I am writing, on behalf of my wife. She received a fraudulent/dubious collection notice from Afni (a collection company) due to a delinquent account (from 1997) with Verizon Communications, Inc. Afni is seeking a settlement or the entire portion of $1,151.95 (on behalf of Verizon).
I called both Verizon and Afni and explained that she's never had an account with Verizon.
When I spoke with Verizon, they informed me that the account was held by a person with her maiden name in Long Beach, California (residential phone service). We have never lived in California or had Verizon phone service in her name or her maiden name.
I believe this is a case of mistaken identity. Her maiden name was the same as the person referenced in the collection notice. Her name was legally changed when we married in 1997. The originating debt was also in 1997. That seems like an excessive amount of time for this kind of claim.
Apparently, Afni got my information from TransUnion (credit agency). I believe they trolled TransUnion for her contact information and that was how we were drug into this mess.
Based on the feedback from others, it seems like this is a much larger problem. Perhaps, we'll have legal recourse as a class.
Afni wanted my wife to submit a copy of a police report, a copy of her driver's license, and a W2 from 1997 and/or settle. At this point, I will attempt to write (using some of the templates I've found on this forum and others) since calling is futile and time consuming.
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