Afni BBB report, 5-18-07, 3 of 3, continued: "The Bureau processed a total of 594 complaints about this company in the last 36 months, our standard reporting period. Of the total of 594 complaints closed in 36 months, 376 were closed in the last year. Contract Issues BBB Definition: Contract Issues - Claim of alleged failure to honor contract or agreement, work performed without authorization, or invalid contract. Resolved BBB Definition: Resolved - The company resolved the complaint issues. 2 - Company addressed the complaint issues. The consumer failed to acknowledge acceptance to the BBB. Administratively Closed BBB Definition: Administratively Closed - The BBB determined that the complaint could not be satisfactorily settled using standard methods of voluntary dispute resolution 1 - BBB determined the company made a reasonable offer to resolve the issues, but the consumer did not accept the offer. Billing or Collection Issues BBB Definition: Billing or Collection Issues - Claim alleging billing errors, unauthorized charges, or questionable collection practices. Resolved BBB Definition: Resolved - The company resolved the complaint issues. 77 - Company resolved BBB Definition: resolved - The company resolved the complaint issues. the complaint issues. The consumer acknowledged acceptance to the BBB. 4 - Company offered a partial (less than 100%) settlement which the consumer accepted. 127 - Company offered a partial (less than 100%) settlement which the consumer failed to acknowledge acceptance to the BBB. 237 - Company addressed the complaint issues. The consumer failed to acknowledge acceptance to the BBB. Administratively Closed BBB Definition: Administratively Closed - The BBB determined that the complaint could not be satisfactorily settled using standard methods of voluntary dispute resolution 64 - BBB determined that despite the company's reasonable effort to address complaint issues, the consumer remained dissatisfied. 16 - BBB determined the company provided proper verification that indicated there was no obligation to resolve the issues of the complaint. 52 - BBB determined the company made a reasonable offer to resolve the issues, but the consumer did not accept the offer. Sales Practice Issues BBB Definition: Sales Practice Issues - Claims of alleged sales presentations made in person or by telephone that contain misrepresentations of the product or service, high pressure sales practices, failure to disclose key conditions of the offer, and verbal representations not consistent with written contractual terms or agreements. Resolved BBB Definition: Resolved - The company resolved the complaint issues. 1 - Company addressed the complaint issues. The consumer failed to acknowledge acceptance to the BBB. Administratively Closed BBB Definition: Administratively Closed - The BBB determined that the complaint could not be satisfactorily settled using standard methods of voluntary dispute resolution 1 - BBB determined that despite the company's reasonable effort to address complaint issues, the consumer remained dissatisfied. Service Issues BBB Definition: Service Issues - Claims of alleged delay in completing service, failure to provide promised service, inferior quality of provided service, or damaged merchandise as a result of delivery service. Resolved BBB Definition: Resolved - The company resolved the complaint issues. 4 - Company addressed the complaint issues. The consumer failed to acknowledge acceptance to the BBB. 1 - Company offered a partial (less than 100%) settlement which the consumer failed to acknowledge acceptance to the BBB. Administratively Closed BBB Definition: Administratively Closed - The BBB determined that the complaint could not be satisfactorily settled using standard methods of voluntary dispute resolution 1 - BBB determined that despite the company's reasonable effort to address complaint issues, the consumer remained dissatisfied. Customer Service Issues BBB Definition: Service Issues - Claims of alleged delay in completing service, failure to provide promised service, inferior quality of provided service, or damaged merchandise as a result of delivery service. BBB Definition: Customer Service Issues - Claims alleging unsatisfactory customer service, including personnel's failure to provide assistance in a timely manner, failure to address or respond to customer dissatisfaction, unavailability for customer support, and/or inappropriate behavior or attitude exhibited by company staff. Resolved BBB Definition: Resolved - The company resolved the complaint issues. 1 - Company resolved BBB Definition: resolved - The company resolved the complaint issues. the complaint issues. The consumer acknowledged acceptance to the BBB. 1 - Company offered a partial (less than 100%) settlement which the consumer accepted. 