For the third time since retaining me, a client came to meet
with me because she received another collection notice in the mail on a debt
she is trying to dispute. It’s amazing to see the way it just keeps going on
for her. The first time, we wrote a letter to the company that was attempting
to collect the debt and requested the documents evidencing the debt. We never
heard back.
Six weeks after that, she received another notice about the
debt, this time from a different debt collection company that was supposedly
now going to be collecting the debt. Same drill as before, sent the second
company a letter, including a copy of the prior letter, and requested the
documents evidencing the debt. The holidays came and went, and no response or
documents appeared.
And on to the new year, when last week my client received
another notice, this time from a third debt collection company that, like those
before it, was now going to be the company collecting the debt. A quick web
search reveals that there are many folks out there who believe this company is
a scam and when you Google their address, you can see why. Across the street
from an upstate airport and with no web presence, it would be hard to find the office
in a car.
Even more fun arrives when you call the telephone number on
the notice and attempt to find out their fax number so you can send them a
letter. They dig in deep on the telephone, allowing only for their address to
send a payment and offering to add your telephone number to their database
(because, of course, I would love them to be calling me instead). In addition,
they don’t seem to have a legal department or someone else I can speak to about
the issue.
All in all, it’s a little too suspicious that if the debt
was valid, it would be assigned to a ghost of a company to collect it.
For more information on defending yourself against these scams or
to schedule a consultation, please call the office (718.568.0221) or visit my
website (AndrewMAyers.com) for more
information.