In June I tried to open up an account with Verizon for a landline for my first apartment. I found out that there was another account in my name that had a $621.00 outstanding balance. This number was for a town that I have never lived in. I filed a fraud report with Verizon and a police report in the town that the number was in. Verizon determined it to be fraud.
Now 5 years later, i receive a collection notice from Afni, Inc saying that if I don't pay it within 30 days, it will go on my credit report. Afni informed me that they have been a client of Verizon for 60 years and that they are the only telecommunications collection agency in the US.
They also tried to tell me that there is no statue of limitation on this kind of debt. All of this i know to be false, because i did my research. I called Verizon and at first they could not even locate this account or the fraud report that i filed. Finally they found it, but could not pull up any of the details of the account. I complained to them about Afni and the rep told me that they have had many complaints about this company about their treatment to consumers and about Afni trying to collect on fraudulent accounts. When i asked her why they still use a company with such a horrible reputation, she could give me no answer.
Each rep that i spoke with at Afni gave me different information and were extremely rude. They did not care that there was a fraud report filed with Verizon 5 years ago! One rep told me that they were the third collection agency to own this account and another rep told me that they purchased this account directly from Verizon on 4/30/07!
The supervisor kept telling me that Verizon was lying to me and did not understand why i would not give him any personal information and did not trust him. Last time I spoke with Verizon they were going to contact their fraud dept and do some investigating and i faxed Afni a letter requesting validation. I do not know what else to do!
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