2 - Company addressed the complaint issues. The consumer failed to acknowledge acceptance to the BBB. Refund or Exchange Issues BBB Definition: Refund or Exchange Issues - Claim of alleged failure to honor company policy or verbal commitment to provide refunds, exchanges, or credit for products or services. Resolved BBB Definition: Resolved - The company resolved the complaint issues. 1 - Company addressed the complaint issues. The consumer failed to acknowledge acceptance to the BBB. Issue Not Defined Resolved BBB Definition: Resolved - The company resolved the complaint issues. 1 - Company addressed the complaint issues. The consumer failed to acknowledge acceptance to the BBB. Licensing This company is in an industry that may require licensing, bonding or registration in order to lawfully do business. The Bureau encourages you to check with the appropriate agency to be certain any requirements are currently being met. These agencies may include: Department of Professional Regulation 320 West Washington Street, Third Floor Springfield, IL 62786 (217) 785-0800 www.idfpr.com/ Additional Addresses P.O. Box 3097 Bloomington, IL 61702 P.O. Box 3427 Bloomington, IL 61702 ..." <end of report, except for generic "Industry Tips">
Note that: 1) Afni is now a member of BBB, rated "satisfactory". Up til now, they were not a member, and no rating was listed, although a consumer had reported about a month ago that an Afni employee claimed they were a member, when the BBB site did not confirm that. 2) General information on their various call center sites has been added. 3) Their only listed mailing addresses are now P.O. Boxes; the 404 Brock Rd address has been removed. 4) They are supposedly part of some BBB "arbitration" dispute resolution program called BBBOnLine. It would appear that they are under pressure to appear responsive and get their complaint rates down. Since they have just joined BBB, and are shown as "satisfactory", this pressure is not likely from BBB, but more likely from FTC or IL AG. Their agreeing to BBBOnLine arbitration may be an attempt to keep consumer BBB complaints from becoming regulatory complaints. The surge of complaints since the beginning of 2007 may have put them at some risk. Recent consumer complaints, however, in the last several days, still claim consumers are receiving collection bills for accounts that are NOT theirs. Alternatively, they may view the BBB membership seal, and "BBBOnLine Reliability" stamp, as useful in maintaining their collection credibility against the hundreds of Internet consumer reports that they are engaged in fraud or are running a scam. There is ample indication of Afni employees attempting to do damage control in responding to complaints and reports on various forums, but these appear to be individual responses, not a concerted, organized response, and have been rebutted by other replies. In addition, the high numbers of BBB complaints showing that consumers have rejected Afni offers of less than 100% settlement are consistent with the many consumer complaints of having their dispute that the account is NOT EVEN THEIRS answered with Afni "special offers" to settle for payment of ONLY HALF, while evading validation. Yet BBB scores these as "resolved", and "satisfactory", not that Afni is billing the wrong consumer. BBB might buy that if Afni has the consumer's SSN, it means it is their account, but most consumers know when they never had an account and think it's fraud, suspecting Afni more than "id theft". They are clearly "above the radar". Updated BBB report statistics: 14 more BBB complaints closed since last updated 24 days ago, on 4-24-07. That makes 135 since 2-26-07, for 135 per 79 days, or 1.7 per day, a rate of about 51 per month averaged over that period. The average over the last 24 days is 0.58 per day, or about 17.5 per month, still far above the 2 per month prior to 2007. We are approaching the 5 month mark since the upsurge in AFNI complaints, and the rate is still high, but dropping slightly. Note that estimating recent BBB complaints from BBB counts "in the last year" tends to underestimate the true number of recent complaints, as old complaints drop out of the count. So far that has been a minor effect, since a year ago the complaint rate was on the order of 2 per month. That should result in underestimating recent complaint rates by about 3%. "The Bureau processed a total of 594 complaints about this company in the last 36 months, our standard reporting period. Of the total of 594 complaints closed in 36 months, 376 were closed in the last year."
