They say that I owe $705 dollars to the City government here. The problem is that I have never gotten any sort of bill from the city for anything (other than my electric, and that I pay off religiously), nor do I have any property for them to collect property taxes on. The collection agency is “Transworld Systems Inc.”.
The problem is that there is ZERO information about the debt or the alleged creditor other than their name and the amount-nothing about what city department it is from, whether it is a tax or some other fee, or what.
Googling this particular collection agency reveals a lot of stories of unscrupulous and unprofessional behavior on their part…
And Googling my own name and taking a look at some people finder sites, I discovered 4 other people living in this town (Jacksonville) who share my name-my last name is a rather uncommon one, so this surprised me. Apparently these [unmentionables] just simply did the same thing I did, got the addresses for these other four guys, and spammed each of them with identical letters, when only one (maybe none) is responsible.
So…what to do?
I dislike the idea of calling them-if I do, I’ll make sure I have a caller ID blocker for my Android first (recs for same appreciated), because the last thing I need to do is give them my phone number.
I’d get an attorney involved if need be, but they might charge me more than the debt in question for their “services”…
I’d file drawer the infernal thing and forget about it, but I don’t want to see my credit rating take a hit. Am I safe on that score if the debt turns out to not be mine and they don’t have my Social Security number?
Doing nothing over an alleged debt is not a wise strategy.
Why does it matter if ‘They’ get your phone number? (‘They’ already have your address… :eek:)
It is generally recommended that you call them and have them provide you with written verification of the debt. Before you do that, though, you may want to get a copy of your credit report to make sure that credit agencies aren’t reporting any such debt for you.
Might be better to write, since calling only works if the agency has any desire to not be jerks, which is unlikely. He should deny the debt is his, demand evidence of it, and request no more contact unless the evidence is forthcoming.
Getting a copy of the credit report is always a good idea.
Or he can wave his hand at them and say “I am not the debtor you are looking for.”
I agree it’s not wise, but it can still be effective. After changing carriers at one point, T-Mobile sent me a bill I was pretty sure I didn’t owe. I contacted them online inquiring as to why and got no response. I did get another bill from them a couple months later and repeated the inquire-no-response process. I got irritated and ignored them, and ignored the collections agencies they sent after me. Eventually, it showed up on two of the three credit reporting bureaus’ reports on me.
All three credit bureaus have appeals processes (I believe this is required by law), so I appealed it in both cases. I didn’t really have any documentation - I just wrote a paragraph about how I has fully closed my account with T-Mobile, and they never replied to my inquiries as to why they thought I still owed them anything. I guess T-Mobile never responded to them either, because after 60 or 90 days, whatever the timeout is, they responded saying they got no response from the vendor and were removing the item from my credit report.
Not sure what T-Mobile’s issue was - this was a couple years ago before they got a big payout from the failed AT&T merger, and they may just not have had their shit together in any way, shape, or form at that point.
I recently received a dun letter from a collection service stating I owed $137 to Geico insurance. I did have an account with Geico 7-8 years ago when I was still paying my younger son’s insurance, but I was positive I’d closed the account at paid-in-full status.
I refused to call the agency for much the same reasons you did. I don’t want them calling me endlessly for no reason. I took the letter and stopped into the local Geico office. I had been able to find an old insurance document that had my previous account number on it, so I took that along, too. Geico searched their database and found no evidence of an existing unpaid debt on my part. I asked for, and received, a letter stating the same. I sent the letter, along with a cover letter of my own, to the collection service. I didn’t receive a response from them, not that I’d actually expected to. I sent a copy of Geico’s letter to the credit reporting agencies, though, just in case.
That was about 3 months ago now and I’ve not seen anything on my credit report indicating that there is a delinquency to Geico, so I think that took care of the problem.
I’d call the City and see if they even send unpaid bills to a collection agency.
