So my wife and I are going through our mail yesterday, and we come across what basically looks like a collections notice from a company called Afni Collections...
We both looked at eachother like wtf.. and upon looking at the collections letter, we notice a couple of odd things.
1.) It was from 1993. That in and of itself isn't that bizarre, although 14 years seems like a lot of time to be trying to collect a debt that I hadn't previously EVER heard about. I have no idea if there is a statute of limitations on collecting a debt, but 14 years? I would think that is too late.
What IS bizarre about 1993 however is that I was only 17 years old in 1993. Obviously too young to be held legally liable for anything.
2.) It was for a Verizon land line telephone account. I never had Verizon for a land line OR a cell phone until this past year. And my parents never used Verizon either for our home land line.
3.) The address on the collections notice was however for the address that I lived at between 1988 - 1993. So somehow, they did have the correct address for that time period.
4.) They had the correct last 4 digits of my social security number. Which is moderately scary....
Now, this debt has never popped up before. We've both purchased new cars in the last 5 years, we also purchased our home in the last 5 years... NEVER during any of those purchases did this outstanding debt pop up.
So I go ahead and call this Afni Collections to see whats up. Luckily I was thinking and I busted out my digital recorder before making the call.
The operator that picked up the phone immediately asked for my account number, and I promptly told her that I don't have an account number...
Then she gets real bitchy and says "Sir! There's an account number on your collections notice, at the top! Can you please read it off to me!"
So now I'm really like wtf.... not only is she a bitch, but at no point in this very young conversation did I mention a "collections notice"... so how did she know why I was calling. I do understand that this is supposedly a collections agency, so that is what they do... it only stands to reason that I would be calling for that purpose. But the fact remains that there are other reasons why her phone might ring...
So I find this account number she is talking about and read it off to her. Then she asks for my social. I kindly tell her that there is no way on this God's green Earth that I am offering that information. I tell her that honestly, there is something very fishy about this whole situation and I am not giving her any more info about me. At that point she asks if these are my last 4 digits... and proceeds to read off the correct 4 digits..
I didn't confirm it but just said, okay if you say so...
So then she starts to tell me that "If I don't think I owe this money then I need to log into the afni website and....."
So I break in and say "I never said that I don;t think the debt is real, I merely said that something is "fishy"....." and then there's silence on the other end of the line.
Eventually she gathers herself and says "well what does "fishy" mean... I just assumed you were challenging the debt..."
And now I know something is up.
I tell her that I am recording this conversation, at which point she gets EXTREMELY uptight and starts telling me that is illegal, and because I didn't ask her first, I am committing a crime.... Now I've got her on the ropes.
I start pinging on her bad. Not letting her get a word in edgewise. I ask her for her name, which she refuses to give me. Then I ask her for her worker I.D> number, and she stutters before shooting off a 5 digit number that I write down. A few minutes later I ask her to repeat the worker I.D. number and she screws it up and gives me a different I.D. number than the first one she gave me.
I eventually ended the phone call by telling her that I am going to contact my lawyer about this scam and not to contact me again by phone or mail or there will be severe legal repercussions.
When I got off the phone, I did a Google search for Afni Collections and what I found was pretty scary:
Complaints Board | Afni Collections
