I got a letter from Afni, Inc about a Cingular collection account from about December for around $400.00. This collection account had been acquired by NCO Financial around January/ February. I paid about $150 to NCO giving my SS# and checking account # and bank routing # to them over the phone (Yes, I was new to this and really stupid to give them my info). They then tried to pull the remaining amount of $250.00 a few weeks after the 1st payment of $150.00 was sent which was totally unauthorized. They actually did it twice, each a few days apart which caused my account to overdraft twice. I called my bank and told them it was unauthorized and they refunded me the overdraft charges. I then wrote my Attorney Generals (AG) office about NCO's stunt and they provided proof of the unauthorized charges whch led my account to overdraft. The AG wrote NCO and NCO replied to te AG that my account was closed with them (which I have a letter the AG sent me regarding NCO's reply). So I'm thinking I'm finished with this debt right? Wrong!!!
Lets rewind to a week ago. I get a letter from Afni, Inc regarding the remaining debt at my new address. I recently moved about 2 months ago (different state). I get a letter in te mail only it has my first name ad middle initial on it, but the wrong Last name. I wont tell my last name, buts lets just say its the equivalent my last name being Rodriguez, and the letter had a Last name of Martinez. Yes the last nme on te account was Martinez!!!
Naturally, I'm wondering if this is really my OLD cingular collection account its talking about in this letter. So I go to the Afni website at www.afnicollections.com and put the account # in and use a phony Last 4 SS# which it asks for and hit OK. It says theres been a problem pulling the account information. I then put in another phony last 4 SS# and it says the same thing. Now I use my REAL last 4 SS# and hit OK and it actually pulls up my information. Wow!!!
SO now I am crtain that they bought my previous collection account from NCO Financial which had been closed (I guess it was closed because they knew they screwed up bigtime with that double overdraft pull and were gonna sell it to someone else, huh?) for over a year and a half has been sold to Afni Inc. This new collector Afni has the wrong Last Name on the collection letter, nowhere close to my actual last name.
Now I have 1 question. What should I do? I know everything should be sent via mail ONLY. So should I send a "debt validity" letter certified mail, return reciept requested, and not put my name on the letter but only the Afni account # or what? I am not really sure what to do at this point. I am also wondering if they can even collect this accunt as seeing they have the wrong last name on the letter/account. Can anybody help me out? Any help is greatly appreciated.
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