Fraudulent account, police report filed and sent to Verizon, determined by Verizon to be fraudulent and not the responsibility of this consumer 5 years ago, yet Afni is attempting to collect on it anyway. Recent sale of known fraudulent account by Verizon, in violation of FACTA: "§ 615..Requirements on users of consumer reports [15 U.S.C.§ 1681m ] ... (f)Prohibition on Sale or Transfer of Debt Caused by Identity Theft (1)In general.No person shall sell,transfer for consideration,or place for collection a debt that such person has been notified under section 605B has resulted from identity theft." Deceptive collection. There are consistent consumer complaints that when Afni is informed by a consumer that an original creditor has verified that no outstanding debt exists, they still push for collecting the alleged debt, discrediting the original creditor. Verizon should have received enough consumer complaints about their partner Afni to have concluded that it is affecting their own business. It may be that Afni's recent BBB membership is driven by issues with Verizon, which would be a more immediate threat to business than even regulatory interest. http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/ripoff249232.htm "Submitted: 5/18/2007 2:02:04 PM Modified: 5/18/2007 2:02:00 PM Afni Trying to collect on a Fraudulent Account ripoff Bloomington Illinois Company Afni Address: PO Box 3097 Bloomington Illinois 61702 U.S.A. Phone Number: 877-403-0670 Fax: In June 2002 I tried to open up an account with Verizon for a landline for my first apartment. I found out that there was another account in my name that had a $621.00 outstanding balance. This number was for a town that I have never lived in. I filed a fraud report with Verizon and a police report in the town that the number was in. Verizon determined it to be fraud. Now 5 years later, i receive a collection notice from Afni, Inc saying that if I don't pay it within 30 days,it will go on my credit report. Afni informed me that they have been a client of Verizon for 60 years and that they are the only telecommunications collection agency in the US. They also tried to tell me that there is no statue of limitation on this kind of debt. all of this i know to be false, because i did my research. I called Verizon and at first they could not even locate this account or the fraud report that i filed. Finally they found it, but could not pull up any of the details of the account. I complained to them about Afni and the rep told me that they have had many complaints about this company about their treatment to consumers and about Afni trying to collect on fraudulent accounts. When i asked her why they still use a company with such a horrible reputation, she could give me no answer. Each rep that i spoke with at Afni gave me different information and were extremely rude. They did not care that there was a fraud report filed with Verizon 5 years ago! One rep told me that they were the third collection agency to own this account and another rep told me that they purchased this account directly from Verizon on 4/30/07! The supervisor kept telling me that Verizon was lying to me and did not understand why i would not give him any personal information and did not trust him. Last time I spoke with Verizon they were going to contact their fraud dept and do some investigating and i faxed Afni a letter requesting validation. I do not know what else to do! Katie wilmington, North Carolina"
Another attempt to collect an alleged debt not owed by this consumer. Usual Afni crap. http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/ripoff248288.htm "Submitted: 5/11/2007 2:52:03 PM Modified: 5/11/2007 2:52:00 PM Afni doesnt listen nor care that the bill may be erroneous. Mercenary tactics. Bloomington Illinois Company Afni, Inc. Address: PO Box 3427 Bloomington Illinois 61702 U.S.A. Phone Number: 866-307-9197 Fax: Verizon sapparently sold thousands of old accounts from as far back as 15 years ago to Afni. Verizon kept no records that could be of potential help, and are as culpable as Afni. Afni is a ruthless company employing terror tactics to get paid. My bill was 12 yrs old and from an address in a state I never lived in. Not my bill, but Verizon who initiated this process maintained no roecords that could help me prove this. Further, I asked Verizon why they didn't address this billing issue 10, 7 or even 3 years after the disconnection. Their answer was-"we don't have that information anymore" you must talk to the 'jihadi's at Afni. Kj Royersford, Pennsylvania U.S.A."
Another attempt to collect an alleged Verizon debt. Not owed by this consumer. Never lived at service address of the alleged account. Never even lived in area code region of the account. Past SOL. Past 7 year reporting period. Not much to support "id theft", as only link to account appears to be name match against old name. More likely account belonged to someone else with same name. Indications of erroneous "skip-tracing", possibly thru Accurint, since they had both old name, and current address which would be under new name. Afni attempted to direct consumer to "dispute" thru their web site. Consumer has concluded this is a scam, filed a complaint with FTC, and contacted a local news station. Since consumer believes this is a scam, they are hardly likely to want to enter a "dispute" thru Afni's website, which would require confirming their SSN, nor would they want to send the various items of identification that Afni is reported to request in response to any dispute. http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/3894/page/8 "1 days ago by Red Afni.Inc sent me 2 separate notices on May 12, 2007. It says the original creditor is Verizon New York Inc for disconnected phone numbers 718-847-8797 and 718-847-8849 with dues of 713.10$ and 669.364 respectively. I called Afni the following day to dispute the charges and further investigated. I spoke to a girl named Amber. She gave me information that the address of this number is 9524 114th St Richmond Hill, NY 14119. The disconnected numbers were in the same residence with 2 telephone lines and was activated in January of 1998. She offered to help me dispute this provided that I log on to the www.afnicollections.com and enter my complaint. I asked her, how is this going to be different from complaining to the FTC? She didn't have an answer for it and returned to promoting their website. I asked her that after my call and notification that these were false charges, what is going to happen to my account in their database? She said, they are going to note that I made a call but still should go to the website to file a formal complaint. I have never lived in a 718 area code but I am curious how they got my old name and current address. I filed a complaint to the www.ftc.gov and also sent the story to our local news station as they have segments on scams and frauds. They have both confirmed receipt of my message. I hope tracking down these people won't fizzle out. I'll bug afni again with and see if I can get their business license and record my call. Here's the information on my letter: Afni Inc POB 3427 Bloomington, IL 61702-3427 888-257-1585 www.afnicollections.com "
Attempt to collect debt not owed by consumer. http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/ripoff249630.htm "Submitted: 5/21/2007 10:41:03 PM Modified: 5/21/2007 10:41:00 PM Afni Collections - verizon trying to collect a debt on a phone bill that i never had ripoff Bloomington Illinois Company Afni Collections - verizon Address: Po Box 3427 Bloomington Illinois 61702 U.S.A. Phone Number: 866-3070283 Fax: I have been recieving letters from afni collections stating that I owe on a phone bill from verizon. which i no not remember having. Then today I got a letter saying that they will accept half of the amout due in order to close the account. Misty central, Indiana U.S.A."
