to look up QWEST to see what they do as I have never had any account with them.  To make matters more confusing when I called Experian to dispute the collection I also disputed an additional name on my account and was informed that the additional name was associated with the collection.  Confused as I have used the same name for over 50 years and never used any other, I could not understand where the name game from and how it ended up on my credit report.  I disputed both and the outcome in about one week was reviewed and updated.  Not deleted.  I talked to QWEST and they have no record of me or the other name - no surprise.  Contact with AFNI was a waste.  Have sent a certified letter to them with the response form QWEST.  Has anyone successfully sued this people.  If everyone is having this kind of trouble why hasn't something been done by the appropriate agencies?  Where is our protection from crooks like AFNI?

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  tj

  16 Apr 2010

  They have been successfully sued many times, including several class actions.  (See, for example, Seeger et al v. AFNI).
  
  The Minnesota Attorney General sued them in 2008.  Probably still winding it's way through the court schedule, but you might call them and ask.
  
  Edelman & Combs (Chicago) has a class action lawsuit against them in federal district court (Hale v. AFNI), covering residents of three states receiving a reply letter to their validation requests.  A recent decision by the judge in that case found that their routinely sent reply letters to requests for validation, that said they could not investigate the disputed account until the consumer sent a bunch of additional information, were deceptive and in violation of FDCPA.
  
  Many consumer complaints indicate that consumers often don't have a clue what the alleged account is about.was about.  AFNI appears to be sending demand letters to any person they can locate who might be convinced to pay their old junk accounts, with no attempt first to locate the correct alleged debtor.  They show up in one study of FTC id theft complaints as the #2 company associated with such complaints, and the #1 debt collector, in a sample of 2007 FTC complaints.

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  tj

  17 Apr 2010

  As you discovered, the other name on your report came from AFNI's reporting of their "erroneous" account.  You dispute the phony name, as you disputed the phony account, and AFNI "verified" rather than removing it.  They are also reported to "fix" information they claim is associated with their old junk "accounts", making sure it correctly matches SSN or address information of people they are sending their demand letters to when that information may have been missing or different.
  
  For example, see this ex-employee report:
  http://www.ripoffreport.com/Collection-Agency-s/AFNI-Inc/afni-inc-they-insist-i-have-an-f5q2q.htm
  
  They are also frequently reported to keep even obviously erroneous bad debts on credit reports even when disputed.  But your credit report dispute was their opportunity to remove their "error" without liability.  They have now "verified" the error, which allows you to sue them under FCRA for the damage they are causing.  Watch for creditors lowering your credit limits, or closing accounts "due to information obtained from a review of your credit report".  Try applying for a credit card, and see if you get turned down.  Those events would indicate "damages".
  
  You are ready to find an attorney and sue them.  You might try www.naca.net

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  tj

  17 Apr 2010

  Note in the bar chart how FTC consumer "identity theft" complaint counts mentioning either AFNI or Verizon jump absurdly from 2006 to 2007.  No other companies show this massive jump.
  
  Note the erroneous headline, implying that Verizon has seen some massive jump in identity theft activity.  If that were the case, if Verizon actually saw a 2.5X increase in fraudulent accounts, they would be freaking out and it would have made all the financial press.  It didn't happen.
  
  These are not real Verizon id theft cases.  These are consumers reporting "id theft" to FTC, and that the companies connected to the account are Verizon and AFNI.  Note that they both rise by about the same ratio.
  
  2007 was the year that AFNI started collecting on millions of old "bad debt" they bought from Verizon.  As you can find from reviewing many posted consumer complaints, they send demand letters to anyone they can find with a similar name, and when confused consumers call, their employees tell them "it must be identity theft, so either fill out our fraud packet, or pay us anyway".  
  
  AFNI's deceptive collection tactics have skewed 2007 FTC id theft statistics for both Verizon and AFNI, boosting AFNI from the bottom of the top 25 in this study, where all the other debt collectors are, to #2, right below Verizon's jump to #1.
  
  
  http://consumerist.com/2008/07/verizon-was-th ... ms-in-2007.html

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  tj

  17 Apr 2010

  You can get the original study, here.  In this report, Chris thinks the AFNI/Verizon jump reflects real identity theft.  In a sense it does, as AFNI associates real consumers' identities with their unknown identity accounts.
  
  http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1152082

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  Just curious...

  17 May 2010

  To the ones who got the afni collection letter,
  
  Was it addressed to your name correctly? Because mine had only my initials, nevermind I never had
  an account with Verizon and the last name the agency used is no longer mine?
  So grossssssss!

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  tj

  17 May 2010

  That is consistent with reports that they are just finding any name similar to something on an old account, and sending their "collection" letters to anyone they find, with no real attempt to identify the correct debtor.  
  
  Who knows how many people they bill for the same "debt"?

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  tj

  19 May 2010

  Note this report from an ex-employee:
  
  http://www.ripoffreport.com/Collection-Agency-s/AFNI-Inc/afni-inc-they-insist-i-have-an-f5q2q.htm
  
  "...
  Well, that is what the account is "supposed" to have, anyway. In reality the account will usually only have a partial name. By "partial name" I mean often times "very" partial. John Andrew Smith becomes J Smith on the account. Or perhaps John A. Or even the old "J". Yes folks, that is right, and I have personally seen this a multitude of times. The account can even have no name at all. Rather heartwarming, isn't it? When asking my supervisor what to do when I encountered this, I was given the answer: "*pause*.... yeah, why not, I mean...*shrug*" Yes, that is a literal and accurate quote of the body language and words issued from my supervisor. I can glady say that, no, I did not collect on the account in question. In fact, I can very gladly say I did nothing seedy for that company. I suppose I just have a certain sense of... morality. However, continuing on: most accounts will not have a social security number for verification. In fact, most accounts have very little information at all. They usually do not have the billing phone #. They may not (50% of time) have the service address. They will almost always have the billing address, seeing as how that's where we sent the bill. Oh, and before I forget, they will almost never (1% of time) have any kind of bill copies or actual "proof" you owe the bill.
  ..."

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