Through some correspondence between myself, some lawyer who sent me a nasty letter demanding collection on a debt from 1999, and the Office of the Attorney General of Illinois, I have learned the following facts:
On January 11 and 13, 1999, phone calls were made to a 900# from (217) xxx-xxxx. That 900# was owned or leased by Eidos, Interactive. In January, 1999 I lived in Joplin, Missouri and my phone number was (417) yyy-yyyy. I now live in Springfield, Illinois and my telephone number is (217) xxx-xxxx (the same number from which these calls were made). Somehow (and this is the part I haven’t figured out yet) somebody got the idea that since (217) xxx-xxxx is my number now that it must have been my number in January 1999 and thus, I owe the bill.
What, if any, are my legal options? I don’t really want to sue, as I don’t see the need to bother the courts over an what has essentially been an inconvenience. However, whether through outright fraud or simple carelessness, my name has gotten dragged in to a debt collection dispute. I want to prevent this thing from happening again (in case this clown who had my number before me has other old bills), and I want to see to it that whoever assumed that I owe on these old bills without checking their facts gets a stern reprimand.
Any advice? FWIW I intend to seek legal counsel (my employer has an Employee Assistance Program that can refer employees to low-cost legal counsel) to see what, if any, my options are. However, I welcome comments from the SDMB before I actually pay the retainer.
Can you get your phone company to provide you a letter (which you then send a copy of to the collection agency, return receipt requested) stating when your service at the 217 number began? If the number wasn’t in your name at the time, I don’t see how you can be legally held responsible for this.
You need to check those. It’s usually $8 - 10 depending on your state. If it is on your credit report you need to write to that particular bureau & dispute it. If they cannot prove that it is your debt (in this case, they shouldn’t be able to) they have to remove it in 30 days.
I would definitely fight this, and your phone company should be able to help you.
Get some proof from the phone company stating when you came into possession of said phone number and send it to the lawyers.
Sounds like the 900 company is grabbing at straws. A similar thing that happened to me recently:
My phone number is listed in the directory under my wife’s first initial and out last name. I got 15 calls in a three hour period from a bank in Texas concerning a credit card belonging to a woman whose first name started with the same initial as my wife’s but was not the same name. After much unfriendly confrontations with a “supervisor”, I was promised that they would adjust their database.
I’m assuming you’ve done the obvious - informed the folks collecting a debt that you are not the person they want. If that hasn’t worked, then I would request the phone company write you a letter stating that this was not your number during that time frame, and send a copy off to the people collecting.
On the off chance that THAT doesn’t work, sue the crap out of them. Your burden of proof is only that you didn’t have the number then.
Then, wait 30-60 days, and check your credit with Experian, Equifax, etc. (The links are in another post) to be sure they didn’t gank you and report you to the credit agencies. If they did, then you’ll have to write a letter to each agency stating that it isn’t your debt. They will contact the company who placed the debt on your report, and require them to prove that it IS yours.
What they are doing is highly unethical, IMO. As a collections manager, I would have at least checked out your story that it wasn’t your number - a simple call to the phone company would have sufficed. There’s a trend in collections to go to a commission based system - you make X dollars on X dollars you collect, which explains the reluctance of folks in the industry to do the right thing. (Not saying that this is the case here, but that it is a trend in general.)
My first post, so hope I didn’t screw up too much!
I’ve been through a similar thing, but it was the ADDRESS that was the common denominator…
I think that your correspondent was probably NOT an attorney, but a collection agency flunkie going through old “dead” files and trying to spark some business. That was the situation with the dweeb that called me (and represented himself as an attorney).
The collection folks were “loosely attached” to a “law office,” but the debt in question was NOT mine, and did not have my name on it in any way. They were just trolling at the address. If you can get in touch with the dunning party, tell him/her that it is NOT your debt, not your responsibility, and to quit harassing you. ASK clearly if the person IS A LAWYER, and ask him (her) to please repeat the answer clearly, because you are recording the conversation for your attorney. This might get the hellhounds off your trail. Not your phone at the time = not your problem. Good luck.
