RPM trying to collect a fake debt
Complaint
JP
Country: United States
On 4 Apr 08 I got a call from Receivables Performance Management (RPM) claiming that I owe $85 on a Verizon account from 2000. I know that I’ve never had a Verizon account, and that my phone account from 2000 (I forget which company) was paid properly. So I told the RPM rep that they were full of s**t, and that I wanted written proof that this debt is actually mine. They had the last 4 of my SSN and tried to pass that off as “proof” that their info was legitimate. I still didn’t fall for it and asked for everything in writing.
Fortunately I have records that go back that far. I also called Verizon to confirm that they don’t have any account information with my name on it. Surprisingly they have no record of me ever having an account with them. I then went online to find out if RPM is some sort of scam. They are a “legitimate” company, yet seem to be practicing what I would describe as predatory debt collection, or legal extortion. Unfortunately, there is not much information on the internet yet about RPM. However, there is a lot of information about AFNI, who seem to be doing the same thing.
So, after I found this web page, and read all of the information about AFNI, I downloaded the FDCPA and FCRA and read them. I’m sending RPM a letter in accordance with the FDCPA. I’m also sending the letter to my state’s AG and the WA state AG. (RPM is located in Bothell WA.) I also checked all of my credit reports to make sure that nothing has been placed on them. I’ll continue to monitor my credit reports very closely for the next few months. As this develops I’ll update this comment.
I’m considering contacting a lawyer to see if what RPM is doing is in any way actually extortion. It’s a crime that the max penalty under FDCPA and FCRA is only $1000 or actual damages. Obviously that small amount isn’t enough of an incentive to keep these companies from violating the law. I’m also going to contact my Congressmen about this. Maybe if enough of us complain the law can get changed?
Oh, and a huge thanks to the poster on this site TJ! His information and advice was invaluable!!
Fortunately I have records that go back that far. I also called Verizon to confirm that they don’t have any account information with my name on it. Surprisingly they have no record of me ever having an account with them. I then went online to find out if RPM is some sort of scam. They are a “legitimate” company, yet seem to be practicing what I would describe as predatory debt collection, or legal extortion. Unfortunately, there is not much information on the internet yet about RPM. However, there is a lot of information about AFNI, who seem to be doing the same thing.
So, after I found this web page, and read all of the information about AFNI, I downloaded the FDCPA and FCRA and read them. I’m sending RPM a letter in accordance with the FDCPA. I’m also sending the letter to my state’s AG and the WA state AG. (RPM is located in Bothell WA.) I also checked all of my credit reports to make sure that nothing has been placed on them. I’ll continue to monitor my credit reports very closely for the next few months. As this develops I’ll update this comment.
I’m considering contacting a lawyer to see if what RPM is doing is in any way actually extortion. It’s a crime that the max penalty under FDCPA and FCRA is only $1000 or actual damages. Obviously that small amount isn’t enough of an incentive to keep these companies from violating the law. I’m also going to contact my Congressmen about this. Maybe if enough of us complain the law can get changed?
Oh, and a huge thanks to the poster on this site TJ! His information and advice was invaluable!!
Comments
You are a double fool if you buy that mortgage.
No one's going to protect you from being a fool.
http://seattle.citysearch.com/profile/3497226 ... ctions_inc.html
Looks like you do medical collections. If you want to stay in that business, you should be both polite and professional, as you are in effect an extention of your medical client's billing department, and have to deal with all the insurance billing problems inherent in that business. You can end up violating FDCPA on a debt that isn't even legally owed at all, due to insurance contracts out of your control but binding on your client. That leaves you no settlement leverage should someone decide to sue you.
Your phone number complaints are showing shill posts, probably by your coworkers. This is usually associated with reports of deceptive and abusive collections, possibly resulting in fraud, as it implies an active attempt to persuade through deception.
Some posts are reporting that your callers are "guessing" and calling people at random, with no skip-trace identification confirmed. With medical accounts this could result in HIPPA violations.
Some reports of attempting to add unauthorized additional fees.
Some of your employees are posting deceptively incorrect medical liability "information", attempting to undermine the contractual obligations between your client and the insurance company.
Posts reporting they deceptively imply they are suing, without literally saying so. Technically violates FDCPA, due to deceptive collection.
https://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-425-793-3172
I've seen worse, but your attitude shows up in other complaints against you. Cowboy debt collectors don't do well by their clients in medical collections.
I informed them on the first few calls that the number they had called was a wrong number and a cell phone as well.
