Justia is way cool! Now I can look up and see who else is suing the CA that's giving me an 80-pt pain in the credit score.
Another consumer report, that after repeated disputing thru BBB over Afni's failure to send validation, the "validation" they finally sent does not appear to be obtained and forwarded from the original creditor, and does not appear to include any validation of the identity of the consumer they were billing against the OC's records. After sending this, to which the consumer responded with a further BBB complaint, they "closed" the account. http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/3894/page/6 "1 hours 32 minutes ago by Dan Powell You have to fight them! It's a pain but you can resolve it. They are just waiting for you to crumble. I finally got some resolution on this today. I had to go back and forth with the BBB complaint board because Afni would not ned me verification... same situation as everyone else. Afni claimed a debt over 10 years old, for a number that was not mine. Anyway, Afni mailed me "billing statements": a blank spreadsheet with their debt numbers on it. Amazing. Back to the BBB... Today I got a BBB notice from Afni saying how much they want to work with consumers and their concerns... HA... and they closed the account! Done Resolved!!! Of course I will be checking my credit report for postings. So fight it. I had to call in the big guns... but whatever works. Good Luck to everyone else in this horrible situation. "
4 more BBB complaints closed since last updated on 3-19-07. That makes 54 since 2-26-07, for 54 per 23 days, or 2.3 per day, a rate of about 70 per month. The rate is holding quite constant. "The Bureau processed a total of 502 complaints about this company in the last 36 months, our standard reporting period. Of the total of 502 complaints closed in 36 months, 295 were closed in the last year."
This Afni employee at least replied in compliance with FCRA and FDCPA that they would not affect the consumer's credit. Other consumer reports have been that threats have been made to damage credit on long unreportable accounts. The fact that they had in their records an old address does not even mean they obtained that address from the original creditor as the address associated with the account. They appear to be using skip-tracing databases to obtain current addresses of similarly named consumers, and those same databases might show an old address for the current consumer for the time at which the original account was opened. They appear to use any piece of information they might have obtained to imply that the currently dunned consumer was the person that opened the account and hope they pay. Their responses to validation requests have similarly been lame, including continued collection without validation by demanding fraud and id theft reports even as they say they cannot provide any validation, and providing "validation" that appears to have been printed out on plain paper, maybe just on their own printer, with no indication of whether it was obtained from the OC. In general, their tactics appear to be aimed at unsophisticated consumers, designed to spend minimal costs on debt purchase and validation, as they generally cave without providing any credible validation when confronted with either persistent BBB or AG complaints, while denying they have done anything wrong. They do not, however, appear to be taking adequate measures to avoid receiving and profitting from ill-gotten gain, as their standard responses to dispute and validation requests made by consumers under federal law may involve systematic deception and misrepresentations. In most of these reported cases, the initial letter was probably deceptive on its face, in claiming that the consumer to which it was mailed owed this debt when all they had done was run the original account name against some database, and sent letters to any partial match in some region. Reports indicate letters were sent to women under names they had not even used at the time the alleged account was opened (due to marriage), so there could have been NO OC account information tying this account to the currently dunned consumer.
Link to related report: http://consumers.creditnet.com/Discussions/credit-talk/t-afni-trouble-65742.html
5 more BBB complaints closed since last updated on 3-21-07. That makes 59 since 2-26-07, for 59 per 28 days, or 2.1 per day, a rate of about 63 per month. The rate is still holding quite constant. "The Bureau processed a total of 508 complaints about this company in the last 36 months, our standard reporting period. Of the total of 508 complaints closed in 36 months, 300 were closed in the last year"
I am in the same boat as many of you. I have an AFNI account on my credit report, showing I owe for a Cingular account, which I never had. I want/need to validate this debt and was curious if anyone had a good example of a Debt Validation letter you have sent to AFNI in this circumstance. I have never had a Cingular account and want this removed immediately from the CRA's. I have not received a letter to respond to. Am I still able to validate a debt showing on my CR without responding to a letter within 30 days as stated in the FDCPA? I am assuming that would be my first course of action (CRRR). Thank you for any responses.
The best validation letter... Something simple like: "What the heck are you talking about?" i.e. Put your money where your mouth is or versi vice...
