About 2 years ago my elderly Mother, who is in a nursing home, began to get collection calls from Cambece for a supposedly overdue credit card bill. None of us, including my mother, had any knowledge of the bill or the credit card. Their records indicated it was a card she had in 1993.
I sent 2 certified letters to Cambece requesting any/all documentation they could provide regarding this bill. If the bill was legit, we intended to pay it, if not we intended to call the police and report it.in Cambece's response, they steadfastly refused to provide any information regarding the original charge on the bill, only sending copies of the last 3 statements showing late payment charges and interest added.
I contacted the credit card company, they claimed to have no records of the account anymore as it had been sold to Cambece. Quite the racket we have going here now. Anyway the credit card company said the account was closed and they refused to provide any information as to the nature of the charges we had been sent to collection for.
I made copies of all correspondence and sent it to our State Division of Consumer Protection. Within 20 days I had a response from Cambece that they were closing the case.
I suspect that credit card companies are filing 'change of address' notifications in their systems for a number of years. Once they are comfortable that the address forwarding has expired they mail out those cute little enticement letters with a check and an obvious 'Pay to the Order of: or bearer' showing in the window. The checks are usually for a couple dollars and enroll the card holder in some phoney program that generates an automatic bill to the credit card. If the new occupant of the residence cashes the check, the previous occupant has the charge put on their credit card. The credit card company sends out billing statements, which the new occupant of the residence dutifully discards, all the while the charges are accruing on the card. Once the account reaches a satisfactory amount, the credit card company sells off the 'bad debts' to Cambece who quickly does a web search and finds the current/correct address and begins harrassing the credit card owner. The credit card company has thus generated cash from inactive accounts without any risk or responsibility.
Our State Division of Consumer Protection does fantastic work. I hope that all states provide the same level of assistance for their residents. Try them, it can't hurt.
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