Upon preview: Damn! Some good advice up there, and it dovetails with mine pretty nicely. Welcome, grace!
The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act exists to help persons like yourself. There is a clause in it basically saying that if you ask a collection agency to prove that owe them the debt, they must send you proof. If they fail to do so it becames illegal for them to attempt to collect said debt.
Send them a letter mentioning their attempt(s) to collect. Demand that they validate their claims.
They will most likely go away, post haste. Violations of the FDCPA are worth $1,000 a pop, and I doubt the amount in question is even that large.
Write them a letter. The letter should state that the telephone number was not yours, and that if they make any efforts at collection or reporting to a collection agency henceforth other than suing you in court, that you will sue them for breach of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
Ive had similar goings on with QWEST. Note that even if you have the same ohone number as someone had in the past, you have an account number which is different. A ohone number is not attached to any one person, an account number is. Ask for the account number and name of the person on the account.
Applying for credit with a credit issuer, or having your credit run by an entity such as an insurance agency lowers your “credit score” if you do it more than twice per 12 months, generally speaking. HOWEVER, not all “getting your credit report run” is the same. Inquiries for different reasons are coded differently in the computers maintained by credit rating agencies and as a result asking Equifax, Experian or TransUnion to show you your report will never change your credit score for better or worse.
It should be noted that different factors have different impacts on one’s credit score. As many as 10 credit inquiries can change your FICO score (the most widely regarded score) by as little as 10-20 points depending on other factors. Going from having zero to one collection accounts, however, has been shown to take as many as 100 points away from your credit rating.
The entire credit scoring mechanism is hideously complex. Although the FICO scale goes from 350 to 850, small changes in score can mean serious differences in % acceptance and %APR.
-Facts, cite, www.creditnet.com discussion forums, numerous posters, cite, personal experience.
Since I didn’t make this clear, the Office of the Attorney General of Illinois has intervened on my behalf and gotten this debt collector to close the case. The reason I’m considering legal action is because I want to prevent this from happening again. IOW, I want to force the phone company to be prevented from telling any other debt collector that (217) xxx-xxxx is and was my number and I owe on old bills. Also, I want to do a “preemptive strike,” as it were, in case my credit does get dinged because of this.
I am very familar with cases such as this and it has happened to me. First, you say you want to sue as a preemptive strike, unless you have suffered some type of loss, you cannot sue. If folks could sue to prevent future problems the courts would be even more bogged down than they already are. The phone company is required by law to make the information given to the CA available for the purposes of collecting a valid debt. And the CA was attempting to collect a valid debt which is legal. You cannot sue them from attempting to start the collection of the debt. Once it has been proven the debt was not yours, the collection activity was stopped and you suffered no losses. End of case. Creditors and collection agencies have rights under the law just like consumers do.
In most cases such as this I use a simple cease and desist letter. This tells the CA to stop any and all collection attempts until the debt is validated by the original creditor. This does one of two things. Most of the time the collection activity ceases. Or it the CA feels the debt is valid, it leaves them the only option of suing to collect the debt.
Your credit report should not get dinged for this. Only original creditors or those holding judgements can add entries onto your credit report. Colllection agencies cannot put anything on your credit report. That is spelled out in the FDCPA. Some meaningful legislation to give consumers more control over their credit reports has been put aside in Congress. It was one of many consumer protection bills shelved by the change in leadership in DC a few years ago.
In the interest of fighting ignorance I must contradict you. It is in fact possible for a collection agency (CA) to place a notation on your credit report. It is possible for original creditor to ding your credit report, then sell the account to a CA who fails to collect and dings your report and sells the account to another CA who then fails to collect and dings your report, ad nauseaum.
Go to www.creditnet.com -> discussion forums and ask about this kind of thing. It happens daily.