I have a fairly common last name which is listed in the local phone directory with my physical address and phone number. Because the address is in a somewhat rural area, the mail addressed to our house is delivered to a cluster box in a really inconvenient place. Consequently, we use a PO Box for our mailing address. We check the PO Box every day and clean the junk mail out of the cluster box every week.
In last December I received a bill, in the cluster box, from PeoplePC demanding payment for an overdue account in my name. When I called PeoplePC, the people at the off-shore call center verified that the account had my name, phone number, and physical address on the account but the birthday, and other information was incorrect. If it was a clumsy attempt at identity theft, PeoplePC did a really bad job of verfiying the information.
I then sent a registered letter to the company at their Atlanta address. Although the letter was signed for on January 4, there has been no response. They have, however, sent another demand for payment, this time threatening to report me to the credit bureaus.
I can only assume that they got my name from the internet or the phone book and are (1) trying to locate an earlier victim who has managed to cut them off; (2) are setting up phony accounts assuming that people will just pay the $16.40 a month to get some peace (petty-anti extortion); or (3) establishing phantom accounts receivable to pump up the balance sheet.
I will probably have to go to the New Mexico Attorney General.
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