The numbers I received calls from were the following:
- 314-627-5652
- 757-990-8973
- 301-882-9950
- 571-261-0047
- 703-291-9039
While the majority of these calls were either missed by me or were hang-ups as soon as I answered, I don't have specific knowledge that all of these numbers are RPM. However, a minimum of time spent doing reverse number lookups and reading comments posted by people called by these numbers indicated that all of these numbers had been used by RPM.
A week ago, I finally got someone on the line calling back the last number that had called me after nearly a month of trying and getting no answer or busy signals. The person identified themselves as "RPM". When I gave them my name and number and inquired why I was being called, they hung up. When I immediately called back, a different individual answered, took my name and number, said it "was a mistake, please disregard the calls" (!). I received another call from them less than two hours later, from the same number.
I reported RPM via complaints to the following agencies:
Federal Trade Commission (FDCPA violations - http://www.ftc.gov/os/statutes/fdcpajump.shtm)
Federal Communications Commission (telephone harassment - http://esupport.fcc.gov/complaints.htm)
Better Business Bureau of Alaska Oregon and Western Washington (poor business practices - case number 22300414 - http://alaskaoregonwesternwashington.bbb.org/consumers/)
Office of the Washington Attorney General, Rob McKenna (http://www.atg.wa.gov/)
I used the following information from their website -
http://www.receivablesperformance.com/
Mailing Address:
Receivables Performance Management
Attn: Payment Dispute/Inquiry
20816 44th Ave W.
Lynnwood, WA 98036
Postal Address:
PO Box 1548
Lynnwood, WA 98036
Telephone and Fax:
Phone: 1-866-212-7408
Fax: 425-412-2543
I hope collecting all this information in a single location will help someone to locate resources for dealing with companies that like to skirt the line of legality and occasionally cross it when they think no one is looking. They just happened to pick on the wrong guy; I *like* to complain, and am pretty good at it.
To those at RPM that have posted here - I highly recommend that you find another job. It is only a matter of time before RPM is called out on their poor business practices, whether some or all of the debts they collect on are legitimate or not - their practices are shady enough that, with the right volume of complaints, one of the agencies above will take exception and take action. *My* credit rating is excellent. I'm retired military, I pay my bills, and I intensely resent the implication that I don't. And what's more, "just ignoring" daily calls to my cell phone as an acceptable solution? I don't effing think so. My solution is to do everything in my power as an individual American comsumer to complain until your company closes its doors.
You might find a consumer attorney in your state through www.naca.net
Quit making excuses.
FDCPA requires compliance with dispute and validation procedures, and requires that you refrain from abusive, harassing, or deceptive collection.
Complaints against this company indicate poor compliance with FDCPA, including repeated harassing calls of the wrong people, failures to remove erroneously called numbers from autodialeer call lists, and attempts to collect on unowed debt, whether from the wrong people or on already paid debt.
When people tell you to stop calling them, stop calling them. When they question whether the debt is valid, they are disputing it. Provide your address, and tell them to send a dispute and validation letter, in accordance with FDCPA, rather than make up excuses.
Anything else is just game playing, possibly leading to fraud.
You have told them to cease calling, they should cease calling.
File complaints with FTC, your state Attorney General, and the Washington Attorney General.
If they continue calling, send them a letter, certified, notifying them to cease their harassing calls, as the parties they are trying to reach have no connection to your phone number. If they continue harassing you, you might look into suing for violations of FDCPA and TCPA.
They pull public records and buy junk data from magazine subscriptions and mailing lists, merge it all together in one big database, then sift through it based on maybe just name information or common addrsses, so you could look like a "relative" of anyone who ever before or since got mail at an address you once lived at.
As several reporters have found, a lot of it is junk, and you might find that supposedly you are "related" to your ex-girlfriend's dog, or "own" several properties you know nothing about. It's sold with no guarantees, and intended to be used with some "intelligence". Garbage in, garbage out.
Although debt collectors may contact others to locate some alleged debtor, they are prohibited by FDCPA from disclosing anything about the alleged debt to any third parties without permission.
What they often do, is locate neighbors and call them "to leave a message" claiming they are trying to locate the debtor, even if they have already been in communications with the debtor and know how to contact them. Since the purpose is NOT to locate, but to embarass and harass by disclosing, this is illegal, but they hide behind the pretense of obtaining "location information". Sometimes they might say you were "used as a reference", even when there is no reason the debtor would do so.
They depend on the difficulty of proving the violation (plausible deniability), particularly when the others contacted have no real reason to get involved in assisting the damaged party in a lawsuit.
It's an industry that benefits from deception, so it collects liars.