" You Address, etc. Date AFNI P.O. Box xxx etc. As shown on the copy enclosed, you have put a Cingular collection account on my credit report. I have never had a Cingular account. I have never received any communications from you, or Cingular, about this alleged debt. What the hell is this? I dispute this debt, and request that you send: 1) the amount of the debt, 2) the name of the creditor to whom the debt is owed, 3) the name and address of the original creditor, 4) validation of this debt, including copies of original applications and statements obtained from the original creditor, or a copy of any judgement, in accordance with FDCPA Sec. 809 (15 USC 1692g) Under FDCPA, you are required to cease all collection until you have done so. s/s You " Include a redacted (blacked out) copy of your credit report showing only their TL. Make a copy of everything for your files, staple the Certified receipt. Send it CRRR. Print out the Certified delivery acknowledgement from the usps.gov site, and staple that, and the returned green card, to your file copy. A week after you get the green card, send in a written dispute of the credit report entry to the CRA that is reporting it, disputing it as "not mine". Send it CRRR, and again keep file copies, Certified receipt, and green card. You might also call Cingular, indicate that you have found an erroneous collection account on your credit report from Afni, and ask if they are showing any accounts under your name or SSN. Afni may claim that despite your claim that it isn't your account, you either have to pay them, or claim it is id theft, file police reports and send them your full identity info. If Cingular finds no account under your name and SSN, it will be clear what they are up to. If you have read this thread, you can see that there are many reports from other consumers that they have send collection letters to the wrong people, and that they evade sending validation. In particular, since the first of the year, their BBB complaint rate has gone from a couple per month to several per day. Most of the reported problems with Afni have involved old accounts too old to report, many apparently old GTE accounts from the mid-1990s sold off by Verizon. Does your credit report show what date this account was opened? Let us know how they respond.
ontrack - Thank you for the reply. This is exactly what I was looking for. Should I include "What the hell is this?" in the letter? I wasn't sure if you were joking. Thanks again for the response.
Your choice, I guess. I just thought it accurately captured an appropriate level of outrage, consistent with the hundreds of complaints from consumers these people have been harassing for debts they don't owe. Anyone receiving a bill for a debt they know they don't owe would be pissed. Anyone receiving hundreds of complaints for the same thing in only a few months should be getting pissed about now, too. Based on their reported response to other timely consumer FDPCA disputes, they are likely to violate FDCPA by continued collection without providing any meaningful validation, so your next steps will be written complaints to FTC, IL AG, BBB, and your state AG. FTC, IL AG, and BBB have probably already received hundreds of consumer complaints against Afni in just the last 3 months. Your endgame will probably be to pass this off to an attorney, since they have put it on your reports. Your letter is written as much for those agencies, and possibly a judge, as it is written for Afni to read. You want it clear that you are disputing and demanding validation, as is your right under FDCPA, so that there is no weasel room for Afni to claim they "misunderstood" you. Any clue on how old they claim this debt is, from what they put on your credit report?
A pretty much useless response from an Afni employee, who assumes that all debts they are collecting on must be legitimate. The striking thing about the complaints against Afni is that probably over 95% of consumers are complaining that they NEVER had the account. This is FAR higher than the usual mix of complaints against debt collectors, where there are usually some who say they owe the debt, but are complaining about other issues. http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/3894/page/6 "1 days ago by Afni employee I happen to find these comments rather humorous, I am an employee with Afni, and have been for over 3 yrs and I know the trainers who train the employees for the collection department personally. I guarantee to anyone who has any type of doubts, that Afni collections is in fact a real company and a real debt collector. Afni was formally known as Anderson Financial Group which just recently celebrated our 70th anniversary. i would just like to notate a few remarks/responses to a few of the comments that were placed. --- REMARK #1 there were remarks about Afni trying to collect an 11yr debt, just an fyi; just because a debt is over 7 yrs old, it doesn't mean that its no longer your responsibility to pay it. Just because its been several years that you owed this company money, the debt just doesn't disappear with time. Actually, after 7 yrs a credit company is unable to garnish your wages and no longer shows on your credit report, but for those of you who feel that just because it doesn't show on your credit report any longer, that you no longer owe it, please look up the definition of a theif. PS- remark about Verizon being GTE, this is correct, if you owed GTE money several years ago, Verizon bought out GTE, so YES you would now owe THEM the money! --- REMARK #2 for the remarks where the consumer has tried to contact the old provider.. if you worked at a call center or a phone company before, you would be aware of this information: When your account is "written off", the current company would no longer have any data on your account. What actually happens is the company sells your debt, which means that YOU wouldn't owe THEM anything any longer. That's right, they got their money, because WE paid them for YOUR debt and YOU would now owe US the debt. You calling your old provider, especially if it was years ago, they wouldn't have anything on you because you no longer belong to them and they don't care if you pay or not because they got their money. ---let me add just one thing to remember before i end my novel... Afni, nor their employees are responsible for your debt, you writing all these remarks refusing to pay your bills and debts will not be hurting afni, you will only be hurting yourselves. why you ask... this is your credit, not ours... the way it works, if we don't collect on your debt, we'll just sell it to another company who will try. so in the end, we get our money... but does YOUR name clear? "
