Last year I got a letter from AFNI, they said that I had a Cingular Acct., I did not, never had. I hadn't heard of this board until after I had paid alot of stuff off. I called Cingular, today, they do not have record of me every having a Cingular acct, they transferred me to AT&T and they never had me in the system. I was told by the AT&T rep to get AFNI to give me an Acct number (they had one on their letter), and a mobile number. They screwed me, I was dumb for paying it without getting it valudated. I didn;t know. What can I do now? Is it too late?
So you already paid it off? If so, what you can do is understand your mistake and never pay a CA again without validation.
How much money is involved? You may have been dumb, but under the law, the consumer is not assumed to be legally sophisticated. Debt collectors are required to notify consumers of their right to dispute debts they are collecting. Did they send you a letter, as required by FDCPA, notifying you of your right to dispute? Can you obtain letters from the original carriers documenting that you do not have unpaid accounts with them? It is not uncommon for cell phone accounts to be opened fraudulently thru identity theft. In fact, this appears to be a common use for stolen identity information by identity thieves since a lot of "value" can be obtained in a short period of time with little risk to the thief. It is also not uncommon for cell phone debts to be sold off for collection, and for them to be collected from the wrong party, either due to identity theft, or due to misidentification of the debtor. Regarding AFNI collection of possibly fraudulent cell phone bills, see: http://www.9wsyr.com/news/yournews/...ntent_id=DDEF28D7-DF52-4000-90D4-BFA5A255E766 http://www.steveberlin.net/ARCHIVES/2005_03_27_archive.html http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/ripoff146214.htm http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/ripoff153251.htm
Thanks for the info! I also searched the people that finance my vehicle as I am going through with them too.
The most effective way to ensure good credit is to check out any potential transaction, and the lender involved, before you do it. If a lender has shown that they do not bill or report accurately, or engages in any other unfair practice, regardless of their promised terms, you don't need them.