Terms of BBB "binding arbitration" program that Afni has agreed to take part in: http://www.dr.bbb.org/ComSenseAlt/bindArb.asp Terms do not appear to allow for even available remedies under FDCPA or FCRA, such as statutory damages, even for blatantly obtaining credit reports without permissible purpose, that might be obtainable in the lowest small claims court. Although you may use an attorney to represent you, arbitration terms do not allow for awarding of attorney's fees as specifically provided for in FDCPA or FCRA. It also rules out any risk of class actions. In addition, since arbitration only applies to what both sides agree to be arbitrated, it is not clear what benefit, if any, this provides to the consumer in resolving these cases of attempts at collection of debts not actually owed. There is NO product or payment for a product to compensate for. In short, arbitration is a poor forum to try to resolve a dispute involving multiple violations of state and federal law, instead of merchant/consumer disputes over products.
This part of FCRA/FACTA is particularly interesting, and applies in the case of "id theft" once the victim has provided a debt collector with copies of id, police report, and theft affidavit. Although the most direct manner to deal with false debt allegations is probably still to dispute and request validation timely, should you proceed to claiming id theft, you might as well use it to full advantage. Note that the id theft victim has the dispute and validation request rights to request the information that a normal consumer could request with regard to a debt, but that there is NO 30 day limit on when this can be requested. In particular, the debt collector must provide this information to the id theft victim even though the account or debt is now alleged to have been opened by someone else. In other words, id thieves do not have a right to non-disclosure to others of account details of accounts they created, nor may debt collectors use the normal prohibitions against third party disclosure to confound the id theft victim's dispute process, as was commonly done. The debt collector DOES NOT GET TO WALK AWAY from disclosing account details on receiving a dispute with id theft affidavit, as they can with a normal validation request, which only requires them to stop collection until they validate, if they ever do. In short, although Afni has appeared to use questionable skip-tracing to put consumers in a dilemma regarding filing an id theft report, once a consumer has done so, they may be able to assert FACTA rights to force Afni, or even Verizon, to disclose all business records available on the account, which might even disclose that the original account was not even in this consumer's name or SSN, perhaps uncovering proof that credit report pulls were without reasonable permissible purpose, or SSNs were obtained from sources other than the account information and used for deceptive collection. On asserting id theft, FACTA is a license to fish that is not available thru the normal FDCPA validation process short of discovery. If the debt collector fails to cooperate, sue the "John Doe" id thief, and subpoena the debt collector's records under FACTA, rather like what RIAA does for download pirates. Afni's own assertion that your SSN is attached to an account at some other address is the evidence that the id theft provisions of FACTA apply, and their assertions that they have "pulled up the records on your account, and it shows your name and address on the bill" is evidence that they have in their possession business records obtainable thru FACTA, even though they may later be proved to be false and deceptive. "§ 615..Requirements on users of consumer reports [15 U.S.C.§ 1681m ] ... (g) Debt collector communications concerning identity theft.If a person acting as a debt collector (as that term is defined in title VIII)on behalf of a third party that is a creditor or other user of a consumer report is notified that any information relating to a debt that the person is attempting to collect may be fraudulent or may be the result of identity theft,that person shall-- (1) notify the third party that the information may be fraudulent or may be the result of identity theft;and (2) upon request of the consumer to whom the debt purportedly relates, provide to the consumer all information to which the consumer would otherwise be entitled if the consumer were not a victim of identity theft, but wished to dispute the debt under provisions of law applicable to that person."
Another debt discharged in bankruptcy shows up as an Afni collection account. http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/3894/page/8 "1 hours 12 minutes ago by Catherine Mayo I have gotten to the bottom of my Afni collection notification! They are sending this after I have filed bankruptcy years ago! I should not even have this charge... my bankruptcy has been discharged! I think they waited for a way to get around it to now say... OH LOOK AT WHAT YOU OWE US! YES YOU ARE SCAMMERS! FRAUDS! I have filed and have been cleared by bankruptcy many many years ago, which means whatever I owed the company should have been discharged! YOU PEOPLE ARE THE TRUE THIEVES!!! "