I’ve had friends get letters for unpaid parking tickets and not only did they not have any unpaid tickets, the MVA does not send unpaid anything out to a collection agency.
(Why would they when they can suspend your license or tags?)
One friend got a letter stating she owed $300 on a parking ticket and that if she didn’t pay up they would put a $3000 lien on her house.
Then I’d check to see if the collection agency is licensed to operate in your state. I got a letter from an agency that was not licensed to operate in my state and they owed almost a $1 million to the state in fines.
Sometime after I got the first letter they got licensed in my state and sent me another letter.
Then I sent them a letter asking for proof that I owed the money and the information they sent me was incorrect. I had never heard of the bank they said I owed, and when I called the bank they had no record of me, the account number was in the wrong format, and they have their own collection department. They don’t send anything out to a collection agency and the only way they had heard of the collection agency was because of all the calls they were getting from other people who had received collection letters.
I sent the agency another letter stating I wanted proof of what I owed, that I had never heard of that bank, they had never heard of me, so send me proof or leave me alone.
Never heard back from them.
Collection agencies lie, they just want to make money and they don’t care how get it. If they can intimidate you into paying something they will do it.
It may be my bad attitude but I assume all communication from a collection agency is a scam until they can prove otherwise.
I tried the city, but you must understand that we’re dealing with a huge bureaucracy here with infinitudes of departments. I tried the tax collector’s office first, but they couldn’t help me because, you know, the letter I got had no corroborating information whatsoever. [I don’t ever park in this town where there are parking meters, note.]
I’ll be doing the letter thing, then. Thanks gang.
Many months after a hospital stay, I received a collection letter for unpaid fees to a particular doctor. On the advice of my insurance company, I wrote to the collection agency and asked for copies of the claim forms the doctor submitted and of the reply forms from the insurance company.
Never heard from the collection agency again and nothing showed up on my credit reports.
Do not call a debt collector by phone, ever. Communicate by mail, the old-fashioned way, only. Send every letter Certified Mail Return Receipt Requested, and keep the receipts. Tell them in each letter that you are doing so.
State clearly that you don’t owe the money and that their attempt to collect it from you is fraudulent and illegal.
End your letter with a paragraph like this: “I am an informed citizen who is well aware of my rights under the FDCPA. I am also aware that organizations such as the Better Business Bureau, the State Department of Commerce, and the State Attorney General are able to help me. If you continue to pursue this matter, I will contact all of these organizations, as well as hiring a lawyer and considering legal action.”
But do try to follow up - I was recently contacted by a debt a collector and it turned out the person who took out the original loan actually did have my personal information. In other words, it was identity theft and I am now following up looking for possible other instances. I hoping it doesn’t turn into whack-a-mole.
If you do some googling for Transworld Systems, you may find that they are a pretty shady outfit. It looks like they subcontract collections to agents, not employees, who are poorly paid, if at all, and this arrangement allows the company to distance themselves from the collection process if challenged.
The BBB says they are not accredited, and there is apparently a pending FTC action against them for fraudulent and illegal practices.
A few years back, my sister was in a similar situation. My father (a retired lawyer) wrote a letter to the company asking for an explanation for the debt and also reminding them that they could be sued for causing undue distress (or something along those lines). She never heard from them again.
I’m not suggesting you hire a lawyer over an amount like that, but hinting that you might could well cause them to back off.
These companies rely on compliant ‘customers’. Those that are not intimidated by them are not profitable.
Warn of consequences if they publish a false accusation (as in: report to credit bureaus)
The exact dance may vary with your jurisdiction.
But, I gotta admit - sending out a bill for a few hundred for “the city” sounds like a good scam.
Like the green grocer with a dock full of lettuce that isn’t going to last - just tack a crate of lettuce onto the load going to the big hotels and restaurants - how many actually have the time to check in a load and find something trivial they didn’t order? If they do catch it, just scratch it from the order and proceed.
Beats throwing out a whole load of bad lettuce tomorrow.