An ex-Afni employee, who again assumes that all consumers complaining about Afni must have owed the debt, and they must be stupid for not being able to remember it. This employee is actually glad they don't work for Afni anymore because they didn't like people accusing them of trying to scam them, but they still think the company is a "real company". http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/3894/page/6 "1 days ago by Big T Wow! I live in Tucson and once worked for afni. Surprise it is a real company and we do collect debts. I also used to receive customer service calls for other companies through afni. It is an outsourcer. Afni collects debts takes customer service calls for issues ranging from cell phone problems to dsl issues. They don't just collect debts. They are a real bonified company and they are not a scam artist. Your ignorance is astounding!!! I find it painful reading some of your posts due to the fact that this country has become so self indulged in catching scam artist that you boners don't realize the scam artist's here are you trying to skip on your debts. I must admit i am glad i do not work for that company anymore and it's not because it is a fake company or because they made me dig through your garbage for your name, address, phone number and last four of your social but because of people like you calling saying that we are scamming you out of your money. If you could manage your debt and bills better you would not have lost track of an account 15 years ago. You have to be some of the most dense people i know. I know if i had debts 8 yrs ago why don't you? Ignorance in this country is high and in this post even higher. Have a great day! "
Having received a letter from Afni, which presumably included the required disclosure of FDCPA rights to dispute and request validation, on an account that was not hers, this consumer, on contacting Afni, was told NOT to send a letter disputing and requesting validation of the debt, but only to handle it thru their on-line system. This employee statement overshadows any legally required notification in their collection letter. This would have sent her on a wild goose chase to prove she didn't live at the address allegedly on the account when at the time she was a minor and probably didn't even have bills for anything, and with nothing in writing from Afni documenting any details of the account to use in proving it wasn't her account. She would have had nothing to document that she had filed any dispute of any sort, and would not have filed a timely validation request. If Afni wants it to, her claim to have disputed at all could have just disappeared, either if they wanted to collect anyway, or if they decided to sell the account. http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/3894/page/6 "14 hours 27 minutes ago by Megan S I received a notice from Afni, Inc. on Monday stated that I owed them over $1000 for a Verizon Maryland, Inc. account. That's funny considering that I've never had an account with Verizon. I called and actually talked to a nice person who kept apologizing and telling me she understood (she must have been new). She looked up the account and gave me the address that it was associated with and I had never heard of it. She said that it was active between 2000-2001. That's also funny because at the time that this "account" was created I was a minor living at home with my parents! She said that I needed to provide documentation that I didn't live at that address at that time. I immediately called my dad and he told me to check my credit reports. I checked the TransUnion one and it was not on there. However, they had accessed my report without my knowledge. I was not able to get the Equifax report online. I hadn't written the original address associated with the account down so I called Afni back. This time I got a stubborn SOB who adamantly and rudely insisted that I SHOULD NOT send them a letter, I should go online and file a fraud report. I went online while still on the phone and did not want to go further since it required the last four digits of my SSN. I told him I would not be putting in my SSN and he said they already had it. I had him verify the number and he would only give me the last four (which is probably all they really have) and it was the same. I punched it in and was sent to a screen to start payment. There was no fraud department that was easily accessible online. I found several complaints about them by doing a simple google search for AFNI. I have since put a fraud alert on my credit reports, filed a report with the FTC and the BBB, and I filed a police report (however I filed the report at about 10pm and when I went to print it out the next morning it was already marked as an inactive case). I sent them a letter registered mail RRR demanding that they validate the debt and informing them of the steps I have already taken. I am getting ready to file complaints with the attorney generals in NC, MD, and IL if they respond unfavorably and I encourage everyone to do the same. "
24 more BBB complaints closed since last updated on 3-26-07. That makes 83 since 2-26-07, for 83 per 33 days, or 2.5 per day, a rate of about 75 per month. The rate is still holding constant, or possibly rising. "The Bureau processed a total of 531 complaints about this company in the last 36 months, our standard reporting period. Of the total of 531 complaints closed in 36 months, 324 were closed in the last year."
There appears to have been an outsourcing relationship between Afni and GTE prior to its acquisition and merger into Verizon: http://www.brainmass.com/content/ota_profile_view.php?ota_id=103921 "Work experience: ... Afni 1997-2000 Fraud Packet Processing Center Representative Assisted GTE Security with the processing of fraud packets by investigating customer claims for validity of information, identifying fraudulent activity, and forwarding appropriate documentation to Security. ..."
More dealilngs with Afni This is truly amazing! I received a letter from AFNI requesting payment for an Alltel bill from 2002 in January. I have no idea what this is all about - never had Alltel! I responded immediately with a request for validation CMRR and guess what . . . . I just received a letter in the maill stating that my dispute can not be resolved due to an insufficient amount of information from me. They are asking for all types of info like the other messages state. As of right now this is not on my credit report - I did notice there is a "Soft" inquiry back in November from Afni. What step do you take since I have received a response from this like this? I guess I can expect this to show up shortly??
They are supposed to validate the debt with the original creditor, not you. Just remember that they can say whatever they want, but that does not make it true. Good luck!
