LHR, Inc. Contacted me on June 27 regarding a debt that they had obviously purchased from another company for pennies on the dollar. A gentleman by the name of Jason Sherman called my cell phone for which I've had the same number for the past 5 years. The debt was from a Kay Jewelers Credit Card in which had been charged off back in 2002. Jason stated that I owed a total of $1034.00 after interest had been assessed to my account. He then proceeded to tell me that he would settle this debt for an "offer" of half of the total amount, and that once recieved he would mail a reciept to me and remove it from my credit reports.
So I went to research LHR, Inc. And also review my credit report. I found out 2 things.
#1. The statute of limitations had ran out already on this particular debt (or was about to expire), because the trade was no longer evident on my Credit Bureau.
#2. I discovered that LHR, Inc. Is a junk debt collection agency that preys on innocent people who don't know enough about credit and how it works. Basically they buy old debt for next to nothing and try to settle the old accounts for profit.
Here's the Key:
*If you pay even $1 to them, they can ruin your credit. The payment allows them to re-open the trade on the credit bureau as an active debt and allows them to charge up even more debt in their so called "fees".*
They can harass you. They will harass you and call your family members.
If you do not pay them they can report the trade to the credit bureau's, however all you have to do is dispute them as duplicate trades and the CB's will remove them. Most of the time these types of agencies will not pursue this as it isn't profitable for them.
So in my situation, Jason Sherman proceeded to call me back again for the second time in as many hours, after he had called my mothers residence. I answered the phone and simply told him that I had been in touch with some of my attorney friends and that I would only deal with my original creditor and that I knew of the lawsuits and FTC/BBB infractions/complaints that had been filed against his company. I also explained to him that numerous accounts of violations of the FCRA had been conducted by his company. He proceeded to tell me that "all that means is that we can't sue you". I then told him that I knew he had a job to do and that if he needed to make phone calls to me, thats fine. I also told him that I would not be answering them and that there would be no money sent to him. But if it made him feel better to go ahead and call.
*Don't be afraid of these people, they will try to scare you into paying money. If you pay they can ruin your credit.*
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